Size

[flexibeast]

This sort of thing makes me furious:

A woman in Oklahoma suffered for twelve years with a growing ovarian tumor that went undiagnosed. Everytime she went to the doctor, she was told she was just fat and needed to lose weight. After awhile she stopped going to the doctor. It wasn't until she'd become so swollen that the circulation in her legs became compromised and they began to crack and ooze that a doctor finally took her seriously and admitted it wasn't just a problem with "overeating." During an exploratory surgery they discovered a 93 pound ovarian cyst. Yet even then, it was compared to a "big balloon, a big beach ball" and the news reports wrote mockingly of her walking around with a tumor she didn’t know was there.

Luckily, this woman’s tumor was benign. But "obese" women have higher death rates from many cancers than "normal" weight women. Several researchers have looked for reasons for this health disparity and have learned it isn't because of their fat in the way that is popularly believed.

One of my partners, sacred_harlot, is quite a large woman. She's currently suffering from heart and leg problems, which in recent years have curtailed her ability to do as much physical activity as she used to. She still does a fair amount of physical activity anyway, not only because she's a mother of two teenagers, but because she tries to work out on her exercise bike as much as possible. She also eats better than anyone i know: salads are a regular part of her diet, she very much limits her intake of fats and sugars, she drinks lots of water and fruit juices, and she generally limits her food intake overall, having only health snacks between meals.

But none of this matters to the health 'professionals' she's seen in recent times; most of them have made it quite clear that they're not willing to properly address her health issues until she's "lost that weight". There seems to be an implication that she couldn't possibly be doing any of the above things, because otherwise she would obviously be slimmer. And never mind that she was sexually and physically abused as a child by her mother, which recent research suggests may be linked to heart problems; her heart and leg problems must simply be a result of her being 'lazy'. Presumably just like my ME/CFS and fibromyalgia merely reflects my own 'laziness'. :-P

We're constantly lectured about the (some real, some dubious) health costs of being fat; but what about the health costs of our society's fatphobia?

[ Cross-posted to fat_feminist ]
 

Comments

[porcineflight.livejournal.com]

There are heaps of examples of this for men and women. One firend who is "obese" gwebnt to a GP for a medical condition unrelated to weight issues. The doctor saw "fat" and pushed a weight-loss drug that has the side effect of diarrhoea - not really practical for a person who wants to go out into the world and be active without fear of this "side-effect" causing major embarrassment. The doctor then promptly forgot what my friend originally wanted the doctor for and had to be reminded. The next time my friend went in to the same doctor, he did the same thing - his routine response to a "fat" patient is to push this drug on them.

There are lots of fat-acceptance activist groups online that are worth checking out to get a feminist perspective on fat and to hear some horror stories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizeism