Where is the mocking and derision? It’s not in the text. Perhaps it was his intent, perhaps not. Reading intent and tone into text based communication is a land mine if misinterpretation, as I’m sure we’ve all found out first hand at one time or another.
Again, I’m not saying the email shouldn’t have been addressed, if that’s what she wanted to do, only that I think she really missed the point. The point of the email, while incorrect, was that obesity is an indicator of poor health, and she was a role model for children, modeling poor health.
Role model? Well, sure, okay, I guess. I’m not sure how many kids watch the local news, but whatevs. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with his suggestion that she’s a role model, so I guess that means she accepts that part.
Obesity as an indicator of poor health? Welllll…that’s where I think the correction should have come in. Yes, obesity is correlated with poor health. Yes, obesity related diseases like heart disease and diabetes are climbing disturbingly fast in our country. But more and more, we’re finding that mild to even moderate obesity is not, alone, an indicator that one is in poor health. There is a correlation, but it’s not a certainty. One can be as obese as this newscaster and still be metabolically fit, without increased risk of obesity related illness, and perhaps even at less risk of metabolic disease than some height/weight proportionate people.
Is this particular person metabolically healthy? I have no idea. Neither does the writer of that email. Neither, possibly, does she. But I bet her doctor does, or can find out, with a few simple tests. Functional lung capacity, blood pressure, blood sugar…all potentially more useful information than BMI.
How easy would it have been to use this as an opportunity to educate, and to promote health and acceptance of varied body types and self love, rather than turning this into a “bully” thing at all?
It’s not accurate to say, “Fuck you, it doesn’t matter if our kids are obese, I choose my body and that’s all that matters!” Metabolic disease *does *matter, and our kids have a shorter life expectancy than our parents in part because of their correlated obesity.
I dunno. There’s a problem with fat shaming, for sure. And I do want us to love our bodies, no matter what cellulite or scars we carry. But I think there’s also a backlash problem brewing with unconditional fat acceptance. Fat *can *be healthy, but too often it’s not. Why not switch the conversation to “I think we should all be metabolically healthy, no matter how big or small we are.”?
Not everyone can be or is wants to be thin, and that’s entirely fine. I don’t want to be thin, or even normal weight, by the BMI charts. My goal is 180, which is still decidedly in “Overweight”, and just a few pounds shy of “obese” for my height. But I love my curves and my boobs, as does my partner, and I don’t particularly want to be thin. I do, however, want to not get diabetes or heart disease. I want to be able to climb stairs without stopping to breathe (actually, I can do that now, yay!) and put on my shoes without grunting (close). I’m delighted with the new information that I can be healthy and still be fat. If I’m healthy and fat, I’m a *good *role model, from both a health promotion perspective and a body acceptance perspective. And if I got an email like this, I’d be happy to point that out to anyone who would listen.