Commenter Jackie pointed out to me this recent news item on how “fat kids face widespread stigma“. It’s yet another one to add to the “No kidding!” files.
It’s full of what we already know but now it’s out in a paper that reviews all the literature on fat bias over the past 40 years, published in Psychological Bulletin. The full article isn’t general access, but the abstract states:
The authors then review stigma-reduction efforts that have been tested to improve attitudes toward obese children, and they highlight complex questions about the role of weight bias in childhood obesity prevention.
With these literatures assembled, areas of research are outlined to guide efforts on weight stigma in youths, with an emphasis on the importance of studying the effect of weight stigma on physical health outcomes …
Now that last part’s very interesting indeed and I’ll have to try to get a hold of the full article to read about it. Weight stigma and bias can kill, as Kate Harding’s guest blogger Thorn tells in Fat hatred kills – about how her mother died as a result of the negative attitudes of doctors.
And if this is what happens with adults, the effect on children is very alarming indeed – they are dependent on the adults around them for their health care, and I don’t know that there are many children who can be truly assertive in demanding proper care. Unless their parents follow the ideals of size/fat acceptance and ‘health at every size’, they’re unlikely to be able to show their doctor an introductory letter stating how their weight is just fine thanks and be able to leave if the doctor starts in on the nearly inevitable weight loss lecture.
The child’s dependence on adults for care is made more dysfunctional when, as the the study authors say, one of the biggest sources of weight stigma comes from parents. This from the parents has been around since well before the Childhood Obesity Crisis! bandwagon rolled around, but Jackie made a good point in her comment – it’s unsurprising that parents will engage in ultimately destructive practices to do anything to make their child “normal” weight when we hear stories of child protection agencies removing children from their parents because they’re “too fat”. No parent wants that, and they may ‘do what it takes’ out of sheer desperation and fear.
And look what’s just come up on the BBC site via Google News: Obese girl taken into care because of her weight. She’s apparently eight, and 5’1″ (about 156cm) and a size 16 (US size 14). That she is EIGHT and already 5’1″ should be a big fucking clue that she could well have some hormonal issues, or possibly be naturally quite big.
And people wonder why I’m perpetually cranky.
11 comments ↓
It’s the fact that she’s a good head taller than everyone else AND 8 to 9 year old girls store a little more to get ready for all their pubescent changes. She is going to be a tall and large Amazon- that’s why she’s so big now.
DUH!
…and I notice next to the bottom of this article is a slideshow of the Wellcome Collection featuring a sculpture by John Isaacs called “I can’t help the way I feel”.
http://www.aeroplastics.net/john_isaacs_show/isaacs_2003_05.html
The caption says:”The £1030 million (44 million euro, 60 million dollar) Wellcome Collection, which features 1,300 exhibits, aims to use the arts to stimulate discussion about human health”
Stimulate £$%^&& discussion my freaking fat arse….Anyone in UK interested in protesting, getting an explanation interview with the sculptor or the Wellcome foundation??
Thank you for linking to my post at Shapely Prose.
As a mom, things like that poor girl who was taken from her family because of her size scare the crap out of me. My kids are big – they’re taller than most kids their age, and one is damn near off the charts for both height and weight. I worry so much that one of these days we’re going to run into a pediatrician who only looks at his weight without taking his height (or his giant hands or his huge feet or how freakishly strong he is!) into account.
Dolia, I don’t even get what that sculpture is supposed to be. I mean, if you’re going to raise health issues, shouldn’t it make some sense.
Maybe he’s saying the health issue regarding weight makes no sense, if so then there would be no reason to protest. Hmm..I dunno.
It turns out, as a result of studies that “underground” natural food specialists tend to make, that there are lots of endocrine disruptors in milk and meat and stuff that we don’t really know are in there (I speak generally of the standard American diet).
Not only do kids get larger earlier, but as was said upthread, they get taller and get their periods earlier. Now if someone would only make the connection, repeatedly …
After all, I’m fairly sure that may have been what happened to a lot of us.
Littlem, those specialists aren’t helping to solve the problem of discrimination against people who are bigger.
Also, did you consider those “underground” natural food specialists are coming up with these claims, in hopes to sell their products? Their claims don’t sound much different then the scare claims PETA makes, and PETA isn’t all that trustworthy.
Do you think that if there is that stuff in the food, it’s only a concern for Americans? That it isn’t happening elsewhere in the world? The claim that we all should just go Vegetarian and we’d magically be all better isn’t the answer.
What freaks me out is how everyone keeps pushing kids to lose weight, but failing to recognize that all over the world they are in fact bigger. Clothes haven’t kept up with the trends, and girls often have a hard time finding things that fit. We do “plus size” clothes for girls ages 7 to 12, and we’re looking for comments and feedback on what we can do better. Come visit us at http://www.itchickclothes.com or email us at itchickclothes@gmail.com.
Emily, I agree with you. I also find it interesting, what you said about the rest of the world. Since I’ve been hearing alot of prejudice towards Americans for being fat. So if it’s true that people are bigger in other countries, then why be hypocrites and attack us over it?
I looked at your website. The ribbon shirt is cute! I think you might want to consider putting little characters on some of the shirts, that’s what is popular now. Perhaps design your own characters, and give them cute/sassy things to say. You are off to a good start though
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How many abnormally tall and otherwise large children have we heard about lately? It seems a bit fishy that the bizarre advanced height in each of these kids has not tipped doctors off to a medical condition.
It’s also just deliberately obtuse of the children and family services people to ignore the vertical abnormality, focusing only on the horizontal growth. It makes me feel very sick and sad to think that they are taking these kids away from their kids and forcing very low calorie diets on them.
They’re literally starving the kids to stunt their growth. It isn’t working anyway, and it’s torture, plain and simple. I wonder what the long-term consequences, both physical and psychological, will be. But hey, it’s okay to do these kinds of experiments on fat kids, right? It’s not like they’re human or anything.
Exactly Rio, they are claiming to save these children from abuse, in order to abuse them themselves. This abuse will save them from ‘unhealthiness’.
I just posted that quote from Rio Iriri in this long fight I’ve somehow gotten myself into with these, idiots over at rocktoons.com.
I don’t want to go into details, other than this really all started from them calloustly posting a image of a animal being mistreated, and then they act as if it’s no big deal.
If you want to visit the thread it’s at:
http://rocktoons.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7500
I doubt you’ll get much response other than them, calling you a fatass. I don’t know even why I’m still bothering with them. I guess it’s just frusterating between this and the animal thing, that these monsters are allowed to live.
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