Growing up fat

[firecat]

susanstinson wants this Fatshionista post to go viral:

http://www.fatshionista.com/cms/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=69&p=362
A long-delayed missive on “childhood obesity”, from a onetime obese child.

I experienced many of the things she writes about her childhood.

Google tells me that 1 out of every 3 children in the US is considered "overweight" or "obese," and that at some point in the past few years there were 80 million children in the US. So that's 26 million children carrying around the label "overweight" or "obese."

It's reasonably harmless to have a campaign to encourage children to be active and eat vegetables.

It's wrong, wrong, wrong, 26 million times wrong to call this campaign a "battle against childhood obesity." Targeting "childhood obesity" as something to eradiate means targeting fat children as something to eradicate. Targeting fat children increases abuse of those children and increases hatred of those children and increases those children's self-hatred. Why would anyone think it's a good thing to make 26 million children self-conscious and unhappy about their bodies?

Furthermore, thin children also derive benefits from being active and eating vegetables. If you call your campaign a "battle against childhood obesity," you are sending the message that the 54 million US children who are thin don't need to be active or eat vegetables, because after all the campaign is about "obesity."

I was 15 when this picture was taken. I thought I was enormous and ugly.

Comments

[torachan]

Aww, you were cute! :)

I look back at pictures of myself and can't believe I thought I was so huge. Part of it is that I'm big-boned and very muscular*, so even when I didn't look "fat", my weight was still off the charts for my height. I'm seven in this picture and I don't know how much I weighed, but I do know my doctor harped on my weight every time I saw him. I don't look fat to me. I'm nineteen or twenty in this picture and weighed about 200 pounds, which I was extremely self-conscious of, but when I look at the pictures, I really don't look fat, certainly not the huge blimp I felt like. Hell, even my chubby years as a kid around puberty, when I look back, I'm not nearly as huge as I was made to feel at the time.


*Shocking fact: sometimes people are very active and exercising and still overweight! As a kid, I spent most of my free time riding my bike and playing outside. In jr high and high school I played volleyball, softball, and basketball (and also spent a lot of time on my bike). And yet I was still fat.

[branewurms]

Oh my god. What kind of horrible person was your doctor?! You don't look you were even the least bit overweight in that first picture! Did he/she even look at you or only ever see your charts?! Even in the second one, you look more built than anything else...

[torachan]

My doctor was an old man (who had been my mom's pediatrician as well), very set in his ways, convinced he was right, etc. I do think he just looked at the height/weight chart and the chart said I was fat, so they were right!

[ailbhe]

My child is a big child too. She doesn't look even plump, let alone fat, but the charts say she's on the border between obese and overweight. Luckily she doesn't have regular weight/height checks unless I do them myself at home, but it makes me angry anyway.

Sometimes she wishes she was thinner, but the only way for her to achieve that would be to stop moving until her muscles shrink, so she's decided against it for now.

She's almost six years old.

[torachan]

:(

[firecat]

You look great in both of those pictures.

One year in my early teens I did tennis camp over the summer; we played tennis for six hours a day, and it was hot. And I wore pants every day because I was embarrassed about my legs. And I didn't lose weight.

[torachan]

But if fat people only exercised, they wouldn't be fat! *headdesk*

I remember being so embarrassed by my weight (as a number) that when I ordered my letterman jacket I shaved 20 lbs off my weight on the form (and that number was still high), even though it was very specific to give the right numbers so the jackets actually fit.

[branewurms]

Thanks for that link. I came across an article about the "battle against childhood obesity" thing recently and my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. Because it's not like childhood health and fitness should be our focus or anything. Nope, it's all about getting rid of those fatties! Ugh. I just can't understand why this isn't obvious to people.

[eggcrack]

You were adorable! And thank you for sharing that link; promoting heath and fitness is fine, but guilt-tripping people for having the bodies they do is as far away from doing it right as you can get.

[firecat]

Thanks! Looking back on the photo I think I looked pretty adorable too. Sad that I didn't believe it at the time.

re: Growing up fat

[betonica]

Damn! What a cute kid you were! If I'd known you then, I'm sure I would have had the biggest crush :)

Re: Growing up fat

[firecat]

Thanks! :)

[snippy]

I see my friend in that picture.

[firecat]

[hugs]

[ailbhe]

You were fatter than I was - what a surprise! - but you also look acres more confident, it's the tilt of your chin. Which, it occurs to me, could be a double-chin-reducing move, rather than a confident grin look.

[jae]

What a wonderful post!

-J

You are adorable in this picture

[quantumacceptance.wordpress.com]

I would SO have wanted to be your friend if we had met at that age.
I wrote about this (http://quantumacceptance.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/re-experiencing-childhood-obesity/) too.
Complete with photos.

Re: You are adorable in this picture

[firecat]

Great photos! And your teacher was right.

In your blog (different post from the one you linked) you wrote:

I don’t think there’s a way to talk about childhood obesity as a problem without it sounding like it’s kids or parents or both who are to blame.

This, exactly.

[mdlbear]

Thank you!

I was another fat kid. Still am.

[firecat]

You are a cute fat kid. :)

[mdlbear]

Glad you (and Colleen) think so!

[tsamm.livejournal.com]

Hugs for fifteen-year-old you. Adorable picture.

[firecat]

Thanks!

[mdlbear]

Yes, indeed.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

What a great picture. I like the cocky jut of your chin. Thanks for the link -- an excellent article.

[flarenut.livejournal.com]

Great picture indeed. Sorry that the inside was not exactly matching the outside.

And I think you're right. I'm hoping that this will eventually morph into a battle against kids being taught to shovel crap into their bodies, but if you think insurance companies and big pharma own everything, you ain't seen nuthin'...

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

As another childhood victim of self-hatred from failing to meet teachings of the one true way, Amen Stef!

1) We need a another War On ___ like we need a hole in the head. I declare a recursive War On 'War On "War On ..."'

2) You look like an attractive, loveable kid.

3) People need to find acceptance in who they are and reach for health, which may be normatively different for them than for others. We need to discourage one-true-wayism particularly in organizations that teach children.

4) We need to encourage people at all ages towards ongoing self-education, critical thinking, scientific realism, and health

5) Child-care and education institutions should offer primarily healthy sustenance alternatives and not corporate crack "food"

[firecat]

I declare a recursive War On 'War On "War On ..."'

...eventually leading to peace in the "wars on..."

[hugs]