Seriously, fandom?

[nilchance]

Chub!Jensen controversy and now a big-bang set in an obesity research center?

Trigger. Biiiiig trigger.

I am sore tired of catching this merry fat-hating bullshit every time I turn on the TV ("now on Dr. G, Medical Examiner: OBESITY CRISIS OBESITY FATTY FATTY FAT FAT DEAAAAATH!"), but fandom too, for serious?

Argh.

ETA: Also, okay. I understand that the underlying message is that Jensen has to come to love himself. HOWEVER. It comes with the understanding that Jensen is expressing his love for himself by losing the weight "for Jared", to go find Jared and love and enlightenment and that.

Here's the thing. Very rarely do fat people actually get that way by cramming fast food and abusing their bodies. They get there through genetics, or thyroid issues, or antidepressants (hi there!), or a history of yo-yo dieting that resets their resting point of ideal weight. A history of eating disorders. So forcing one's body into a thinner shape by exercising to exhaustion (thus making exercise an unpleasant chore that one HAS to do to BEAT OBESITY), or limiting calories to deprivation, is a shock to one's system. It's not necessarily self-love, though it may be motivated by the desire to be lovable or to live longer (because of fear of obesity killing them) or because they can't be happy until they're thin.

Self-love is unrelated to a number on a scale. It's recognizing one's worth, unconnected to one's weight. The beauty of your body as it is, flaws and all, not as it could be. Pursuing health is an awesome thing, and a great way to love yourself, but pursuing thinness is not the same thing.

Comments

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

To top it off, that logic is fundamentally lacking. Your parents can easily be carrying genes for things which are not expressed in them, but which do express in you. (See for example, blue eyed kids of brown eyed parents - if each parent had a parent with blue eyes, it's perfectly possible to get a blue eyed kid even though neither parent is expressing the blue eyes themselves.)

I mean, if you're going to go for the 'genetic excuse' argument, at least understand the basics of how genetics work! The doctor would've had to get a heck of a lot more family history than just mom and dad.

If it helps, I think one of the reasons why I pick up on stuff so quickly is that I live with my parents and they both buy into the diet = health thing. So I get into arguments about it with them all the time, keeps me on my toes. :)

[cormallen.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a culture where being fat was... kind of an offense against life, the universe and everything. It was seen as a lack of education, a lack of class, as well as a lack of health. To my mother, whose weight obsession eventually fed into (pardon the pun, it really wasn't intended) a larger disorder, I've been the same kind of morbidly obese when I was a size 8, then 12, then 18, etc, etc, and now, at 200+ lbs. I don't know the exact number, because I don't own a scale; I'm not concerned with learning the number, although if I had to guess, I'd say somewhere around 250. My mother's heaviest was probably 135 or so, and that was during her pregnancy. So I have a long way to go in letting go of those deeply ingrained cultural standards. I have to remind myself that I am very well educated, that my cholesterol is fine, that I have so many more pressing things to worry about than what members of my blood family think... But yeah, I probably should have picked up on it sooner.