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Apr 27, 2023
12:06:05pm
Gustav Truly Addicted User
The full NPR interview with the anti-fat shaming author is a real mix:
This seems fair and a good point:

Sole-Smith argues the issue of childhood obesity has become a "proxy," which obscures larger, systemic problems, including childhood hunger and poverty.


But the way she says there's nothing to be done about obesity, and that it wouldn't help anyway, is disturbing e.g.:

"We as a culture have really zeroed in on weight, because we think that's the piece that we should be able to control. But not only do we not have very much control over weight, it also won't fix anything else," she says.


She also seems to completely reject the notion that it has a real impact on health (and seems to really overstate the level of relationship people typically have with "their" doctor these days):

So the fact that the first thing we're all asked to do at a doctor's office is to get on a scale, right there, you've immediately given the doctor this number to focus in on that doesn't tell your full story about your health, but that narrows the focus of the conversation down to weight. And if you're fat, that means that that's really all the doctor is going to focus on is weight loss, weight management. What are we doing to get your weight down?

What this does is it means that fat folks often receive subpar health care compared to thin people with the same conditions. They may be delayed on getting actual treatment because they're told they have to pursue weight loss before they're a candidate for medication or surgery or whatever would be the recommended course of action for a thin person.

It also means that folks then understandably delay going to the doctor. They're more likely to doctor shop. So that impacts your health, because you're not getting your regular preventative care appointments. You don't have doctors you have strong relationships with. By the time you finally do show up, you're probably less healthy because you haven't benefited from that preventive care. But this isn't a failing of fat people — this is a failing of the system.

. . .

I identify as "small fat." I wear like a 16, 18, 20, and so I can order clothes — mostly only online, not so much in-person stores — but I can get clothes that fit my body pretty easily. I can take weight out of the conversation with a health care provider.


This seems a good point relative to lots of body differences — empathy for others is obviously good:

So that's where it's sort of helpful to think about how am I able to move through the world in this body in a way that someone else isn't?


Regarding ozempic, this seems like a crazy denial of reality:

Ozempic as a diabetes medication, great, I want people to have access to the medication they need to treat their health conditions. And that's what I'm really arguing for in general here, is: Let's focus on the health conditions. Let's manage people's health and take weight out of the equation.


Gustav
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Gustav
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Related Threads Children:
POLL: How do you identify? (JohnnyComeLately, Apr 27, 2023 at 12:19pm)

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