Greta Christina's fat positive manifesto

[ciphergoth]

I froze the discussion here because I thought it deserved a top-level post of its own, rather than being under a general discussion of Greta Christina. A few weeks ago she posted a very interesting series of articles on the fat-positive movement and her own beliefs; I'd be very interested to read more about what people think of them.

"I was frankly shocked at how callous most of the fat-positive advocates were about my bad knee. I was shocked at how quick they were to ignore or dismiss it. They were passionately concerned about the quality of life I might lose if I counted calories or stopped eating chocolate bars every day. But when it came to the quality of life I might lose if I could no longer dance, climb hills, climb stairs, take long walks, walk at all? Eh. Whatever. I should try exercise or physical therapy or something. Oh, I'd tried those things already? Well, whatever."

• The Fat-Positive Diet
• The Fat-Positive Skeptic
• An Open Letter to the Fat-Positive Movement

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Certainly the learning objectives here at St George's are keyed towards an understanding of BMI and the importance of lifestyle changes (including activity level, dietary restrictions and weight loss as appropriate) in controlling conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease.

(I still think BMI is unreliable and shouldn't be the be-all and end-all, and that the lines for 'healthy' and 'overweight' are drawn in completely the wrong places. But that doesn't mean it's not an OK place to start when looking at overall physical health.)

[ladycat.livejournal.com]

I think maybe bodystat is a beter measure than BMI because it gives you a clearer overall picture of the composition of your body.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Indeed, but at the moment not all GP surgeries, hospitals, clinics and health centres have bodystat machines (which are quite new and expensive), whereas they do all have scales and height charts (old and cheap).