Was Michelle Obama Wrong To Allude To Her Daughters' Flirtation With Chunksterdom?

Great Debates
1

Here’s the (IMHO, stupid) controversy:

So childhood obesity is one of her First Lady “causes,” and while I’m against the Nanny State, it’s a huge (get it?) and growing (?) problem that, especially as the Nanny State gets more involved in healthcare, costs us all a lot in money and other pathologies. As First Lady causes go, no worse than literacy or whatever.

Now she’s taking heat for trying to illustrate/personalize her story by relating the supposed fact that Sasha and Malia were, by inference, eating a little too junky and heading down the road to unhealthy weight gain. So, she continues, she made some small changes (I doubt they were caloric limits per se, maybe more like eliminating juice, soda, snack foods, having them play outside more, etc.). A true-life inspiration for moms everywhere.

I have no problem with this (unless it’s made up, and not even then, except for the slander to the girls).

But we get quote after quote from “Laura Collins Lyster-Mensh, an eating disorder activist and executive director of Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Disorder (F.E.A.S.T.)” and others about how dangerous it is to teach children to focus on their weight.

I call BS. The perils and cost of obesity are real, and while it’s not evil to be fat, it’s not a bad thing to convey a message that it is something to be avoided if at all possible. The real-world cost of obesity dwarf those of the (unfortunate but relatively minute) small number of people who suffer ill effects from serious not-eating-enough disorders or " body image" problems.

Anyone agree with me that Michelle didn’t do anything wrong and that it’s time to stop worrying so much about the myth of girls starving themselves on a widespread basis? The evidence of my eyes tells me that the BBW is a far bigger (heh) pandemic health problem than the Karen Carpenter Story. Yes, yes, we can aim to avoid either extreme, and should, but the flak Mrs. Obama’s taking seems ridiculous.

2

Well, the key here is “teach[ing] children to focus on their weight,” and what that means. Certainly we can agree that doing so is a bad thing. The debate here is what that means, what it entails, and whether the First Lady did so.

Personally, I don’t see any evidence that she did, at least by my standards of what the above means. What they are… I’ll have to think about how to put that into words.

I also have to comment on your thread title. Not because of the use of “chunksterdom,” as you may think, but because I believe it’s mildly misleading, and in a sense, plays into the hands of the advocates you quote. There’s nothing in the First Lady’s quote, as you present it, that indicates that the girls were “flirting” with obesity. Just that they were eating a little unhealthily and could gain some weight. That’s a far cry from “flirting with [obesity],” IMO.

3

Not sure about that. Weight is generally a pretty good proxy for obesity, although weight alone doesn’t tell the whole story (there’s another thread about losing clothing sizes without losing pounds that discusses that). But yeah, the size and shape of your body does tell you things about your health. At various times I’ve used scales or pants sizes to know if I’m going off the track, but if my gut is getting big, by either measure, I’ve gotta be aware of that, gotta view it as a Bad Thing, and gotta take corrective steps.

The rest of your post made some points I’ll concede – Michelle didn’t come out and say (at least in that story) that the kids had excess poundage, but I think I’m being reasonable in inferring that’s what happened. Pediatricians (that I’ve been to) don’t generally ask for a detailed dietary summary and then say “too many simple carbs!,” nor do they do bloodwork/lipid profiles for normal check ups. But they always weigh the kid and measure their height, and it’s a fair inference that the Obamas’ doc did just that and said something on the order of “hey, the kid’s at or above where she ought to be on the BMI chart.” Again, weight is a pretty good proxy for risk of obesity and its complications.

4

Not at all… i think its only the responsible thing for a parent to do… I have especially noticed young african-american (this is my daily usage lol) girls being quite heavy lately. I encourage my daughter and get out and do things with her… i mean u can twist your hands and then watch your child slide into type two diabetes or u can be honest and confront it…

5

She did nothing wrong. This rabid Obama hate has long gone overboard. What Michelle said was good, sound advice. Kids should watch their weight. Her daughters should watch it as well. That’s how you get healthy kids

6

I see nothing more than a responsible parent assessing her child’s behavior and correcting as necessary. This is what parents are supposed to do, no?

Also BMI does not equal weight.

As for the political aspect of it, Sasha and Malia are public figures whether they like it or not. Of course they’re going to be appearance-conscious. They’re photographed every time they leave their house.

7

The linked article quotes a person from “Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Disorder”. I wasn’t aware that that organization was a branch of the Tea Party folks…

8

Let’s hope they don’t start.

Michelle Obama wants to focus on childhood obesity. This is a noble and worthy subject to address. As a mother, of course any issue to do with childhood is going to touch on her kids. Mistaking that tangential overlap somehow with using her kids and forcing them into a negative light is wrong.

9

I wish the media would stop accepting wholesale people’s claims to lead organizations that don’t really exist. It took me two minutes of Googling to confirm that “FEAST” is just a PO Box and a blog run by this Laura Collins person (not her real name, either). Why do people like her and Bill Donohue and his one-man “Catholic League” get to give their opinion in factual news stories, but I don’t? Why don’t we go to a psychiatrist and get some quotes about the real causes of eating disorders, rather than buying into the ridiculous pop-culture narrative? America is stupid six ways from Sunday about what motivates behavior, and letting any random person with a website act as an “expert” isn’t going to help t he situation.

10

Here’s the quote from another story that clarifies that, yeah, she did specifically discuss the kids’ BMIs (derived from weight, of course) being too high:

Well, yeah, that’s how you’d do it. Still fine by me.

11

This.