Letters to the Editor
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Hooray OtherLisa
I really don't get the vitriol directed at this article and its author. If I gather Dickerson's point correctly, she is merely pointing out that replacing one unhealthy beauty standard (anorexically thin) with another (unhealthily fat) is not advancement.
In making this point, she deliberately makes a distinction between merely healthy yet full-figured and obese. Jordin Sparks, the daughter of an NFL pro, is full-figured. Lakisha Jones is obese. Did other people miss that part?
There is a difference between healthy acceptance of your body type and a deluded contentment to remain unhealthy. As otherlisa pointed out, the problem with Buffie the Body is that in order to attain and maintain her current body type, she eats junk food and eschews exercise.
The letter-writer "loula" says she has a secret: that most people are not lazy slobs fat because of their own lack of motivation. Loula, you need a new little birdie because many studies on the eating habits show that too many Americans eat too much and do not exercise enough. According to Epocrates, medical technology company, only 13% of physicicans believed that genetics was significant reason their patients were overweight. Physicians surveyed believed portion control and nutrition were more common reasons for obesity.
One small correction: Ruben Studdard may have lost 100lbs at one point, but he put that back on. He is now as heavy as ever.
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the only reason women distinguish between sexual attraction and "worth as a person" is BECAUSE THEY CAN TAKE THE SEXUAL INTEREST OF MEN FOR GRANTED
that is the point. Men, if they are lucky enough to get it, are more than happy to accept that a woman who takes a real i.e sexual interest in them values them "as a person" as much as anyone can expect to be.
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"fat" versus medically overweight
According to the charts, at my height I can weigh up to 160 lbs before I become overweight. To be obese, I would have to weigh 200 lbs.
Y'all, at 112 lbs, and a BMI so low it's not even listed on the chart I'm looking at, I wore a six. That's what I weighed as a teenager, when I was modeling. At this weight, I was anemic and suffered from low blood sugar problems. By today's standards, size six is "too fat for a model."
The lowest weight listed as "healthy" for me is 130, at which size I wear a 10. At 130 lbs, I am what society calls "chunky, needs to lose 20 pounds." Men, however, express a different opinion when I'm in this weight range - they like it. At this weight, I'm much healthier than at the lower weight - I actually have a muscle layer. At this weight, I can buy clothing, but not at the top-end fashion stores.
At 155 lbs, I would be a medically normal weight, NOT overweight - and wear a 16. And I would be "fat". Men still think I'm hot at this weight, but they are less willing to admit it in public. If I were lucky, I might be able to find clothes in my size at off-brand stores.
At 195 lbs, I would be medically "overweight" but not obese - but if I ever made the mistake of appearing on television, I would be blamed for the imminent collapse of America's health care system. Oh, and on me, that would be a size 20. Most stores don't even carry clothing this large.
I'm not arguing that obesity is healthy; it's not. But being a healthy weight IS healthy. Buffy the Body, according to her statistics, is a healthy weight, butt and all. It's just that we're not used to what women of a healthy weight look like. We've been trained to believe that healthy people are fat. Dickerson thinks Buffie the Body is dangerously fat, despite the fact that her statistics put her within a healthy weight for her height, because Dickerson, like most of us, has never seen a healthy person featured in any media.
Someone below posted that the CDC's own data shows that moderately overweight people live longer than "normal" weight people. Yep. That's true. Obesity reduces lifespan, but being moderately overweight increases it - scientific fact, gathered by the very same people who are trumpeting the "epidemic of obesity." I posted this a while ago, in a thread on Broadsheet, and you know what response I got? "I don't see how useless flab could increase lifespan."
That's because a certain amount of "flab" isn't useless. It's required for normal functioning. Supermodels aren't healthy; they don't even have menstrual periods. People aren't meant to be stick figures.
But, you know, you're a... what are you again? Some guy on the internet who hates "fat" chicks? So I guess you're more expert than the experts on health issues.
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data shows that moderately overweight people live longer than "normal" weight people. Yep. That's true
and one millionare and one person with no money have an average income of a half a million dollars. OF COURSE if you throw all the severely overweight people out of the sample and leave IN all the SEVERLY UNDERWEIGHT (few as they are) you will distort the health picture to favor the mildly overweight. If however you look at cohorts of people WHO HAVE THE SAME PERCENTAGE OF BODY FAT and compare them you will find that any significant excess fat is associated with poorer health (anorexics obviously have poor health too), and besides a person who waddles around and needs a lot of help to manage their life because they are too fat and their joints wore out may live as long as someone who isn't in this position but can you reasonably say they are equally healthy. Obviously a woman who stops being fertile is too thin, but this is like the alleged inaccuracy of the BMI; you can be pretty much guaranteed that for anyone who has a personal motive to bring it up it is NOT innacurate.
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incorrect
Your analysis is incorrect.
Normal weight people are grouped with normal weight people. Underweight people are grouped with underweight people. Overweight people are grouped with overweight, obese with obese.
Who lives longest?
Overweight.
Next, normal.
Then obese people.
Then, with the shortest lifespans of all, the underweight.
Sorry about those facts, buddy. I know they get in the way of your prejudices.