PeaceBang
The manic mind of the minister -- Auntie Mame Meets Cotton Mather. Blogging about Unitarian Universalism, UU Christian spiritual practice, occasional cultural and political ravings, and the inner life of ministry. PeaceBang is the alter ego of a small town pastor serving an historic New England Unitarian Universalist congregation.
Fat Is Catching!! Say Very Smart Science-Type People
July 27, 2007 on 10:13 am | In Cultural Commentary, Random Rant |Well lookee here.
According to the New York Times, researchers have found that you’re much more likely to become obese if your close friends get fat.
Uh-oh!! I hope I haven’t infected anyone out there! But hey, think of the positive applications! For instance, my friend CW who is always trying to put on a few pounds… we should spend more time together! I’ll have him chubbed-up in no time!
Seriously, though, this article strikes me as incredibly hateful. It’s so fear-mongering, so obviously inconclusive, and so biased against the fat.
Did it ever occur to these researchers, for instance, that close friends often have the same ethnic background and personality type, and that it may be those factors rather than proximity that most influence the propensity toward obesity? In a similar vein, did it occur to these people that folks might BECOME friends largely (forgive the pun) because of a preference to socialize around food and drink, to consume extravagantly, and to share similar values (one of which might be not to care very much if they’re packing on the pounds)?
I know, I know. We fat people cost the nation katrillions of dollars in lost productivity because we’re so UNHEALTHY and despite the brilliant efforts of the medical community, we dare get diseases and DIE ANYWAY. It really bothers the docs, I’ll tell ya. Capitalism is really mad at us, too. It is now the #1 disgusting thing to be in America: fat.
As a Fat American, I’d like to share my own personal belief that there’s a stupidity epidemic in America right now that costs the nation a lot of money, and I’d like researchers to study that and the New York Times to write about the results. How much will the war in Iraq eventually cost us in lost revenues and in plain dollars, for instance? Do you think it’s more or less than the cost of keeping chunksters like myself on heart and cholesterol medication in our waning years?
How about the materialism epidemic going on? I’m worried about that, too. I might catch it from my neighbors. Should I make sure to spend time with non-materialistic people to balance the harm that might come to me from having intimate friendships with the very wealthy and acquisitive?
But hey, I’m sure this article will make the rounds and millions of people will evaluate their friendships. I’d like to thank this fine team of scientists for that. For every date people now make with one of their fat friends, many of them will make sure they balance it with a date with a slim person who most definitely, according to the implications of this article, has a MORE HEALTHY INFLUENCE ON THEM.
Bah. A clogged artery upon their house, and on the NY Times for that sensationalistic, obnoxious headline.
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Look! It’s a jump-to-conclusions mat! (Ever seen the movie Office Space? If not then nevermind.
I agree. I think we have a clear case of a newspaper wanting to be sensational and sell copy rather than advance anything resembling actual scientific proof. And I agree, it is getting so boring to report the same bad news from Iraq every day.
There is a stupidity epidemic in this country and stems from the fact that we seem to have lost the power to think critically. Instead, we want to be fed a steady diet of psuedo-science and Lindsay Lohan’s latest escapades.
But as H.L. Mencken famously said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”.
Comment by Comrade Kevin — July 27, 2007 #
Rock on, PeaceBang. Tell it!
Isn’t there this thing, by the way, where correlation and causation aren’t the same? Duh.
Comment by Ellis — July 27, 2007 #
I do think this is a silly reductionistic misuse of bad statistics, and whenever I read something like this I do wonder if the folk who research obesity ever actually talk to any fat people, but. . . .
Have you ever dated anyone really skinny and fit? I did before I was married, and I was starving all the time. didn’t last long. Since I’ve been with my dear husband (nearly ten years now) I’ve put on some weight, and I’ve “caught” it because we like to cook and eat out together. I don’t think you need a PhD to figure out how that works
Comment by Madgebaby — July 27, 2007 #
Would you like some additional rebuttals?
Peggy Elam, Ph.D., Health at Every Size (HAES) supporter: http://www.onthewhole.info/2007/07/is-fat-hatred-c.html
Kate Harding’s Shapely Prose:
http://kateharding.net/2007/07/25/fat-is-contagious/
(I think Kate had a follow-up post, but I don’t appear to have saved the link).
Sandy Szwarc:
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2007/07/oh-what-tangled-web-we-weave-sir-walter.html
Comment by SisterCoyote — July 27, 2007 #
To bolster your theory of a “stupidity epidemic” (often spearheaded by the writers for the Style section of the NYT), check out the details of that study, as reported here:
http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=777
Guess what? It only holds true for men! But since men are the default standard for “human”, it gets turned into “people”. Not only that, it’s mostly white, middle class dudes:
“Christakis and Fowler studied the records of 12,067 people taking part in the Framingham health study, which included most of the residents of the mostly white, middle-class town of Framingham, Massachusetts.”
“Female friendships did not seem to be impacted by obesity. But the chances that a man might gain weight from having a fat pal doubled for so-called mutual friends — friends who both listed each other as buddies.”
Not exactly supporting the “Girlfriend, ditch that fat slob who you lunch with or else you’ll end up porking out too!” narrative that the media has run away with. Sheesh, the NYT even manages to throw in a cat reference in the title of the op-ed: “Fat Comes in on Little Cat Feet”.
Cats! Fat Women with friends! Run for the Hills! It’s an epidemic!
Comment by bluish seminarian — July 27, 2007 #
Pay no attention to the studies about obesity…they keep changing the definition of obesity. I learned this when they came up with the BMI and the entire women’s rowing team at one of the northeast universities became classified as obese.
There’s a book called Big Fat Lies that was out a few years ago. Don’t know if it is still out, but it was really eye-opening.
Comment by Kim — July 27, 2007 #
Amen!!!!
– A not-so-skinny UU in Maryland
Comment by Patty — July 27, 2007 #
I got the shudders from that article too.
I’ve also recently noticed that absolutely no one is capable of disagreeing with someone who’s overweight (e.g., Michael Moore or Rosie O’Donnell) without referring to their weight, usually in the most hateful terms. It’s really quite depressing.
Comment by Satchel Pooch — July 27, 2007 #
There are indeed lots of epidemics going on, and we ministers like to think that we have an influence on people’s values and lifestyles. Why wouldn’t our words and deeds about lifestyle have a similar effect? (I wonder if the ministers of Framingham were involved in this huge study?)
So another way to think about this, PB, is that all those good habits you were getting into a few weeks ago could have a positive influence on…at least your women friends and sisterbang, possibly on the people of your church. Blessings!
Comment by Christine Robinson — July 27, 2007 #
You tell ‘em Sistah! From one Fat American to another….they’re looking down the wrong mouths. This perverse “news” does indeed perpetuate fatophobia and fat bigotry and it also will inspire many more young women to turn to bulimia and anorexia, I’m afraid…two diseases that cost our country surely lots of precious dollars and definitely cause heartache and loss of life.
It was my doctor’s prejudice against fat women (and she was a woman, by the way) that caused her to refuse to diagnose me with hypothyroidism (and therefore to treat me) until I was 80 pounds overweight and so dragged down by the disease I couldn’t advocate for myself anymore. Turns out the disease was hereditary after all!
This is a lethal kind of stupidity! So it’s now not only distasteful to love fat people, but dangerous?
Time to start a national fat-awareness organization!
Comment by Susan — July 28, 2007 #
Susan,
There is a national fat-awareness organization. It’s NAAFA….the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. They used to have a web site, don’t know if they still do…..it was at:
http://www.naafa.org
If it’s still there…..check it out.
Comment by Kim — July 28, 2007 #
GREAT post. When I was working in the regular business world, despite a partial disability and carrying too much weight, I used less sick days than anyone else in my department. Of course, I used to say I was just too mean to get sick, but still. This whole “obesity epidemic” thing just frosts me–more permission to treat overweight persons (and, mainly, overweight WOMEN) as subhuman.
Comment by terri c — July 28, 2007 #
But *I* accidently read the post title as, “Fat if Fetching,” which, as a woman who’s been struggling to gain weight for the last few years, confirmed all my theories.
Comment by Mrs. M — July 30, 2007 #
Sorry, “IS fetching.”
Comment by Mrs. M — July 30, 2007 #
Thank you so, so much for ranting about this. I was struck by exactly the same things and wounded by how hateful that article was.
Comment by martinet — July 31, 2007 #
I didn’t even read the silly article, but my best friend who is very into being a size 1 and likes eating very healthy and maybe even has a slight bias against people who do not eat so healthily pointed out the article to me and said how nasty it was. And how she thought it was not only mean, but bad research too. Grrrrr.
Comment by Elizabeth — July 31, 2007 #
This study is bad research. A couple of days after the study was released, they had to send out another release saying that the results were about plus-sized men….that there was not the same correlative effect in women.
When the media picked it up…they ran with it and made it seem as if fatness was a communicable disease, which even the study didn’t do.
Comment by Kim — July 31, 2007 #
I read an article about something similar, but it was in USA Today. I didn’t like the tone of the NYT article (”choose your friends carefully?”) at all, but I’ll be writing about the USA Today articles tomorrow.
Comment by h sofia — August 2, 2007 #
Thanks for being mad about this. I am still upset over the insult that Deborah Voigt has to lose weight to play a sexy opera heroine, which Covent Garden seems to mistake as “slinky,” while, John Travolta plays Edna in “Hairspray,” as if fat women (of a certain age no less) can’t act, sing and dance.
Comment by Elz — August 6, 2007 #