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.
A blog about fat, body acceptance, social justice, science, and occasionally politics. Please read the comments policy before leaving comments.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
1 comment:
All comments may be moderated. If you think you're entitled to free speech, you are, on your own blog. This is my blog. I have opinions that are often subjective, and as I'm not running a documentary or research organization, there's nothing wrong with a little subjectivity. I also have the right to not approve or delete comments I find mean-spirited, idiotic or encouraging what I consider objectional, dangerous, or plain stupid practices (such as weight loss or cosmetic surgery, changing your body to please others (i.e. "dieting"), spreading hate, etc.). If you voice disagreement with anything I say, and you do it in an intelligent matter with clear research citations to your claims and conclusions (popular media articles don't count) I will probably allow the comment. I will also probably debate you and try to refute your claims. If at any time that devolves into stupidity or attack, I will start deleting your comments. If you disagree with what I say by spouting pseudoscientific popular opinion, displaying prejudice or hate, or otherwise acting like an ass-hat, I will delete your comment. That's pretty much the policy, subject to change without notice :-)
Thank you for posting this.
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