You make some very good points, and I agree with almost all of them. I personally have a lot of issues surrounding the fat acceptance/weight loss/etc. controversy, and I certainly agree that it's a complicated issue.
I've struggled with my weight my entire life. I've been thin, I've been fat, and I've been many places in between, but I've never felt comfortable in my body. So I do recognize that thinness and fatness are really not connected to a healthy body image. That comes from a very different place.
However, I do also want to say that in my case (and in many others, though of course not all, or even most), people become overweight through overeating. Now, it depends on what your definition of overeating is, but mine is eating because of stress and not because of hunger, because of sadness and not because of hunger, because of insecurity and not because of hunger.
When I went through two jars of nutella a day, plus my normal diet, that was overeating, and that caused me to gain fifty pounds in eight months.
Of course, I'd also nearly stopped exercising entirely, so I wasn't fit. My diet was very high sugar, and I came down with a yeast infection. I was in Bad Health.
Then I left university at the end of the year. I've been home a month. I've lost ten pounds. I still weigh more that I "should" (and a hell of a lot more than I have in the past), but I feel ten thousand times better, and I'm closer now, and 195 pounds, to accepting my body for what it is at this moment in time than I was at 135. This is because I've been exercising and eating very healthy foods. This is because I've been reading Kate Harding's blog. This is because I'm not beating myself up mentally because I'm "fat".
When I read that big bang, I honestly didn't see any of the politics that others did. I identified with Jensen's self-hatred- that it is your fault (in part, rarely in entirety- genes have some responsibility, too!), that you have hurt yourself (if not in being fat, than in hating yourself for being fat), etc. etc.
I do see that there are some elements of the story that are problematic. But the whole issue is so complicated.
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timeasmymeasure
This is going to get rambly, so bear with me >_>
Date: 2009-06-18 10:17 pm (UTC)I've struggled with my weight my entire life. I've been thin, I've been fat, and I've been many places in between, but I've never felt comfortable in my body. So I do recognize that thinness and fatness are really not connected to a healthy body image. That comes from a very different place.
However, I do also want to say that in my case (and in many others, though of course not all, or even most), people become overweight through overeating. Now, it depends on what your definition of overeating is, but mine is eating because of stress and not because of hunger, because of sadness and not because of hunger, because of insecurity and not because of hunger.
When I went through two jars of nutella a day, plus my normal diet, that was overeating, and that caused me to gain fifty pounds in eight months.
Of course, I'd also nearly stopped exercising entirely, so I wasn't fit. My diet was very high sugar, and I came down with a yeast infection. I was in Bad Health.
Then I left university at the end of the year. I've been home a month. I've lost ten pounds. I still weigh more that I "should" (and a hell of a lot more than I have in the past), but I feel ten thousand times better, and I'm closer now, and 195 pounds, to accepting my body for what it is at this moment in time than I was at 135. This is because I've been exercising and eating very healthy foods. This is because I've been reading Kate Harding's blog. This is because I'm not beating myself up mentally because I'm "fat".
When I read that big bang, I honestly didn't see any of the politics that others did. I identified with Jensen's self-hatred- that it is your fault (in part, rarely in entirety- genes have some responsibility, too!), that you have hurt yourself (if not in being fat, than in hating yourself for being fat), etc. etc.
I do see that there are some elements of the story that are problematic. But the whole issue is so complicated.