Right Wing Fundie Hypocrisy Rears its Ugly Head--Not Surprisingly

Right Wing fundamentalist Vanessa Anderson not only not surprisingly hates gays but advocates meanness towards plus size folk. Not only did Anderson decry Oprah Winfrey's beliefs that gay people should accept themselves as they are but she also joined in the "lulz" when one of her followers joked about "Oprah's fat ass."

That's Fundie Christian Love for you. Hate everybody who doesn't happen to subscribe to your belief system--or, apparently, to your ideals of what people should look like.

I do not know anything else about this person and I'm not sure how I got subscribed to her in the first place. All I know is that I find both her intolerance of gays and her belief that it's okay to laugh at larger people extremely offensive.

Bad Crazy Fatty

This is a response to a post at Living Life At 400 Pounds.

I have mental health issues, and just like there are supposed to be "good fatties" (the ones who are TRYING SO HARD to lose weight) and "bad fatties" (those who aren't TRYING SO HARD) there are also "good crazies" (the ones that have an OH SO POSITIVE attitude in spite of their mental illness) and "bad crazies" (the ones who admit to being depressed and angry) 

I guess I fall into the Bad Crazy and Not Particularly Good Fatty category. A lot of the time I feel that being mentally ill is just plain shit, and no, the Magic Medicines don't work to turn me into a Stepford Crazy. Most of them literally make me psychotic, which I normally am not.

I have actually had people say to me that if I "just let Jesus into my life" than my mental illness would be cured. Really. I guess that's why there are no mentally ill Christians. Why didn't I think of it sooner?

Morbidly Obese and Unhealthy--but Which Came First?

This was my response to a post at Fierce Freethinking Fatties. The post was actually about the new television program, Heavy. Which is a bastion of enlightenment compared to hate-filled crappage like "The Biggest Loser." Who do I think is "The Biggest Loser" meaning loser as in a real shit of a person as opposed to loser meaning someone who has lost weight? The producers of this piece of shit hate-fest, that's who. Oh, and Jillian Michaels. I cannot abide that bitch. Being skinny does not make you a good person. It doesn't make you a bad person either, it just makes you a skinny person. Jillian Michaels is a rotten excuse for a human being who just happens to be skinny. 

Now, here is my response to the post.

I am a heavy person (270 pounds) who has certifiable mental health issues (bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, OCD) and it is very rare for me to "throw fits." I generally do not cry in front of people and if I do, it's very subtle. Anyone can be driven to "throwing a fit" if they are needled at enough. 

As a person in the medical field, I can say that there is a difference between true morbid obesity and being fat. I mostly work with the elderly. The "death fat diseases" like hypertension, heart disease, and type II diabetes effect elderly people of all weights EQUALLY! The difference that I have observed is that heavy people tend to have more trouble with osteoarthritis in the joints of the lower body (knees, hips, ankles) while very slender people tend to develop osteoporosis. It's kind of six of one half dozen of the other. The extra weight provides weight bearing resistance, which is why one doesn't tend to see heavy people with osteoporosis. But it puts more stress on the lower joints.

While doing clinicals at the hospital I took care of three people who were truly morbidly obese. It impacted their ability to move. I will tell you that all three of these people had kidney problems. So, how much of the obesity was due to complications from the kidney problems? I don't have the training to say.

Even the large adult blood pressure cuffs did not fit these folks, the smallest of whom weighed 350 pounds. I had to use the cuff around the lower part of the arm. Perhaps this means that a third size of BP cuff needs to be developed. This woman, who was 30 years old, was able to help in her care and was able to transfer to her wheel chair with stand by assist. 

The next was an older woman who probably weighed around 450 pounds. Until her condition suddenly worsened, she too was able to move with stand by assist. She was fairly tall so her weight was more evenly distributed. We also had a patient of around 450 pounds who was short. She was barely able to move and was non-verbal. There were folds of fat around her ankles that had become infected by fungus because she couldn't reach them to clean herself. This woman hardly spoke. I'm not sure if there was true dementia or if she was simply so depressed that she had become non-verbal.

Is being that heavy a health issue. I would say yes. But did these people become that heavy because of other health problems? Possibly. Again, I don't have the training to say for sure. One thing I do no for sure is that SHAMING these people for their size would not help any of them, and putting people on crash diets is never, ever, ever the answer.

Most heavy people are able to move and you know what? I can think of no "lazy" fat people who aren't also depressed. Depression causes inertia. The myth of the "lazy lard ass" is just that--a myth.

I would love to see a program that taught Health At Every Size as opposed to fixating on a number on a scale. Also one that taught self-acceptance. But yeah, that wouldn't make for "good TV." Actually, it would. It just wouldn't make for good voyeurism.

It's Time to Stop Accepting Heavy Hatred

Ragen Chastain wrote a post on her blog about a study which shows that plus size women prefer to see slender models in advertising for plus size clothing. Plus size clothiers such as Lane Bryant argue that this is why they use slender models in their ads. Both Ragen and I are in agreement that this "logic" is flawed at best and, in fact, hateful.

Here is my response.

I think the results of this study reflect what large women have been conditioned to believe. It is like the study done years ago which showed that black children preferred white baby dolls. This is, of course, because the black children had been conditioned to believe that white skin was more attractive than black skin.

To say that because plus size women prefer to look at slender models in advertising and therefore slender models are better would be akin to saying that black children preferred white baby dolls because white skin is better. In this decade there are very few people who would accept the validity of this argument. Yet many accept wholesale the validity of the argument that slender models are superior. Very sad.

Shit Counselors Who Need to be Hog-Tied

If you want to make your blood boil, read this appalling account by a woman with PTSD and other issues who happens to be overweight as well. This poor individual was brutally psychologically abused by her so-called therapist. 

This was my response to her post:

Personally I don't trust counselors because I've had bad experiences with many of them, but this one took the cake. Back in 1997 I was raped by a former boyfriend and was having panic attacks. I went to a counselor who also did hypnotherapy and supposedly did EMDR, but a counselor I had later said he never heard of EMDR being performed in the manner I described. At any rate at one point in my treatment, this broad says to me "Well, Bloomy, you're doing much better. You were a real basket case when you first came here." I looked at her aghast and said "EXCUSE ME?" 

She hemmed and hawed and said "well, what I meant was...well, you're doing much better now."

I said that I agreed that I was, and it was never appropriate to refer to a client as a "basket case." I terminated my therapy with her. Unfortunately I was apologetic about doing so. She said "oh, you don't need to apologize. I'M not the one with the self-esteem problem."

I agree with the person who said that it is worth it to interview potential therapists. You don't owe them a damn thing if they can't deliver compassionate treatment!