Splain splain splain

[firecat]

Imagine the subject line sung to the tune of "Chain of Fools."



Background and some good snarking here:
http://bioethicsbulletin.org/archive/dan-callahan-thinsplains-obesity/
"Dan Callahan Thinsplains Obesity" by Dan O'Connor, PhD

So this bioethicist Dan Callahan published some concern trolling suggesting that because social disapproval helped him quit smoking, it would probably work for us to shame those fat people -- just a little bit (he literally called it "stigmatization lite") -- into losing weight.

Callahan suggests that those fat people should ponder the following "uncomfortable questions":

• If you are overweight or obese, are you pleased with the way you look?
  
• Are you happy that your added weight has made many ordinary activities, such as walking up a long fight of stairs, harder?
  
• Would you prefer to lessen your risk of heart disease and diabetes?
  
• Are you aware that, once you gain a significant amount of weight, your chances of taking that weight back off and keeping it off are poor?
  
• Are you pleased when your obese children are called “fatty” or otherwise teased at school?
  
• Fair or not, do you know that many people look down upon those excessively overweight or obese, often in fact discriminating against them and making fun of them or calling them lazy and lacking in self-control?

I thought it might be good to ask Dan Callahan some questions too:

• If you often express ignorant, hateful opinions about other people who are just trying to live their lives, are you pleased with the way you think?
  
• Are you happy that your hate has made the lives of many people harder?
  
• Would you prefer to lessen your risk of being publicly humiliated because of your ignorance and hate?
  
• Are you aware that, once you get into the habit of talking about how some people are worse than other people solely because of their appearance, your chances of becoming and staying a decent human being are poor?
  
• Are you pleased that you are contributing to bullying at school, eating disorders, and suicide? How about when your children are teased at school because you are such a poor role model for decent behavior?
  
• Fair or not, do you know that many people look down upon those who publicly display hatred and fear of normal differences, often in fact making fun of them or calling them stupid and lacking in self-control?

Actually it's kind of interesting making up "uncomfortable questions" for people who experience oppression. For example, here are some questions that women might want to ask themselves:

• If you are female, are you pleased that the way you look is often considered more important than your intelligence and other talents?
  
• Are you happy that your gender has made many ordinary activities, such as getting a good job in a number of fields, harder?
  
• Would you prefer to lessen your risk of being harrassed?
  
• Are you aware that if you have children, your earning potential stops increasing?
  
• Are you pleased when you are blamed by experts for all your children's problems?
  
• Fair or not, do you know that many people look down upon women, often in fact discriminating against them and making fun of them or calling them overemotional and lacking in self-control?

Further question sets and the question whether it's useful to blame people for their oppression left as exercises for the reader.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

I can answer his questions!

1. Yes, I am pleased with the way I look, though not necessarily with the way idiots and rude people behave towards me, Dan.
2. My added weight has not made those activities harder, though the fatigue from cancer certainly did.
3. I am reducing my risk of heart disease and diabetes by eating a varied and healthy diet and undertaking regular exercise, both aerobic and not. Body weight is not a causative factor in either condition.
4. Why yes, I think all fat people are aware that it is difficult to not be fat, otherwise I would seriously consider being not-fat just to spare myself interaction with people like you.
5. I don't have children and was not teased for my weight when I was at school, but I think bullies are appalling people and shouldn't be tolerated. What do you think, Dan?
6. Why yes, I do know that there are a lot of bigots in the world and that people like you encourage them, Dan.

[firecat]

Excellent answers!

[evilawyer]

Are you aware that if you have children, your earning potential stops increasing?

For myself, yes. It's one of the reasons I didn't have children. Knowing that the male-dominated world still measures wealth based on controlling women's reproductive capacity, even in the First World, is key to being willing to take control of one's reproductive capacity.

[firecat]

First time I've seen someone mention this explicitly as one of their reasons for not having children, although I think a lot of women consider it when deciding.

[hitchhiker]

wow. what a tool.

[firecat]

Succinctly put!

[striped]

AUGH WHAT IS THIS

Bullying "lite"? Seriously? How did anyone ever think that was okay? Also treating obesity as an addiction like smoking? Bzzzzzt, wrong answer, thanks for playing.

...I really admire your eloquence in this post, because the only thing I can say is AAAAAAARRRRGH.

[redbird]

That one is oddly appealing to people who, if they put it explicitly as food being an addiction, might have to admit that they themselves would suffer fatal withdrawal symptoms if they tried to give it up.

[firecat]

Hm, I hadn't thought of that before. A lot of people do go around saying that fat people are addicted to food, but it helps to explain why the comparison of a body shape to a behavior persists.

[firecat]

I had to say AAAAAAARRRRGH for a while before any other responses emerged.

[bibliofile]

Yes, and you recovered and then some!

Brilliant.

[jae]

You are made of awesome.

-J

[firecat]

♥

[laughingrat]

Oh snap.

[firecat]

Yeah!

[megpie71]

My answers to Mr Callahan's questions:

- I'm neither pleased nor displeased with the way I look. I don't care about it. I have clothes which fit, shoes which fit, and about the only complaint I'd make is it's harder to source either of these than it absolutely has to be. This has more to do with store stocking decisions than it does with my physicality. (But then, Australian stores have been reducing their variety of products across all ranges, not just clothing and shoes).

- I'm not overwhelmingly happy about my knees aching when I walk up (or down) long flights of stairs, no. I'm not overwhelmingly cheerful about being exhausted and puffing when I have to run for the bus either. However, I generally deal with these sorts of things by taking them slowly and shifting my weight to avoid strain, planning my day so I don't have to run for buses, and by seeking out alternative routes (ramps rather than stairs, for example, at the university where I run across most of these).

- Before I go to a lot of effort "lessening" my risk of heart disease and diabetes, let's figure out how great the risk is. I don't have diabetes running in the direct family line anywhere (the nearest connection is a great-aunt by marriage who had type II diabetes; oh, and my partner has type II diabetes as well) and of my four grandparents (3 of whom lived into their nineties) only one died from a traumatic cardiac arrest; he was in his late seventies, possibly his eighties even then. Let's also consider I'm living with chronic endogenous depression and I've been dealing with suicidal impulses since my age hit double digits (about age ten or eleven). So really, fear of an early death isn't one of my big motivators - pick a different one.

- Actually, yes, I am aware that once I gain a significant amount of weight, my chances of taking it off and keeping it off are poor. But let's be honest here, the "significant amount" involved is about two kilograms (or 4lb), and this is pretty much the case for everyone. I learned this through about ten years of weight loss dieting, and I gave dieting up after I lost the same 5kg repeatedly - it kept bringing back new friends each time it came back. By the time I'd reached double my original weight (100kg, rather than about 50kg) I had the aforementioned dodgy knees, a wrecked metabolism (hypothyroidism, so much fun - interestingly enough, I wasn't tested for this until about four or five years after I gave up dieting), and massively exacerbated depression due to the self-flagellating thought patterns strongly encouraged by the diet process and diet industry. I gave up dieting when I realised it wasn't working for me, having doubled my weight. When, in your opinion, should I have given up?

- I don't have children. Chose not to have them due to aforementioned depression, and also because as a woman, each child I have reduces my earning potential as well. Plus, of course, I don't feel I'd be a good parent. All perfectly legitimate reasons not to have kids, by the bye.

- Mr Callahan, do you really think I go through my life with my head shoved up my arse the way you do? Because I'd have to be doing so in a literal fashion to escape being aware fatness isn't socially approved of. Of course, I'm also aware being female and intelligent isn't socially approved of either, and neither is being mentally ill. So I'm shit out of luck no matter what the hells I do. By the time I was exiting my teens, I had come to the conclusion I wasn't going to win social approval unless I had major surgery, major psychotherapy and a personality transplant. Know what I decided? I decided fuck social approval, I'll just settle down to being me, and try to be as happy as I can in the process. If other people don't like the way I look, they can damn well look elsewhere. My partner, by the bye, thinks I'm gorgeous.

[firecat]

Great answers! A lot of mine would be similar.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

*applause*

[sabotabby]

*internet high-fives*

[eeyorerin]

What always gets me is that the people saying these things or advocating saying these things seem to think that fat people have NEVER heard this before from anyone, and we are just waiting for someone to tell us that we are fat and then -- poof! -- everything will magically change. "Oh my God! How did I not realize that I was fat! I will go change immediately because I would never want to displease you!"

[firecat]

Yeah, that's why "thinsplain" is the perfect name for it. There's a complete lack of any attempt to model what life is like for the person you're 'splaining to.

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

BRILLIANT!!!! :D

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[jillzilla.livejournal.com]

I didn't feel shamed by the original questions by the questionable bioethicist, which is nice. And yet your rewriting the questions in terms of gender so incisively got to the centre of the absurdity of the original questions that I could see even more clearly how ridiculous they were. Thank you!

[firecat]

Hooray for both of your comments!