Gainers: right or wrong?
OK, this is something that featured in a piece on Today Tonight (an Australian opinion show on channel 9), that had me honestly gobsmacked and utterly dumbfounded. I couldn't help but want to add my own two cents to this issue.
Mama Mia is a web blog that is run by Mia (woman pictured in the left corner) who is a writer, author, blogger, social commentator and journalist who is a passionate advocate for body image. Recently, she blogged about this phenomenon known as Gainers, in which people purposely try to gain weight. And we're not talking about a little ten or fifteen kilograms here (which is kinda big within itself), but 100's of kilograms.
The woman blogged about was Donna Simpson:
a mother of two (three year old girl pictured) who wants to gain 453kg (1000lbs), as shown here in this news piece:
Notice that Donna Simpson has no idea at all about the risks that come with being morbidly obese, in fact, she's rather ignorant on the subject. Also, note that she makes the comment that she eats "healthy foods".
And of course, Mia's blog catches the attention and wrath of fat activists such as Spilt Milk, accusing Mia of being a basher of fat people, of standing in the way of fat acceptance.
OK, here's the thing though, which makes me just utterly stupefied. I'm all for advocating healthy body images and hold to the view that big is beautiful. Which it is. Big is beautiful. But the issue at hand here is that she's purposely eating herself into an early grave, at the expense of her three year old daughter. How selfish can you get? Purposely gaining weight, becoming morbidly obese, all for the sake of a temporary high that your subscribers give you? Of the money that you get? So what happens to your three year old daughter, your teenage son, when you suffer a heart attack and die? When you become so big that you can't even play with your daughter any more, give her a hug, attend award nights at school? What happens then? Well, at least you captivated the attention of your 260+ subscribers, right? At least these strangers that really hold no significance in your life enjoyed themselves, right?
This isn't something that can be simply labelled as a lack of fat acceptance. This is a woman, consciously making a decision to please her fans, by gaining weight. This is someone consciously making the decision to put herself first over her children. I'm sorry, this isn't about fat acceptance, this is more an issue of selfishness.
In regards to other gainers who are actively gaining weight to become morbidly obese, this shouldn't even come under the fat acceptance movement. They are no better than smokers who actively smoke their heart out. Fat people are fat due to the poor life choices that have led them to that stage, or due to genetics that have coded for that particular phenotype, not because they woke up one morning and thought, "Hey! I want to gain 300lbs!" So no, I don't think these people can fall under the same classification of people who legitimately suffer from weight problems.
NB: sorry for clogging the list without a cut. Feel free to comment/discuss, regardless if you think I'm right or wrong.
Mama Mia is a web blog that is run by Mia (woman pictured in the left corner) who is a writer, author, blogger, social commentator and journalist who is a passionate advocate for body image. Recently, she blogged about this phenomenon known as Gainers, in which people purposely try to gain weight. And we're not talking about a little ten or fifteen kilograms here (which is kinda big within itself), but 100's of kilograms.
The woman blogged about was Donna Simpson:
a mother of two (three year old girl pictured) who wants to gain 453kg (1000lbs), as shown here in this news piece:
Click to viewNotice that Donna Simpson has no idea at all about the risks that come with being morbidly obese, in fact, she's rather ignorant on the subject. Also, note that she makes the comment that she eats "healthy foods".
And of course, Mia's blog catches the attention and wrath of fat activists such as Spilt Milk, accusing Mia of being a basher of fat people, of standing in the way of fat acceptance.
OK, here's the thing though, which makes me just utterly stupefied. I'm all for advocating healthy body images and hold to the view that big is beautiful. Which it is. Big is beautiful. But the issue at hand here is that she's purposely eating herself into an early grave, at the expense of her three year old daughter. How selfish can you get? Purposely gaining weight, becoming morbidly obese, all for the sake of a temporary high that your subscribers give you? Of the money that you get? So what happens to your three year old daughter, your teenage son, when you suffer a heart attack and die? When you become so big that you can't even play with your daughter any more, give her a hug, attend award nights at school? What happens then? Well, at least you captivated the attention of your 260+ subscribers, right? At least these strangers that really hold no significance in your life enjoyed themselves, right?
This isn't something that can be simply labelled as a lack of fat acceptance. This is a woman, consciously making a decision to please her fans, by gaining weight. This is someone consciously making the decision to put herself first over her children. I'm sorry, this isn't about fat acceptance, this is more an issue of selfishness.
In regards to other gainers who are actively gaining weight to become morbidly obese, this shouldn't even come under the fat acceptance movement. They are no better than smokers who actively smoke their heart out. Fat people are fat due to the poor life choices that have led them to that stage, or due to genetics that have coded for that particular phenotype, not because they woke up one morning and thought, "Hey! I want to gain 300lbs!" So no, I don't think these people can fall under the same classification of people who legitimately suffer from weight problems.
NB: sorry for clogging the list without a cut. Feel free to comment/discuss, regardless if you think I'm right or wrong.