weigh-2-go.org

This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition, I was half-listening to a report that Air France has decided to allow large people to occupy two seats on a plane for free. This is a reversal of a policy to charge for the extra seat, which had earned the company “the ire of obesity defense groups,” said the reporter on my radio.

“Obesity defense groups” tugged at my ear. Research!

But first, a statement of values is on order. Where do I stand in defense of obesity? What bias do I have? (And I do have one, as I will demonstrate.)

I put being overweight in the same category as the following:

• parenthood
• using mind-altering drugs
• collecting guns
• attending crafts festivals
• reading porn magazines
• working in food service
• swimming laps
• watching Bill O’Reilly

I know people  who practice these things, and I defend their right to do so. But experience and instinct tell me they are not right for me.

What Book Are We Reading?

Brief tangent: I was at a book club meeting to discuss “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin. Spoiler Alert: The main character, an affluent mother with a working husband in New Orleans in the late 1800s, quietly rebels against convention, but becomes isolated from love and society, and commits suicide. At our meeting, Jennifer was very upset. “She could have started a salon to discuss great ideas! She could have become a painter or a musician! She had children to raise! She didn’t have to kill herself!” To which Sally answered calmly, “Jennifer, that’s not the book we’re reading.”

Being thin? As a society, that’s not the book we’re reading. Oh sure, we have options, but we take the options we take, because we live in this world, here, now.

And it’s a weird world where statistically “normal” weights are rising, but being large is alternately normalized, then marginalized by our culture in a bipolar way. The message of diet books, Jamie Oliver, and The Biggest Loser is: everyone would be better off thin. Sponsored by TGI Friday’s, Burger King, and Comcast with 250 channels. Those shows don’t really have those sponsors, but we all see those ads–they’re in our culture and our heads–and they resonate with our familiar lifestyles.

What would happen to the economy if 80% of Americans cooked–really cooked–18 meals per week, and replaced 5 hours per week of TV/video/gaming time with exercise? That’s what it would take for American’s to be fit. That’s not the book we’re reading.

And, as a former borderline-obese person, who has: been rudely blown off by the rail-thin retail girl at Victoria’s Secret; sat in theater seats obviously not designed for the width of her butt; and huffed and puffed like the Big Bad Wolf after climbing office stairs behind thin coworkers; I remember being marginalized.

I do believe that obese people require defense.

But I admit my bias in the “everyone would be better off thin” camp. Here’s how I demonstrate my bias: I really enjoyed Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (watch entire episodes and video shorts online). But here’s a scathing review on the Shakesville Blog that I can’t entirely argue with, either. Wow–as in politics, we hear and see the same things, and come away with totally different opinions. Based on whatever book we’re reading.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS