Seriously, fandom?
Jun. 18th, 2009 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nilchanceChub!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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 05:38 pm (UTC)Having read the story, the "underlying message" rang very false given the staggering amount of fat hate the author managed to cram into the story. From Jensen the friendless loser virgin who spent all his time in his apartment stuffing food into his face to the doctor drilling into his head (again and again and again) that this was HIS fault, that he was a bad person for being fat, to his enrollment in a program that required participants to maintain a GROSSLY unhealthy amount of weight loss (2% of body weight every week) or be expelled, to Jared's comment that Jensen's body was like an ugly shirt he needed to take off, to Jensen's casually and repeatedly referring to the other participants as "cattle" and just to add that lovely misogynist touch, "she-cows" (and yeah, I realize this was supposed to symbolize Jensen's self-loathing, but given how much disgust for overweight people permeated the entire story, I have difficulty not reading it as an editorial comment)--the whole thing was just a mess of fat shaming, severely unrealistic expectations, and glorification of the kind of "beauty is far more important than health" shit this culture shoves down our throats at every opportunity.
I'm sure the author honestly thought she was writing about accepting yourself, and a lot of people seem to be taking it that way, but I have trouble imagining the story having any effect beyond reinforcing to readers who are unhappy with their weight that their bodies are gross, that they are to blame for it, and that they should lose any extra weight by any means necessary, health be damned.
Sorry about the repeated edits--I'm posting before coffee, which is never good idea.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 07:00 pm (UTC)Yes. Yes, to all that, and you said that better than I could myself.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-23 09:28 pm (UTC)