Wednesday, June 06, 2007
this is why you shouldn't blog angry
I was listening to the radio this morning, and they were talking about this woman, MeMe Roth, and how she apparently has a lot of inside information about Jordin Sparks's state of physical health. Roth, the founder and president of National Action Against Obesity, said in a recent interview on a Fox network show, "When I look at Jordin I see diabetes, I see heart disease, I see high cholesterol. That's what's so sad about this - she is not the vision of health - she is the vision of 'unhealth.' "
Really? You can see all of that just by looking at her? Huh...that's really interesting because I see a beautiful, amazingly talented teenage girl, but never having administered or seen the results of any medical tests on her, that's about all I can see. And when I look in the mirror, I see a pretty fabulously hot chica who walks 3-5 miles several times a week, jumps rope, works with a personal trainer, makes relatively healthy food choices, has excellent cholesterol and blood pressure, and is at least the same size as Jordin Sparks, if not a size bigger. I have some really skinny friends, on the other hand, who eat Bojangles regularly and hardly ever exercise. They're not fat, but if either of us is going to have some sort of heart disease, it's going to be them.
I understand that the more overweight you are, the greater your risk of developing heart disease, etc., and I know that I could stand to lose, oh...thirty pounds. But consider me in high school. Seventeen years old (with my 17-year-old metabolism), on the soccer team, working out like crazy, dieting to win a bet. That was probably the thinnest I could ever hope to be in my life. I will probably, realistically, healthfully, never weigh again what I weighed then. And that was 145. I was still a size 10/12. My body just doesn't get any smaller than that, but it doesn't mean I'm not healthy.
I have no idea how healthy or unhealthy Jordin Sparks is, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about how tubby and unhealthy Ruben Studdard was when he won American Idol. He was the "Velvet Teddybear" for crying out loud. He was cuddly and lovable. How is it that he's allowed to be big, but Jordin's not? Is it a sexist double standard, or have the rules changed? And why is it wrong to judge and jeer and treat people differently based on everything but weight? We have to be tolerant of every race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status, but fat people are fair game?
Another MeMe Roth quote available on the NAAO website says, "Let's finally recognize obesity as abuse - abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves - and together take action against it." Alright, fine. Let's take better care of our bodies and stop feeding our kids three square Happy Meals a day. Let's all go out to the park together and swing or go to the Y and swim. I'm down with that. But if the fight against fat means personally attacking a 17-year-old girl who's thinner and taller than the average American woman...that's where I just can't back you up, MeMe. If taking action against obesity means telling my friends or maybe my daughters one day (explicitly or not) that they're fat, and that people don't like fat girls, and that they'd be beautiful and more loved if they were a couple of sizes smaller, and that they're worth less than a skinny girl...if that's what taking action against obesity means, then honey, serve me up a Supremes combo with fries, because I'm fit to get pro-fat real quick.
Really? You can see all of that just by looking at her? Huh...that's really interesting because I see a beautiful, amazingly talented teenage girl, but never having administered or seen the results of any medical tests on her, that's about all I can see. And when I look in the mirror, I see a pretty fabulously hot chica who walks 3-5 miles several times a week, jumps rope, works with a personal trainer, makes relatively healthy food choices, has excellent cholesterol and blood pressure, and is at least the same size as Jordin Sparks, if not a size bigger. I have some really skinny friends, on the other hand, who eat Bojangles regularly and hardly ever exercise. They're not fat, but if either of us is going to have some sort of heart disease, it's going to be them.
I understand that the more overweight you are, the greater your risk of developing heart disease, etc., and I know that I could stand to lose, oh...thirty pounds. But consider me in high school. Seventeen years old (with my 17-year-old metabolism), on the soccer team, working out like crazy, dieting to win a bet. That was probably the thinnest I could ever hope to be in my life. I will probably, realistically, healthfully, never weigh again what I weighed then. And that was 145. I was still a size 10/12. My body just doesn't get any smaller than that, but it doesn't mean I'm not healthy.
I have no idea how healthy or unhealthy Jordin Sparks is, but I don't remember anyone saying anything about how tubby and unhealthy Ruben Studdard was when he won American Idol. He was the "Velvet Teddybear" for crying out loud. He was cuddly and lovable. How is it that he's allowed to be big, but Jordin's not? Is it a sexist double standard, or have the rules changed? And why is it wrong to judge and jeer and treat people differently based on everything but weight? We have to be tolerant of every race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status, but fat people are fair game?
Another MeMe Roth quote available on the NAAO website says, "Let's finally recognize obesity as abuse - abuse of our children, abuse of ourselves - and together take action against it." Alright, fine. Let's take better care of our bodies and stop feeding our kids three square Happy Meals a day. Let's all go out to the park together and swing or go to the Y and swim. I'm down with that. But if the fight against fat means personally attacking a 17-year-old girl who's thinner and taller than the average American woman...that's where I just can't back you up, MeMe. If taking action against obesity means telling my friends or maybe my daughters one day (explicitly or not) that they're fat, and that people don't like fat girls, and that they'd be beautiful and more loved if they were a couple of sizes smaller, and that they're worth less than a skinny girl...if that's what taking action against obesity means, then honey, serve me up a Supremes combo with fries, because I'm fit to get pro-fat real quick.
from...Kaimi