This editorial responding to a
state insurance board policy has media and race components in which some MACers
may be interested. If not please delete.
Know Justice,
Know Peace,
Rev. Dr. E-K.
Daufin
Professor of
Communication, ASU FSA Co-VP for Faculty
AEJMAC
Membership Chair
Alabama State
University, 915 S. Jackson St.
Montgomery, AL
36101-0271 PH:334-229-6885
Thanks in
advance for your research & creative activity referrals:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin
With all my heart I want work that I love; for abundant pay; in
a beautiful, functional, comfortable environment; with/for kind, competent,
happy, supportive people who love, enjoy and appreciate me and I they. Ashe.
Confidentiality
Notice: Unless otherwise noted, this e-mail message, including any attachments,
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From: E. K. Daufin
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 11:28 AM
To: E. K. Daufin
Subject: E-K. Op/Ed Alabama Insurance Board -- Don’t Beat Me Up Because
I’m Big
Alabama Insurance Board -- Don’t Beat Me Up Because I’m
Big
©2008, Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin
1,146 words
The Alabama Insurance Board should
just say NO to the racist, sexist, ageist, classist, inhumane and ineffective proposal
to financially penalize bigger than average people with a Body Mass Index of 35
or more.
The proposal is RACIST because
African Americans, American Indians and Latinos are most likely to have a
higher BMI than Whites or Asians for complex reasons. Longitudinal
studies, including those of twins raised separately, show that about 70-percent
of one’s weight is genetic rather than diet or exercise related.
The proposal is SEXIST. Women
of any race are more likely than men to have a higher BMI. African
American women are more likely to have a higher BMI than other women. It
is physiologically more difficult for women to lose weight at all – much less
safely and permanently. Women are already (and men increasingly)
brutally barraged by the omnipotent media and thus socially mandated to be as
thin as possible. Virtually all the women I know are doing their best to
weigh as little as possible, even the pregnant ones. The Montgomery
Advertiser photo that accompanied the story of the AIB’s impending decision
(was of a decapitated plus-size woman in very casual, ill-fitting clothing)
seems to be another example of media objectification of women (a headless body)
AND a perpetuation of the negative stereotypes of plus-size women. On
average women still make about 75-cents to every dollar men make so we are even
more discriminated against by any BMI surcharge. Perhaps the dehumanized
headless woman in the Advertiser photo simply couldn’t afford better
fitting, more expensive, plus-sized clothing.
Those sizist bigots who would tell
us to go on a diet should know that virtually all weight loss diets actually
lead to a yo-yo effect that resets the metabolic set point higher and
higher. That not only makes one fatter over time, it becomes progressively
more difficult to lose any weight at all. Dieters are wrongly led to
believe that it is their failure, not the diets’, when they fail to lose weight
or keep it off. This repeated failure despite earnest efforts and often
prayer, leads to depression and even lower self-esteem.
An increasing percentage of little
girls as young as six years old are dieting, depriving their bodies of crucial
nutrients in their formative years. My parents forced me on the first of
many starvation diets when I was 5 years old, the lifelong legacy of which I
still continue to work on healing.
Weight loss surgery is the
most lethal elective surgery I know of and deadly weight loss drugs continue to
prove that too many would rather have folks a thin corpse than a living fat
person. Weight loss surgery usually leads to a lifetime of post-operative
gastrointestinal distress but who cares as long as the ailing individual
attains a 35 or lower BMI, right AIB? Fat oppression is so bad that for
example, a New England study showed that pregnant couples would chose to abort
a fat fetus more often than one with any other “disease.”
The AIB proposal is AGEIST because
as one ages, one’s BMI usually increases. So someone close to the 35 BMI
cut off all their lives would be penalized for simply growing older while still
serving the state of Alabama. How’s that for honoring our elders’
service?
I now use the word “fat,” the way
Fat Liberation Activists do, the way Civil Rights Activists used Black and now
African American (BOTH fighting words in my parents’ day). I’d rather
call myself fat (and phat – Pretty, Hot And Tempting) than a walking disease,
the scarlet letter “O” for obese.
Not all of us fat people are
compulsive eaters and not all compulsive eaters are fat. However some
depressed people compulsively eat to help medicate themselves against the truly
debilitating sadness life often brings them and to which they are chemically
more sensitive. There are sick skinny people and fat healthy
people. For a person of size, visits to the medical doctor, if one is not
in perfect health, can be a depressing and humiliating experience in and of
itself …It sure is for me.
Even in years of optimal health I
had to fight the nasty, smug, fat prejudice of health care providers until the
labs came in. Being held up (pun intended) for the humiliation of
individually higher insurance rates to get medical care only makes the problem
worse. Some studies have shown that in communities where being fat is NOT
demonized, fat people are as healthy as thin ones.
The pervasive prejudice against fat
people, as well as attempts to lose weight at any cost, are often the cause of
fat people’s illness rather than the state of fatness itself. Too many
studies use hospitalized fat people as their population rather than healthy fat
people living their lives. The few studies that have monitored
NON-dieting fat people show that we eat as much or LESS than thin people do.
The proposal is CLASSIST because
poor people are more likely to be fat -- again for complex reasons
virtually all NOT under their conscious control. The AIB surcharge will
take more money out of our shrinking pocketbooks, leaving even less for
expensive organic fresh fruit and vegetables, lean meats and fish. Yes,
the chemicals in pesticides can cause many problems including contributing to
weight gain and retention.
International bestselling author
and psychologist Dr. John Gray of Mars and Venus fame says big people are big
because we are sensitive and psychogenically stay large independent of diet and
exercise to keep a layer of protection around us. Ironically this
protective device is not under our conscious control and only sets us up for
more attack from a fatophobic society including the AIB.
All my adult life I have exercised
5-7 days a week, have taught yoga, been a professional dancer, am a holistic
health consultant. I pray and meditate. Twenty years ago when I was
a more resilient teenager and weighed less than I do now, I allowed myself to
be dipped in a vat of water and did other precise tests. My BMI was 44
then. I sure it’s higher now.
I’m big and beautiful and doing my
best to keep my stress levels down so I can stay healthy. That’s big NOT
lazy, NOT a glutton and certainly NOT deserving of the pompous, poisonous
disrespect served up daily to those of us with more bounce to the ounce.
Now the AIB wants to add to our stress and subtract from our shrinking assets
because our BMI is bigger than theirs.
Let’s facilitate everyone’s efforts
to be healthier (self-esteem and beauty at any size; regular moderate,
fun exercise; lots of fresh, high quality food with regular, reasonable treats)
without damning those of us who have a higher BMI and ascribing virtues to our
thin brothers and sisters that they may not even merit.
_______________
The Rubenesque Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin is the founder of the
Love Your Body; Love Yourself™ workshops, a consultant for an international
holistic health company and a professor of communication at Alabama State
University. http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin
8/19/08
Know Justice, Know Peace,
Rev. Dr. E-K. Daufin
Professor of Communication,
ASU FSA Co-VP for Faculty
Alabama State University, 915
S. Jackson St.
Montgomery, AL 36101-0271 PH:334-229-6885
Thanks in advance for your
research & creative activity referrals: http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin
With
all my heart I want work that I love; for abundant pay; in a beautiful,
functional, comfortable environment; with/for kind, competent, happy,
supportive people who love, enjoy and appreciate me and I they. Ashe.
Confidentiality Notice:
Unless otherwise noted, this e-mail message, including any attachments, is for
the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and
privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or
distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please
contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original
message.