Friday, Aug 29, 2008
Is it better to be food-obsessed than fat and happy? Plus: Trolling for errors in "Dutch"; hip-hop merits not less scrutiny, but greater intellectual rigor.
Nov 10, 1999 | Unpleasantly plump
BY ANNELI RUFUS
(11/03/99)
I'm so glad that Anneli Rufus feels that not eating from dawn till dusk is a far healthier and happier existence than having fat teenagers be able to wear "skin-tight tank tops" and walk "hand in hand with boyfriends." I guess my teenage years of feeling freakish, outcast, alone and miserable about being 30 pounds "overweight" should continue to be the norm. Maybe thin people don't want to understand that the biggest reason many fat people are miserable is because other people treat them as subhumans. If Rufus spent a day going about her business wearing a fat suit, she could be quite reassured that fat people are still openly ridiculed and reviled, even if they were to exercise in public instead of daring to eat openly and without shame.
I don't love being fat -- far from it. If I could fit in and look normal, I'd do it. But as Rufus mentions in passing, diets don't work. After years of struggle, I refuse to spend my life more obsessed with not eating food than with eating it. And I'd appreciate it if people like Rufus stopped worrying about my health risks and minded their own business.
-- Linda Miller
Studies have found that when people who are medically defined as "obese" focus on healthy eating and exercise, their health improves, regardless of weight changes. For example: Many "obese" people cancel appointments with health-care providers because they do not want another "weight loss lecture"; they feel ashamed to exercise in public due to the looks they receive; and a constant focus on the fact that they cannot be healthy and overweight often leads to a defeatist mentality, which then leads to unhealthy eating or other health-damaging activities such as smoking and drinking.
The best thing we as a society could do to promote the health of people with larger bodies would be to promote acceptance of different sizes. It would be very interesting to see if in a more accepting world -- where fat people were viewed as just as valid and acceptable as thin ones; where fat people worked out comfortably at the gym, were smiled at in the street and were supported by the medical profession in leading healthy lives -- the association between weight and many diseases would dramatically decrease. I believe that it would.
One hardly gets the impression that Rufus is concerned about the health of children. If we are, however, what we can do is promote fun physical activity and healthy eating and get images of bigger kids into the media, so that kids grow up feeling good in their bodies. To focus on fatness, with a tone of superiority and mockery (Rufus pointedly describes a girl who is "fat" who is holding hands with a boy as they leave school, as if to say, "How dare she have a boyfriend!"), lays fertile ground for eating disorders, low self-esteem and a lifetime struggle with the scale.
-- Lisa Weiner
I have a stepdaughter who is fat. On the one hand she is uncomfortable in her body; on the other, she refuses to take responsibility for it. Her diet is a nutritionist's nightmare: rife with sugar and fat, nearly devoid of vegetables or fiber, full of additives, but lacking in substance. Her hobbies are sedentary and passive: watching television, reading books, surfing the Internet. Her private school does not require physical education. I do what I can, but at 15, she makes her own choices, scorning all the fresh vegetarian selections I put on the table in favor of (Oscar Mayer) hot dogs with (Kraft) cheese and (Heinz) ketchup. Homemade blueberry bran muffins don't taste right to her desensitized tongue, and are bypassed for Pop-Tarts.
This Sunday her father and I are participating in a 5K charity walk. I do not know whether she'll join us; it'll be difficult for her, but a step in the right direction.
-- Jamie Tang
Baltimore, Md.
I am horrified to see the teenagers in my neighborhood. Their parents are busy people who don't have time to take the young people to sports activities or spend time cooking meals. They find it easiest to fill their kitchens with junk food and give the kids money for fast food. As a result these young people are overweight. One girl is bulimic. Her mother told me she has recently become shy and introverted because she is self-conscious about her weight. She is not old enough to make decisions about what food to choose; her parents' role is to educate her about food.
-- Sarah Holland
Herndon, Va.
Echoes in "Dutch" of a 1994 short story
BY LAURA MILLER
(11/03/99)
In addition to the other problems in Morris' Reagan biography, there were two small quotations that caused my little pink ears to perk up. As a fully qualified journalist, I can state with authority that an "18-point banner" headline would look extremely odd in a newspaper. A banner headline is one which stretches across the page. A point -- the vertical size of the letters -- is 1/72 inch. An 18-point headline is 18/72 of an inch, which would look like a slug track running across the top of, say, the New York Times.
Then there's the "Jim Raider, Rocketeer" reference. The Rocketeer was a cartoon character created by Dave Stevens back in the early 1980s. So far as I know, the name didn't exist before then, certainly not in popular use. It appears that one could develop a fine career seeking and listing the anachronisms, flubs and outright errors in "Dutch." Beats collecting Beanie Babies.
-- William Peschel
Book page editor, Rock Hill (S.C.) Herald
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