#1 -- I think your point on the misinformation is key -- alright, fat-shaming is abhorrent no matter where it comes from, let me State This Immediately; my thing is, it's worse because people think it's justified, right? The Unhealthy Fatty; The Lazy Fatty. (Fuck: I am one of the LAZIEST PEOPLE EVER. Watch my thin privilege. Watch it lay on the couch and eat nachos.) The Buy Better Food Fatty. The I Don't Want To Pay Your Health Insurance Fatty. And it isn't like correcting all the sources of judgmental lies about "health" will magically make the problem away, but I cannot help but think it's a key factor in the perpetual motion of all of this sludge. It's like oil in the engine; can we please, please take it out and start slowing this fat train down??
(Also from the POV of SOMEONE WHO WORKS IN RESEARCH, it is INSANELY frustrating to watch myths and lies be perpetuated in the name of "science"? Like I understand that it's a personal pet peeve, and on the scale of "reasons to fix this" it falls a long way below "treat everyone like a decent fucking human being", but. It still sticks in my craw, badly.)
This is partly why I tell everybody, when they're so impressed about my running training, how it went. "Man, 20 miles per week," they say. "You must be hot now!" or "You must have lost weight." And that's like --- WHY IS THAT EVEN YOUR REACTION? Are you not PROUD OF ME? For running 8 miles? Did I not do this as a personal challenge to think I could? OF COURSE: I WAS ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT DROPPING SOME POUNDZ. MY BAD.
I want to say that - I think - I am assembling a thought here, please help me complete it: I think a lot of it comes down to agency. Or, maybe, "false agency"? Your body is yours to do with as you please, and to treat as you please, for better or for worse. I stand behind this.
But when people choose to do things to their body like - when you're choosing to do a thing to your body based on false information, false pretenses, false stereotypes and pressures carried over by society... is that agency? Like I said, I'm stumbling over myself trying to parse it. You said Choosing to do things to yourself in ignorance is also a choice, which is also true, but... it's a different kind of agency? It's agency being led around the nose by society, I feel (and look, I'm sure I'm not innocent here, either, okay).
ffffffffffffffffff Something in this tangle is bothersome. YOu said it above and I agree with you, THIS IS HARD AND COMPLICATED.
And in the end if you choose to be a gymrat and be toned and sleek and all of that, that's awesome -- but it would be more awesome if it didn't come with the fat-shaming and the constant need for justification by putting down others who may have a different set of priorities.
WHICH
BRINGS ME TO SOMETHING ELSE YOU SAID
about Priorities! The balance of emotional, mental, physical "health" and comforts!
This is something else I can get behind -- okay, so.
STRESS.
LET'S TALK ABOUT STRESS. Stress is huge! And it's HUGELY UNHEALTHY. And yet nobody talks about it - or it's the general thing, like, "Oh, go work out! Go for a walk! YOU'LL FEEL BETTER. It lowers stress!"
Really! So after leaving my house at 7 am, working until 6pm, attending class until 8pm, and arriving home at 8:30pm starving and exhausted, I should go for a run? With what math does the positive benefit from that workout cancel the physical stress, lack of sleep, disruption to a meal cycle, complete absence of relaxing, vegging, decompressing time, etc? That isn't my body's math. I try to solve this equation every semester I am in class, and I fail.
Again: Maybe it's your body's math. I am sure it works for a lot of people! But the assumption that the math works out in one direction for all bodies and all lifestyles is bothersome and ridiculous.
There really is so much more to health than the physical. This: How healthy is a body when the mind in it is miserable? QUOTED FOR TRUTH.
And seriously, ffff: in the ongoing battle between spoons and healthy food, uh, sometimes the spoons win. I like take-out chinese food because it is fast and delicious and comes with plastic dishes I can throw out. Some days I am too drained to even consider anything other than chinese vs pizza? How is dragging myself off the couch to grill a lean chicken breast that I don't want good "overall" health? I thought we weren't supposed to make ourselves eat the things we didn't want.
Last. What you hit on, in the end and above in the comment, is interesting and problematic and interesting. And problematic. (YES.)
I keep coming back to examples about myself, of course, because I am in my own head. I complain to someone that I haven't been running, or that I'm feeling a little chubbz today, or even about my damn cellulite, right. And the answer is "You're so hot, shut up" or "But I think you're hot". And... I'm trying to unpack this:
- that isn't the issue. *I* don't like it. It doesn't matter if you like it. Or don't. - assuming that that's the issue - that I care; that I'm looking for compliments - is problematic in itself, somehow? - but what answer would be "okay" or "correct"?" I don't know. - and does that mean I shouldn't go around expressing these things? I have to sit on my thoughts about my own body?
fffffffffffffffffffffff.
IN CONCLUSION:
WE SHOULD TOTALLY BE WHEEZY RUNNING BUDDIES, I am seriously so up for this
Re: #3 - On Loving Your (MY) Body
(Also from the POV of SOMEONE WHO WORKS IN RESEARCH, it is INSANELY frustrating to watch myths and lies be perpetuated in the name of "science"? Like I understand that it's a personal pet peeve, and on the scale of "reasons to fix this" it falls a long way below "treat everyone like a decent fucking human being", but. It still sticks in my craw, badly.)
This is partly why I tell everybody, when they're so impressed about my running training, how it went. "Man, 20 miles per week," they say. "You must be hot now!" or "You must have lost weight." And that's like --- WHY IS THAT EVEN YOUR REACTION? Are you not PROUD OF ME? For running 8 miles? Did I not do this as a personal challenge to think I could? OF COURSE: I WAS ONLY CONCERNED ABOUT DROPPING SOME POUNDZ. MY BAD.
I want to say that - I think - I am assembling a thought here, please help me complete it: I think a lot of it comes down to agency. Or, maybe, "false agency"? Your body is yours to do with as you please, and to treat as you please, for better or for worse. I stand behind this.
But when people choose to do things to their body like - when you're choosing to do a thing to your body based on false information, false pretenses, false stereotypes and pressures carried over by society... is that agency? Like I said, I'm stumbling over myself trying to parse it. You said Choosing to do things to yourself in ignorance is also a choice, which is also true, but... it's a different kind of agency? It's agency being led around the nose by society, I feel (and look, I'm sure I'm not innocent here, either, okay).
ffffffffffffffffff Something in this tangle is bothersome. YOu said it above and I agree with you, THIS IS HARD AND COMPLICATED.
And in the end if you choose to be a gymrat and be toned and sleek and all of that, that's awesome -- but it would be more awesome if it didn't come with the fat-shaming and the constant need for justification by putting down others who may have a different set of priorities.
WHICH
BRINGS ME TO SOMETHING ELSE YOU SAID
about Priorities! The balance of emotional, mental, physical "health" and comforts!
This is something else I can get behind -- okay, so.
STRESS.
LET'S TALK ABOUT STRESS. Stress is huge! And it's HUGELY UNHEALTHY. And yet nobody talks about it - or it's the general thing, like, "Oh, go work out! Go for a walk! YOU'LL FEEL BETTER. It lowers stress!"
Really! So after leaving my house at 7 am, working until 6pm, attending class until 8pm, and arriving home at 8:30pm starving and exhausted, I should go for a run? With what math does the positive benefit from that workout cancel the physical stress, lack of sleep, disruption to a meal cycle, complete absence of relaxing, vegging, decompressing time, etc? That isn't my body's math. I try to solve this equation every semester I am in class, and I fail.
Again: Maybe it's your body's math. I am sure it works for a lot of people! But the assumption that the math works out in one direction for all bodies and all lifestyles is bothersome and ridiculous.
There really is so much more to health than the physical. This: How healthy is a body when the mind in it is miserable? QUOTED FOR TRUTH.
And seriously, ffff: in the ongoing battle between spoons and healthy food, uh, sometimes the spoons win. I like take-out chinese food because it is fast and delicious and comes with plastic dishes I can throw out. Some days I am too drained to even consider anything other than chinese vs pizza? How is dragging myself off the couch to grill a lean chicken breast that I don't want good "overall" health? I thought we weren't supposed to make ourselves eat the things we didn't want.
Last. What you hit on, in the end and above in the comment, is interesting and problematic and interesting. And problematic. (YES.)
I keep coming back to examples about myself, of course, because I am in my own head. I complain to someone that I haven't been running, or that I'm feeling a little chubbz today, or even about my damn cellulite, right. And the answer is "You're so hot, shut up" or "But I think you're hot". And... I'm trying to unpack this:
- that isn't the issue. *I* don't like it. It doesn't matter if you like it. Or don't.
- assuming that that's the issue - that I care; that I'm looking for compliments - is problematic in itself, somehow?
- but what answer would be "okay" or "correct"?" I don't know.
- and does that mean I shouldn't go around expressing these things? I have to sit on my thoughts about my own body?
fffffffffffffffffffffff.
IN CONCLUSION:
WE SHOULD TOTALLY BE WHEEZY RUNNING BUDDIES, I am seriously so up for this
MAGIC 8 SQUALL NOW WILL MAKE ALL MY DECISIONS.