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But you look healthy?
Jan. 21st, 2010 01:59 pmFear of being fat is pretty common in Western culture. It's provoking eating disorders, excess dieting, dangerous medication, surgery, and abuse. No one seems to want to jump on the fat bandwagon and hug a love handle for peace & justice. Clothing industries are late to the party with cheap-yet-overpriced fabrics in tacky designs. Stores have to be special, distant from mainstream outlets in order to sell plus-size wear. Elephants are in the room and everyone turns to the other cheek, laughing after they've waddled off to tastier pastures.
Yetrarely do we hear about fearing disability. Disability is viewed as an isolated condition, one that can be prevented with care or is tragically thrust upon the helpless newborn of our society. Through medical ingenuity and sheer force of collective will, we can as a culture eradicate the diseased disabled from our midst. Yes there's the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States, but that doesn't stop us from refusing to hire 70% of blind folk and upwards of 60% of disabled folk as a whole. We're a resilient culture, not to be deterred by law or reality!
So fearing disability as a result of fat should not be a new concept. It's only natural that two of the things our culture deems the result of tragedy and possibly laziness/weakness would enjoy a cause & e/a/ffect relationship. Certainly fatness will lead to diabetes which will lead to blindness and the amputation of major limbs. That's a double-whammy right there; no sight and mobility impairment. Certainly mobility impairments will lead to decreased access to exercise and an increase in bad-food intake which will lead to fatness. It's a vicious cycle. It goes round and round....and round and round...and sometimes it's so round it becomes a fat disabled circle.
Now it's only natural, some would say, that fearing disability would cause one to change their lifestyle or body dramatically. Of course we fear disability; it's a death-sentence. Not because being disabled is a bad thing necessarily, but because our society is created for the abled. Disabled bodies are restricted, evicted even. If one got a taste of that dehumanization of course they may very well buy into any notion of avoiding it in the future.
There should be a get-out-of-jail-free card for this one. But there isn't. Ableism isn't okay. Fearing disability is fine if you're able-bodied. But turn it on its head. Look at my fat, disabled body. What are you telling my body? What are you telling your body should it ever loose its ableist rank and join the crip-parade? As if loosing weight and eating carrots were the solution to every disabled road we could possibly travel on as humans.
If that were true, damn would I have the sight of a bird and the most pompous father around.
I remember people spending hours or a day in wheelchairs in college to get the 'disability' experience so they could write a paper for their diversity classes. I remember being appalled that they thought they knew what it was like. I know that temporary-disability annoys me; it's temporary and the body involved tends to feel so put out by the circumstances the rest of us deal with every single day. But it's only been a recent development for me to discover a temporarily-disabled-now-abled body that took that experience to meanrun-away from the crips make drastic life changes for a potential disability threat that isn't really going to happen but who the hell knows...?
What happens to the already-fat, already-disabled among us? What happened to fat-is-beautiful? What happened to health at any size, not appearance of health at any size?
Yet
So fearing disability as a result of fat should not be a new concept. It's only natural that two of the things our culture deems the result of tragedy and possibly laziness/weakness would enjoy a cause & e/a/ffect relationship. Certainly fatness will lead to diabetes which will lead to blindness and the amputation of major limbs. That's a double-whammy right there; no sight and mobility impairment. Certainly mobility impairments will lead to decreased access to exercise and an increase in bad-food intake which will lead to fatness. It's a vicious cycle. It goes round and round....and round and round...and sometimes it's so round it becomes a fat disabled circle.
Now it's only natural, some would say, that fearing disability would cause one to change their lifestyle or body dramatically. Of course we fear disability; it's a death-sentence. Not because being disabled is a bad thing necessarily, but because our society is created for the abled. Disabled bodies are restricted, evicted even. If one got a taste of that dehumanization of course they may very well buy into any notion of avoiding it in the future.
There should be a get-out-of-jail-free card for this one. But there isn't. Ableism isn't okay. Fearing disability is fine if you're able-bodied. But turn it on its head. Look at my fat, disabled body. What are you telling my body? What are you telling your body should it ever loose its ableist rank and join the crip-parade? As if loosing weight and eating carrots were the solution to every disabled road we could possibly travel on as humans.
If that were true, damn would I have the sight of a bird and the most pompous father around.
I remember people spending hours or a day in wheelchairs in college to get the 'disability' experience so they could write a paper for their diversity classes. I remember being appalled that they thought they knew what it was like. I know that temporary-disability annoys me; it's temporary and the body involved tends to feel so put out by the circumstances the rest of us deal with every single day. But it's only been a recent development for me to discover a temporarily-disabled-now-abled body that took that experience to mean
What happens to the already-fat, already-disabled among us? What happened to fat-is-beautiful? What happened to health at any size, not appearance of health at any size?
