It's not unfeminist to go on a diet

[Doondoo]

Are you letting the side down if you stop being fat? Is it somehow "unfeminist" to concentrate, sometimes obsessively, on what you eat (or don't eat)? Is a preoccupation with weight loss equal to wearing a placard round your neck announcing that you are vain and shallow? I have to say, these are some of the most asinine and women-loathing questions I've heard in a long time, but they have been levelled at me recently, and at other women I know who have lost significant amounts of weight. Dieting is for dweebs, apparently - thick dweebs, if you please: stupid, misguided women who don't know any better.

Two years ago, I was a size 22. I was obese - morbidly, no less. It was absolutely horrible in every single respect. Having subsequently lost five stone, I'm really quite hard pushed to see how regaining control of your life, and not wishing your thighs to rub together when you walk, instantly turns you into a simpering air-head. One of the things about being fat - and I'm talking about being stones overweight, not about "needing" to shrink from a size six to a size two - is that, after a certain point, it makes you invisible. It's hard to understand how this might be considered any kind of achievement, feminist or otherwise.

You may occupy a great deal of physical space if you're very fat, but in everyday life, it's as though you weren't there. Sales assistants stare blankly through you. Men pretend you don't exist, or start calling you "mate". You wonder whether your children are embarrassed to be seen with you in public (the answer to that one is yes, probably). You wish you could go for a bike ride with them, but you're too self-conscious, because you look like a potato balanced on an ant. You can only buy clothes in specialist shops, and these clothes are as undesirable as you have started to feel. Your self-esteem - well, I was going to say "plummets", but it's hard to plummet when you've reached rock bottom.

You develop a whole fraudulent persona to go with your weight: you become a "jolly" fat person with a nifty line in self-deprecating jokes, expertly - and viciously - insulting yourself before anyone can insult you. And all of it feels suffocatingly miserable, every single day, but you squash it down and box it away, and try and live your life. Which you can't, properly, since you are miserable; and then the misery impacts on others close to you - partners, relatives, colleagues, friends, children. Still, you can always comfort yourself with the fact that you're une femme serieuse, not some weight-obsessed ninny. Well, whoop-de-do.


http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,,2011945,00.html

[salin]

1. I had never heard that losing weight/dieting was 'unfeminist'

only that the whole 'body image' pushed by marketers and media per waiflike models/actresses sent a very unhealthy image to girls. But dieting - a reason to criticize per feminism? Never heard that before.

[Bunny]

2. Me neither.

Not sure where the unfeminist part to this comes in - I've never heard that attempting to lose weight when you are morbidly obese is somehow unfeminist. :shrug:

[hlthe2b]

9. Oh...(off topic) the pic in your post...

What would HOSS do? :rofl:

[Rock_Garden]

3. Maybe now you can find your sense of humor. n/t

[hlthe2b]

10. ?????? why would you say that????

[lukasahero]

11. WTF's that supposed to mean? eom

[Gman]

4. My wife has struggled with her weight over the years and

she is a vehement feminist. She has also mentioned the "invisible" thing. I had never thought about an overweight woman being "invisible", but apparently it is very true. Since she mentioned this, I've noticed that my actions and reactions to an overweight woman, although unintentional, seem to confirm a lot of what she says (although I won't acknowledge this to her because that would put me in the "does this dress make me look fat" dilemma). I've started to adjust some of my behavior as a result. Not that I go hit on overweight women, but that I acknowledge them and give them the same courtesies I would anyone else.

[Kindigger]

5. On another note

I've lost a lot of weight recently for health reasons, and my daughter poked fun at me, because I have no butt.

I've noticed the "in" thing right now (including my otherwise slim daughter) is to have a lot of "junk in your trunk".

What's up with that? Where did this start, and why? :shrug:

[sarge43]

6. Neither have I.

This article is a subtle repeat of the standard "feminists are butt ugly and they want all women to be butt ugly".

This article is full of anger at society for defining us, especially women, by our appearance and the writer targets feminists for reasons that passes understanding. Maybe we're just handy nowadays.

The last thing a true feminist would say is let others, including feminists, define you. What a true feminist would say is take control of your life as much as you can and manage your weight for health's sake.

Feminism is about freedom and justice.

(typo)

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Obesity isn't a feminist issue...

Anyone who thinks obese women who are trying to lose weight are 'letting the team down' needs to get their heads out of their posterior, imo. When it comes to morbid obesity, there are major health issues associated with it and anyone who attacks a person (and it doesn't matter if they're male or female) for trying to lose weight and make sure they have a longer life expectancy than they would carrying those extra stones is irresponsible and selfish....

[Missy M]

8. She is confusing what is being criticized....

no one would criticize, certainly not a feminist, someone for going on a diet and losing weight because they are morbidly overweight. They would be encouraged to do so. What is being criticized, not necessarily be feminists alone, are the fashion models who have to be size 0 to walk down the runway. A number of them have died recently due to the constant dieting and that is a cause for much concern. It is also a concern for the teenage girls who try to look like the fashion models. Being ignored and invisible is something different and I'm not sure it has to do with being overweight. The elderly do become invisible and when a woman becomes older she is not going to get whistles and propositions, thats just a fact of life.