Fat Health Care Manifesto

Blaming fat people for the rising cost of health care is the moral equivelent of punching someone in the face, then suing them for the cost of dry cleaning when they happen to bleed on you.

Aside from all the malarky about blaming adipose tissue for everything from genetic disorders to hangnails, most of the rising cost is attributed to “treatment” of “obesity”.

And I say No.

I am putting my foot down.

I will NOT accept blame for the cost of eradicating me.

I will not accept blame for the side effects of ineffective drugs, crippling elective and uneccesary surgery, institutionalized shame and disordered eating that is forced upon me in the hopes of making me disappear.

I refuse to own the discomfort my body causes others.

I will not admit fault in this, this cultural purge of the two-thirds otherness that reminds them of the futility of their quest for immortality through better pharmaceuticals.

I refuse this particular bill. I plead not guilty, and reverse the charges. I am not to blame for their desire to make everyone look, act, eat and sicken alike.

Want to cut the cost of health care?

Give me back my body.

Let me live without your shame.

I promise you that the world will not end as a result. I promise that letting fat people be fat will NOT end in the conspicuous consumptive horror of Wall-E. I promise that once we accept that everyone will eventually sicken and die, we can free up immense resources for making everyone’s finite life more healthy and enjoyable.

And to those who believe that I should be responsible for paying their sick jollies in torturing the minds and bodies of generations with the fantasy carrot and starvation stick,

I say

Fuck You.

Today's Morale Boost

This article from the Baltimore Sun was a bit of a fresh breeze amongst the mass body-judgement on Dr. Regina Benjamin. I’m still in a hostile sort of shock that anyone feels justified in dismissing the credentials of such an exemplary doctor and humanitarian simply because of her body shape. While in that shock, wading through and skipping over the nonsense in search of a date for her confirmation hearing, this dose of common sense came as a sheer relief.

Authors Patrick Basham and John Luik pull no punches in calling crap by its real name. They challenge the assumption that fat=death on multiple fronts with strong evidence by way of recent studies, strip the illusion of overblown statistics, and highlight some of the underlying prejudice. My favorite is the comparison between the much-admired (thin) smoker in the White House, and the hate piled onto his appointee who simply dares to be fat in public. No one denies which is a more significant health risk (even the psychotically anti-fat like Meme), yet one figure draws national condemnation. Interesting that. You’d almost think it wasn’t really about health after all...

Oh...that’s right...it’s not.

THIS....

THIS.... says it better than I ever could.

Excerpt:

"I’ve been trained to view beauty as a rule that excludes me, a weapon
that anyone could use against me: we all have. But when we try to think
generously about beauty, to look for it with pleasure instead of with envy, it
only expands. Beauty is not a finite quantity. It has room for you. It has room
even for me." -Sweet Machine

You should read the whole post, though. It's amazing, perfect, and heart-aching. I'm only bothering to cross-post it because I have a few friends that don't read other fatosphere blogs, but really, truly need to read this. Don't read it anywhere it's inappropriate to cry.

Today's Morale Boost

This article from the Baltimore Sun was a bit of a fresh breeze amongst the mass body-judgement on Dr. Regina Benjamin. I’m still in a hostile sort of shock that anyone feels justified in dismissing the credentials of such an exemplary doctor and humanitarian simply because of her body shape. While in that shock, wading through and skipping over the nonsense in search of a date for her confirmation hearing, this dose of common sense came as a sheer relief.

Authors Patrick Basham and John Luik pull no punches in calling crap by its real name. They challenge the assumption that fat=death on multiple fronts with strong evidence by way of recent studies, strip the illusion of overblown statistics, and highlight some of the underlying prejudice. My favorite is the comparison between the much-admired (thin) smoker in the White House, and the hate piled onto his appointee who simply dares to be fat in public. No one denies which is a more significant health risk (even the psychotically anti-fat like Meme), yet one figure draws national condemnation. Interesting that. You’d almost think it wasn’t really about health after all...

Oh...that’s right...it’s not.

Intuitive Eating "DuH" moment

I'm not a big milk fan. I actually can't stand the taste. I say this, because when I found myself craving a tall frosty glass of milk the other day, it was a serious WTF moment for me. Suddenly I realized that I've been ignoring my body's signals all week. Every day this week I've been craving ice cream, to the point where even the "faux-milk" ice cream at McDonald's was super tasty. I've been packing cheese sandwiches every day in my lunch, and even wanted one so badly some mornings that I made them for breakfast, too. I would eat bowls of cereal and drink the milk afterwards, and it would actually taste really, really good. But when that glass of plain milk popped into my head as an object of desire, I had to do a palm-to-forehead. I started taking calcium supplements.

Today? no dairy crave. A cheese sandwich actually sounds kinda gross today, for all it was so delicious yesterday.

Sure, in hindsight I should know that cravings, at least for me, generally mean something's missing. Especially if I crave something I'm not normally fond of. A few months ago I stopped taking Fish Oil supplements (for the simple reason of having run out and not being able to afford more until the next paycheck), and it took me a week to connect the sudden and highly unusual craving for fish (I normally HATE fish; even the smell makes me nauseous) with the fact that I had suddenly cut off my main source of Omega-3.

I suppose the goal is to get to a varied enough diet where the deficiency of something doesn't get bad enough to become an actual craving. After you're over the shock of being able to eat as much of anything you want, the body's signals become more subtle. Then again, there's many times I'm not specifically hungry "for" something, just hungry. Other times the budget and presence of leftovers have to overrule the craving, because it's not a perfect world and I can't always afford fresh basil and Kalamata olives.

(mmmm...pesto.)

At any rate, this is something of a Friday ramble, but I suppose my point is that Intuitive Eating is not a perfect or rigid process with set rules for everyone; It yields to the circumstances of each individual. If you're allergic to something you're craving, obviously you're not "cheating" or "breaking the rules" by not eating it. Like most holistic concepts, IE takes your whole self, budget, body, religious restrictions and all, into account. It's about being good to yourself, but going into debt or giving up other hobbies just to treat yourself with expensive foods isn't being good to yourself. Stressing out over what you "should" be eating isn't being good to yourself. Your life should not revolve around food, unless you're a professional chef. Even then you should have some hobbies that aren't food. If you work too hard at "following the rules" of Intuitive Eating, you might as well be back on a diet.

don't get me wrong, if I have a serious, persistent craving I can assume it's for a reason and try to find something within my means to solve it. If I'm really craving massive quantities of fresh spinach for several days, I might be able to make do with frozen broccoli or some other, cheaper iron-rich green that happens to be in the house already. If I just casually feel like steak one day, then whether or not I could have it would depend on the budget, the time, my energy levels, and whether or not something was already prepared.

Come to think of it, I don't eat a lot of meat, so if I was craving steak I'd probably consider it a sign that I needed iron or protein.

Just sayin :-)

Obama doesn't flinch

I'm not going to re-cap much of the issue surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week. Not after they covered it so absolutely perfectly on Shapely Prose yesterday.

What I will say is bravo to Obama for not flinching when it came up in a news conference. He's quoted by ABC news as stating:

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."

No Kidding! The string of "if he had not gotten angry it wouldn't have happened" or "if he had just cooperated it wouldn't have happened" on news coverage of the incident tweak me, because:

1. If he had been rich and white it wouldn't have happened, it would have been "sir is this your home? So sorry to bother you" instead of the presumption that a black man in a nice home is automatically a criminal.

2. As Kate already put it as succinctly as possible at SP: Being rude is not a crime. One resident of Cambridge said in a comment yesterday that "Disorderly Conduct" was better known there as "Contempt of Cop". I'm sorry, but this man was on his own property, being treated like crap, after a many-hour flight from China. In his position, yeah, I'd feel violated and invaded! I'd be getting pissy at a cop with an attitude that said I had to justify my presence in my own home. Once the ID came out that proved he lived there, the response should have been an apology and the police getting the hell out of the man's house! It's THEIR JOB to put up with rude people without getting personal. I have a similar job duty, and while sometimes I have to quietly curse someone out who's being a complete asshat and calling me "honey" and telling me I don't know my job, I do it AFTER I hang up the phone. Because MY JOB is to be calm and polite to everyone who calls, even if they're belligerent. I get PAID to back down when I want to stand up for myself and my dignity to some petty asshole. So do they. This is a clear abuse of power by the police, which could have been solved by them simply driving away and bitching about that "crazy old professor" later over coffee. Instead, the response was clearly unprofessional, out of bounds, and to anyone who's aware of sociology, racially motivated.

But BRAVO to Obama for not flinching at calling it what it is. I know that this will just cause more grumbling by privileged white people that Obama is somehow backing Gates because he's black. I know that it'll tweak me and make me want to jump through the screen to rub the Invisible Knapsack in their faces. If Obama stands behind Gates, it may be that he GETS it, and isn't afraid to point it out because it might make his over-privileged colleagues uncomfortable.

Marianne from Cali commented on the SP post with this fantastic quote by Sharpton:

"Before we can even talk about the Race Card, we need to make sure everyone is playing with the same deck"

By the way, I love Prof. Gates's interview in the Boston Globe where he offered, in exchange for an apology from the cop, free lessons:

“I believe the police officer should apologize to me for what he knows he did that was wrong,’’ Gates said Tuesday. “If he apologizes sincerely, I am willing to forgive him. And if he admits his error, I am willing to educate him about the history of racism in America and the issue of racial profiling. “That’s what I do for a living,’’ he added."

Personally, I'd jump at the chance. Free lecture from Henry Louis Gates!? Without paying Harvard tuition!? What kind of idiot would pass that up?

Dr. Regina Benjamin and Fat Hate

With everything going on in the world right now, you’d think there’d be something better for the media to cover than the Surgeon General’s cheeks.

ABC “news” features this article devoted solely to whether an overweight doctor could possibly be qualified to give medical advice, regardless of a list of academic and professional credentials longer than most of her critics’ arms. Whatever you do, don’t read the comments. I don’t care how many Sanity Watcher’s points you have left.

On the first page, we have this particular gem:

“The nominee didn't return calls from ABCNews.com, so there is no information about how much she weighs or her eating and exercise habits.”

Think about it. That means that a nominally creditable news agency actually called up the surgeon general nominee for the sake of asking her how much she weighs. Seriously? This is responsible journalism? This is anyone’s business?

Get past the first page though, and you get to a rather large collection of doctors and professionals who think her weight has nothing to do with her ability to practice or advocate for medicine. Considering the bulk of the article actually leans towards this view, the subtitle on page one, “Leading Experts Say Dr. Benjamin, Though Stellar Nominee, Gives Wrong Message” makes even less sense.

It isn’t until the third page that a very pertinent issue arises. The article references Dr. Susan Love as saying that “Benjamin was attacked because she was a woman, reminding that the former surgeon general C. Everett Koop was ‘no string bean.’”

No Kidding!

Actually, going through the list of Surgeon Generals in the last decades, very few of them have been what the current critics would consider thin. There have been several men and women of color. What stands out most to me as a pattern is that Dr. Benjamin will be the first non-military appointee (other than Edward Brandt, who was acting SG from 1981-1982). I mean the first EVER non-military appointee. John Maynard Woodworth in 1871 was the only other SG to not hold at least Admiral rank in a military branch (he was SG for the Union army.) It sort of slipped through the cracks, but while this isn’t our first SG who’s a woman of color, it is our first civilian from private practice, which I think is pretty significant!

Back to the subject, while Dr. Benjamin isn’t the first woman to serve as Surgeon General, I do think her weight is drawing more attention than it would if she were a man. I believe this very deeply, and it would take a lot to convince me otherwise. Women are held to a more rigid standard of appearance than men, especially professional women.

But more importantly, this media circus marks an ominous upswing in the “obesity” panic. Think about it. If the confirmation panel is swayed by media opinion, we may yet see the first fully qualified government appointee denied a position solely due to their weight.

Think on that moment. It will mark the moment when being thin becomes more important than being qualified, and it will send that message to the nation and the world. It will tell every struggling self-conscious teenager that it is more important for them to work out than study. It will tell them that it is more important to starve themselves than to be a good and decent human being. It will tell them that their career advancement may be checked not by their ability or hard work, but by the shape of their body.

Now THAT would be a terrible message to send.

Obama names Surgeon General

Obama has named Alabama family doctor Dr. Regina Benjamin for Surgeon General.

This is a long-awaited-with-baited-breath for those of us who have been anticipating a fight against the obesity scare and its various trumped-up statistics. Dr. Benjamin is a family doctor from a high-poverty region of Alabama that was hard-hit by Katrina. It will be a HUGELY positive step if she can serve as an advocate for the most overlooked and underrepresented "interested parties" in the health care debate. It seems like the first thing on the chopping block when the budget gets tight is health care for the poor. Michigan, for example, has cut both dental and vision services to adults on public assistance for this fiscal year, and is talking about eliminating them altogether. There's some kind of freakish cognitive dissonance going on when the government cuts services when they're most in demand. It will be very interesting to see what happens when they have someone in a powerful position that has seen, first-hand, how health and poverty interact.

She's been awarded the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights (1998) and was the first person under 40 to be appointed to the board of the AMA (as well as the first black woman!). She's an activist, an environmentalist, and a humanitarian by all accounts. She's a supporter of reproductive rights for women (despite being Catholic) and has reportedly worked to encourage medical schools to include abortion training that helps new doctors understand all the ramifications of the surgery.

Link to her clinic

Of course, news agencies are already stirring up a whirlwind of objections. Not to her medical experience, knowledge, or practice.....but to the fact that she's fat. Actually she's what the fatosphere would call an "in-between", meaning that she looks pretty average, but reporters inudated with the body dysmorphia of celebrities assume she's about to drop dead of a heart attack. Depending, of course, on which photo you're looking at. Isn't it funny how you can't really tell how much someone weighs by looking at them? Doesn't stop them from guessing...badly.

Somehow, of course, a fat surgeon general (or rock star, or politician, or actress) will somehow magically make everyone else in the country fat. Of course that's what they say they mean. What they might actually mean could be more along the lines of "how dare this fat chick be successful, powerful and visible!?"

Just as Sotomayor has been attacked for not apologising for her strong Latina-ness, Benjamin will be attacked if she doesn't apologise for how her body is shaped. She's already being attacked for being black; the comment streams on some articles are complaining that her appointment is due to her race instead of her qualifications. Come to think of it, Sotomayor had to deal with some douchehound reporters commenting on the relative weight of the canditates instead of their qualifications as well. Paul Campos's response was my particular favorite:

"For some men, the only thing more intolerable than the sight of a powerful woman is the sight of a powerful woman they don’t want to sleep with." - Paul Campos

Her position on obesity isn't readily found, which means it's probably not her
top priority. Smoking definitely is, however, since she's lost at least one
family member to it. HIV prevention is another possible point of emphasis because another family member died of aids-related illness. She mentions that her father died of "diabetes and hypertension," which since those conditions are so often blamed on fat (rather than genetics, inactivity, poor diet and weight-cycling) raises a red flag for me that she might make the obesity panic (ooga booga!) worse. The flag waves a little harder when she refers to them as "preventable diseases," since "prevention" usually focuses on (ineffective and short term) weight loss.

Having an advocate for the poor, a pro-choice doctor, an environmentalist, a woman willing to re-build a clinic twice destroyed in order to bring health care to a small town in need, a woman who understands the disparity of medical access not only between the rich and poor, but the urban and rural, a strong WOC, in this highly visible position is going to be hugely positive for this country. She'd have to hate on fat pretty severely for me to admire her any less.

SAAS (Sewing at Any Size): Shorten your jeans without looking like you have

Welcome to my Series on Sewing at Any Size. You can access the rest of the SAAS series by clicking on the topic link on the side bar.

The series is a form of peaceful protest against the terrible, cheap, overpriced, ugly stuff that passes for plus size fashion these days. Anyone can make basic wardrobe elements to fit their body without trying to track down commercial patterns (a nightmare for anyone over a US size 24).


As this may eventually become a book, please do not reprint or republish this anywhere else. You may, of course print for your own personal use!


How to Hem Jeans (without looking like you've hemmed your jeans!)


Scenario: The jeans fit perfectly, but are too long. Unless you have a machine that can go through four layers of heavy denim for a proper french cuff, you’ll be stuck with the dreaded “I can’t find clothes that fit me” look of a homemade hem.

Solution: You can hide the shortening seam right above the original cuff for a store-bought look.
Measure the length of the leg, then determine how long you want the leg to be. Subtract the latter from the former and divide by two.

For instance, if I have a 34” long pair of jeans and need it to be 30”, I subtract 30 from 34 and divide by two for a total of 2”.

We’ll call this number “A”.

Fold the bottom hem of the leg up with the right side together until there are “A” inches showing between the inside edge of the original hem and the fold.






Pin up, measuring every time to prevent the hem from becoming uneven. Stitch as close as possible to the bottom of the original hem line; the stitches should be almost right on top of each other if possible (Red dashed line below).




Right next to this line of stitches, run another line of zig-zag (/\/\/\/\/\/\) or overlock (____) stitches to prevent the denim from fraying.




Cut off the folded denim close to the zig-zag or overlock stitches, being careful not to cut the stitches themselves.





Fold the original hem back down over the stitches and iron flat.

SAAS (Sewing at Any Size): Sleeved Tee

Welcome to my Series on Sewing at Any Size. You can access the rest of the SAAS series by clicking on the topic link on the side bar.

The series is a form of peaceful protest against the terrible, cheap, overpriced, ugly stuff that passes for plus size fashion these days. Anyone can make basic wardrobe elements to fit their body without trying to track down commercial patterns (a nightmare for anyone over a US size 24).

As this may eventually become a book, please do not reprint or republish this anywhere else. You may, of course print for your own personal use!

SLEEVED TEE

This basic pattern is assuming you’re using fabric with high lycra or spandex content, or knit fabrics with a lot of stretch but that spring back into shape well after stretching. Stretch fabrics are trickier to work with, so get a little extra to practice your stitches. See the Fabric section in Part 1 for tips on working with stretch fabric.

This is an excellent candidate for using test fabric (such as cheap fabric or old bedsheets) and making a practice copy before jumping into the real thing. Shoulder width, arm width, sleeve length etc. are all tricky things to fit individually and you'll want to do trial and error on fabric you don't mind throwing away if something comes out too small.

Also, if you made the Cami top or variations on it from this series, you already have the measurements for the body, and could even use your test fabric pieces from that to construct the body of the shirt.

First we are going to make some adjustments to measurements. I’ll give instructions based on a scoop neckline, but you can substitute other necklines if you'd like. Eventually I'll get around to posting some, but until then there's google!

· Decide where you want the neckline to be on your chest. This will be “Point A”. Either mark it on your skin somehow or remember where it is.

· Divide your chest circumference by 4 and add ½”. We’ll call this measurement “B”.

· Divide your Bust circumference by 4 and add ½”. We’ll call this measurement “C”.

· Divide your Waist circumference by 4 and add ½” We’ll call this measurement “D”.

· Divide your Hip circumference by 4 and add ½” We’ll call this measurement “E”.

· Measure the distance between “A” and “B” and add ½”. We’ll call this measurement “F”.

· Measure the distance between “B” and “C”. We’ll call this number “G”.

· Length from Bust to Waist: We’ll call this number “H”.

· Add ½” to your Length from Waist to Hips. We’ll call this number “I”.

· Measure the distrance between “B” and the top of the shoulder. Add ½” and we’ll call this number “J”

These measurements are assuming you’re using stretch fabric and want it to be fitted. If you’re using non-stretch fabric add an additional 1” to 2” to measurements B, C, D, and E. This will give you what’s called “ease”, otherwise known as “can actually move while wearing”. You may want to make your test garment with up to 2” ease on each of the four pieces, then cut it down to fit comfortably once you try it on. It will help to write all these numbers down.

Fold your test fabric in half so that the stretchiest part is running horizontally. Sketch out the following shape to the measurements you wrote down earlier. (Trace and cut on the bold red lines. Approximate the general shape; doesn’t have to be exact)

Cut out two copies of the shape you’ve traced. Because you’ve cut it on the fold you should now have two symmetrical pieces for the front and back of the shirt. Unfold them and lay them together with the right side (the side you want showing when you wear them) together.

Line up the corners and pin the sides together. Stitch the sides from “B” down to “E” (per red dotted lines below). Then stitch along each shoulder. If you’re using test fabric or you’re not sure of the fit, use basting stitches (long, loose stitches) so that you can rip them out later if needed.

Slip it on and check it for fit, adjusting as needed.

Now we’re going to construct sleeves. We’re assuming long sleeves, but to make them shorter simple adjust the length.

Sleeves have a rounded end that allows them to fit over the shoulder without bunching under the arm.

We’re going to use the following measurments:

Upper Arm circumference (where it joins shoulder, arm down at side), plus 1” (we’ll call this number “K” )

Middle arm circumference: (bicep) plus ½” (we’ll call this number “L”)

Arm length (Shoulder to wrist, arm relaxed at side) (we’ll call this number “M”)

The basic shape for a long sleeve is this:

If you’re working with a commercial pattern you’ll have a set shape to cut out, but if not then you’ll have to do some trial and error to make the sleeve fit the shirt. The rounded end should match up with the edge of the armhole on the shirt, plus 1” for a seam allowance.

My favorite method to find the right fit is to fold the right side of the fabric together, in half at line “M” in the drawing above. Lay the shirt as constructed so far flat on the table. Line the fold up with the seam at the top and use pins or basting stitches to attach the sleeve to the sleeve opening, using a ½” seam allowance on both sides. When you reach the side seam of the shirt, mark both pieces of the the sleeve fabric with a pencil or chalk where they will meet.

Unpin the sleeve fabric and lay it flat but still folded so that the marks are visible. Draw a line ½” below the mark, down the end of the sleeve. Cut along this line.

Draw another line at the mark itself. Stitch down this line to sew the sleeve into a tube.
Re-pin the sleeve back onto the shirt, lining up the sleeve seam and the side seam of the shirt. Use a basting stitch to attach the sleeve and check it for fit. Once you’ve adjusted it, stitch over the basting stitches, then remove the basting stitches.

Finish the sleeve with either a rolled hem (fold up 1/4" then again 1/4" to tuck the raw edge under, then stitch) or french hem at the cuff. A french hem means you'll have to add an additional inch onto the original sleeve length. Essentially you fold the hem under (to the wrong/seam side of fabric) 1 inch, then back over the top (right side of fabric) 1/2". This creates four layers of fabric but gives you a visible cuff.

Finish the bottom edge of the shirt with a rolled hem.

Finish the neckline with a rolled hem