Damn fatties, clogging up our universities!
Lincoln U Requires Its Students to Step on a Scale
Okay, let's pretend for a moment that the BMI is actually accurate1 and I didn't have a 5'9 boy laden with muscle that got put in the morbidly obese range last semester when we talked about this. How the fuck is it the business of my university, or anyone's university, how fat my ass is? They're requiring ONLY the students they've determined are too fat to take their little physical fitness course. Because fat people don't know they're fat, amirite???
Look, the only good use for a physical fitness course like this is to have all the students take it, because I promise you my stick thin freshmen are NOT eating properly, and it will catch up to them. Why assume that fat = unhealthy and thin = SUPERHEALTHY PERFECT? But even beyond that, when you offer your college students fat and salt laden meals that are mostly carbs and devoid of nutrients, you reap what you sow. Want to make your students thinner (or you know, healthier, which should be the concern over prettiness)? Then you should make sure that the places available on campus where they can use their meal card are all offer healthy options. (Instead of Wendy's, Taco Mayo, Taco Bell, Quizno's, Sbarro's, Burger King, and all the other fast food joints.) Even better, if you're going to force kids to spend their time taking a 'fitness' class, then you should make that class free instead of another chunk of money for their tuition, and make for damn sure your gyms are up to date and accessible.
But I don't care if the students who have to take this class are fat or unhealthy. It's wrong to stigmatize and punish students for not being ideal. It's paternalistic and none of the university's goddamn business.
1. As one of the commenters puts it, though "BMI is a mindless parlor game about as meaningful as the horoscopes in Cosmopolitan. "
Okay, let's pretend for a moment that the BMI is actually accurate1 and I didn't have a 5'9 boy laden with muscle that got put in the morbidly obese range last semester when we talked about this. How the fuck is it the business of my university, or anyone's university, how fat my ass is? They're requiring ONLY the students they've determined are too fat to take their little physical fitness course. Because fat people don't know they're fat, amirite???
Look, the only good use for a physical fitness course like this is to have all the students take it, because I promise you my stick thin freshmen are NOT eating properly, and it will catch up to them. Why assume that fat = unhealthy and thin = SUPERHEALTHY PERFECT? But even beyond that, when you offer your college students fat and salt laden meals that are mostly carbs and devoid of nutrients, you reap what you sow. Want to make your students thinner (or you know, healthier, which should be the concern over prettiness)? Then you should make sure that the places available on campus where they can use their meal card are all offer healthy options. (Instead of Wendy's, Taco Mayo, Taco Bell, Quizno's, Sbarro's, Burger King, and all the other fast food joints.) Even better, if you're going to force kids to spend their time taking a 'fitness' class, then you should make that class free instead of another chunk of money for their tuition, and make for damn sure your gyms are up to date and accessible.
But I don't care if the students who have to take this class are fat or unhealthy. It's wrong to stigmatize and punish students for not being ideal. It's paternalistic and none of the university's goddamn business.
1. As one of the commenters puts it, though "BMI is a mindless parlor game about as meaningful as the horoscopes in Cosmopolitan. "