Monday, March 8, 2010

Fat Positive News

I only occasionally bother to look at weight-related news anymore; most of it is toxic.  But today I came across two separate articles that rate very few sanity-watchers points! 

The first one is about Kevin Smith being tossed off a plane for being too fat, courtesy of The National out of Abu Dhabi.  The article does a pretty good job of an actual balanced viewpoint, finishing up with some excellent quotes by Bill Fabrey of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.

The second is from a local paper at California State University, Chico.  It covers a presentation by two dietitians at the University on HAES, Intuitive Eating, and body-acceptance.  The presentation was part of a "Love Every Body" week sponsored by the university wellness center.  (Warning: Don't read the comments, they don't really contribute anything but miserable ignorance). 

3 comments:

jaed said...

A thought: when you can post about an article like this without having to add the obligatory "For God's sake, don't read the comments" - when the public comments are no longer overwhelmingly hateful - we will have won.

(I don't even ask that the comments be well-informed, or body accepting. Just that they not be a spew of hate that leaves me feeling like I've been repeatedly spat on.)

Bill Fabrey said...

Thank you for your opinion about the airline piece!

I agree with jaed--and I think it will be a few more years in coming. Fat bigotry is alive and well, and many of the bigots can type as well as anyone.

Bill Fabrey
Council on Size & Weight Discrimination
Mt Marion, NY
www.cswd.org

Bilt4cmfrt said...

Actually, surprising as it may be, the comments seem to have turned around. Looks like we get the inevitable knee jerk of typical fat-hate in the first 10 comments but, from there on through to 27 they seem, not only positive, but actually well reasoned.
My gob is pretty well smacked. Which is pretty sad when you think about it. Does however, provide a faint glimmer of hope.