Why might these researchers have chosen to focus on the 9% of toddlers labeled “overweight” and not the 31% underweight/low weight? The clue might be found in an important detail the media left out of the news this week. This study was conducted by researchers at the Dept. of Ambulatory Care and Obesity Prevention Program, which has as its stated mission “to lessen the burden of obesity-related disorders by conducting epidemiologic, health services and intervention research studies.”
I’ve watched too many tiny babies suffer, too many endure tragic outcomes, too many babies die, and too many lives of young mothers devastated by grief and regret because they had been afraid to eat and gain weight during their pregnancies. I only hope young women will follow the advice of their own doctors and not what they hear in the media.
(Note: I think Szwarc is writing such important stuff, I overlook her desperate need of a copy editor. You should too. I know I have the type of readers who will “shutter” at the first line there, but get over it and pay attention to her points.)
It’s no longer considered a crime to split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition, for example, but the specters of worn-out rules have a way of coming back to haunt us. In the interest of laying a few to rest, let’s dedicate to each a tombstone, complete with burial service. May they rest in peace.
(But… but… I’m always the asshole who says “None of us is going to be there!” Don’t take that away from me!)
Jillian Dunham on wine and books at The Bibliophilistines (ahem):
Some people like to hire prostitutes or get into brawls. When I’m looped, all I can think is, “Shit! I’ve never read Stendhal!” I love books when I’m sober, but if it weren’t for wine, my library would be be significantly less robust. Owing to the expeditious delivery system of BN.com and the fact that one of my good college girlfriends meets me once a month for margaritas followed by trips to the bookstore across the street, my library is an ample and accurate reflection of my true desires in life.
Jessica Valenti on online sexism:
“The promise of the early internet,” says [postgrad culture and communication student Alice] Marwick, “was that it would liberate us from our bodies, and all the oppressions associated with prejudice. We’d communicate soul-to-soul, and get to know each other as people, rather than judging each other based on gender or race.” In reality, what ended up happening was that, online, the default identity became male and white – unless told otherwise, you would assume you were talking to a white man.
Ron Rosenbaum at Slate (a couple weeks ago) on good reasons to hate yoga media:
And then there’s what you might call “Yoga for Supermarket Checkout Line Goals.” Or as the cover story of Rodale’s downmarket magazine YogaLife put it, yoga to: “BURN FAT FASTER!” (Subsidiary stories bannered on the YogaLife cover: “4 WAYS TO LOSE 5 POUNDS”; “ZEN SECRETS TO: HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS … INSTANT CALM.”)
Gotta love “Zen Secrets to Instant Calm,” right?
And finally, Frank Furedi on risk and fear:
As the sociologist David Altheide has argued, ‘fear does not just happen; it is socially constructed and then manipulated by those who seek to benefit’ (26). While this description of socially constructed fear tends to inflate the role of self-interest – the extent to which fear entrepreneurs exploit fear in order to gain some direct benefit – its emphasis on the role of human agency in the making of fear is nonetheless a useful counterpoint to the idea that fear is something natural or purely psychological.
*Note: this post was up for an entire day before I realized it said “Patricia T. O’Conner’s list of thing grammar nazis need to get over.” S-M-R-T, I tells ya.
