“The UK has the highest rate of obesity in Europe, according to figures released by the Department of Health.”
So reported the BBC and other major UK channels today. God bless them. I wonder why they portray the story in this way?
For those of us who are grossly obese, I very much doubt news like this is likely to change anything - other than engendering an extra layer of guilt and enhancing my own feeling of wanting to hide from the world. (oh yes, it's there, and I'm kinda glad that you would question that)
I suspect it is reported in this way so that those who are not significantly overweight can say their “Tut-tutts” over their skinny-lattés and maybe mutter, soto voce, that “something should be done about it”.
The main messages, from both the media and the government, seem to be:
1) Obese people are a problem.
2) We should rightly be ashamed of them.
3) How could they be so stupid?
The underlying message also seems to include quite a large dollop of: “It's OK to discriminate and demonise fat people”. In a country where great strides have been made to stamp out discrimination in so many areas, we've finally found a subject where we don't have to try. Phew!
I haven't spoken out about this before, because I think I was all too happy to be ashamed of myself just as suggested.
“But hang on a moment, Jack” I hear you say, or at least that is the sense of what I hear you say. (Some of you may have used badder words.)
“Hang on a moment, Jack, that news report was just reporting a fact, not taking a stance. You're completely over-reacting.”
It's a fair point, and I think the best, and therefore most dangerous, discriminatory rhetoric sounds this way.
It's important to note that the line I quoted did not mention people at all. Even a tiny change would have helped a bit. They could have said: “The UK has the highest number of obesity sufferers in Europe, according to figures released by the Department of Health.” Instead, they used a phrase that is normally reserved for crime figures - like “The highest rate of gun crime in Europe”, or whatever.
They actually make obesity sound like a crime.
So this blog entry is my attempt to fight back just a little. I'm not suggesting that obesity is a great lifestyle choice, or that we should encourage people to become obese - that would be equally stupid.
I'm just firing a warning shot, lest we utterly de-humanise a disease that a great many people struggle with. If those with influence would do more by way of getting alongside those of us who really do have a mountain to stop being, then I sense the possibility of progress.
It's time the government and the media thought about practical and innovative help in this difficult area.
Till then, I'm sticking with the Spry, it sure slips down easy...
Yes - a pint of Spry is just the thing sometimes. Your blog touches on many thought provoking issues, and it's a difficult one to comment on. I think that for many people, obesity is a condition that engenders little sympathy - with many thinking that all obese people need to do is eat less and they'll be fine. Since getting to know you, I've been made very aware of the issues that obese people face on a day to day basis, and to see at first hand the lack of accommodation, thoughtlessness, ignorance and on occasion sheer prejudice/thuggery has been shocking. On a purely practical note, I would have thought that the Disability Discrimination Act would have made a superficial difference - but I don't see much evidence of this. I'm aware of how ill-equipped many entertainment venues, cafes, restaurants etc. are for 'wider than average' people - but they nearly all have ramps for wheelchairs. Even being as relatively mildly oversized as I am (especially a couple of years ago) I felt discriminated against by clothing and footwear manufacturers. What you say about attitudes towards those suffering from ebisity is true, and it's difficult to know how to turn around opinion - especially when very obese people are only portrayed on TV or film as figures of fun (how amusing) or tragedy/depravity. You simply don't get the same attitudes towards many other conditions. And it's something people are usually very uncomfortable talking about - so I applaud you for this blog, and will be interested to read other comments.
Posted by: Jason | October 11, 2006 at 12:10 AM
Thanks for those insights, Jason. Perhaps they will licence a "fat-seat" which can be added to normal seats - or maybe a pair of special door-widening fat forceps?
There are simply loads fo products simply screaming to be made.
I have to say that I'd rather not be fat, though. In a way.
Posted by: AndyC | October 11, 2006 at 01:50 PM
Yes. Good idea - try not being fat. Have you tried that?
Posted by: Jason | October 11, 2006 at 05:31 PM
I gave it a good run till I was in my 20s.
I have to say that i was more unhappy then than I am now.
Posted by: AndyC | October 11, 2006 at 05:55 PM
Having recently lost nearly six stone on a meal replacement diet, I can honestly say that I have lost over twenty years of my life being obese, I am now starting to make up for my lost time, but I will still be wishing I had done this sooner. The trouble is, fat people have to see the problem for themselves, its all well and good saying that they are happy as they are, that is a cover up and all the while they are running from something that makes them fat they will not lose weight. Its a long and very lonely path an obese person treads they need psychiatric/counselling and not being nagged at, when was the last time you did something after being "told" you had to do it.
Posted by: AMANDA KELLY | October 16, 2006 at 10:16 AM
That's all very true, Amanda. Thanks for contributing.
Posted by: AndyC | October 16, 2006 at 10:46 AM