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

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I think one thing that both the fat-positive and anti-fat sides are both guilty of is assuming there is a weight and diet for anyone that will enable them to stay in optimum health and not in itself cause health problems.

I think this is most unlikely, given that our bodies are bodge jobs resulting from evolution. Which means most of us a lot of the time really should be thinking about which potential side effects of our diet or weight matter most to us, and remembering that there *will* be some.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Very true - not only is our environment radically different, but we're living far longer than we've evolved to.