September 19th, 2006
"dignity of choice" my fat fanny
If you are fat, you can choose to count calories or grams of cabohydrates; to drink Sego, Slender, or Liquid Protein diets; to eat Figurines; to go for Dr. Simeon’s Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) injections; to follow the Redbook Wise Woman’s Diet; etc., etc. The range of choices hides the fact that you are compelled to choose. As for the choices themselves, no matter which you choose you are choosing pain through hunger. If therefore you choose to reject all reducing options, you are punished with ridicule and social rejection. Unfortunately, with almost all attempts at weight loss failing, the same women who are constantly using one or another diet product are also punished for looking as though they do not use any diet product!
…
The point of all this is that we have much less choice over our figures than we are led to believe. The suffering of women over their figures is meaningless—and that’s hard to accept.
Read more here.
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“The Fat Illusion” by Vivian F. Mayer in Shadow On a Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression edited by Lisa Schoenfielder and Barb Wieser (Spinsters Ink/Aunt Lute Press, 1983).
