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

[djpsyche.livejournal.com]

Quitting smoking is quite easy when you give up alcohol. :/

Actually, the more I think about it (and I've given up drinking, too, which was a walk in the park compared to quitting smoking), quitting drinking is more like dieting than it is like quitting smoking. Because with both dieting and giving up alcohol, there are substitutes. With dieting, instead of that donut you eat an apple, but at least you have the option of eating SOMETHING. With alcohol, instead of a beer you order a soft drink. With smoking... well, there is no substitute. There's nothing else you can smoke instead when you get a craving for a cigarette. You just have to suffer.

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

For some people - I know a lot of light/social smokers who find it easy to go without if they don't have a drink. It wouldn't go that way for me - although I do smoke a bit more when I'm drinking, I have connected 'having a fag' with, oh, all sorts of things. After eating, with a hot drink, after sex, whenever I get off a bus/train or exit a non-smoking area or finish a class or wake up or am about to go to bed or am waiting for something to finish cooking or or or or or...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lj_sucks_/]

Curiously, the report that got made into a TV show, about the ranking of the most dangerous drugs in the UK, put drinking above smoking, citing how difficult it was to avoid alcohol compared to cigarettes. I rarely even see someone smoking these days, whereas I'm frequently at social occasions where alcohol is there for the taking. Nobody ever says "Want to come for a smoke?" whereas people are always saying "Let's go for a drink".

(Of course, this probably depends greatly on social stratum, geographical location, etc.)