Comments on: Starting Early

By: sulz

sulz — Wed, 09 May 2007 12:39:19 +0000

i enjoyed reading this post! you’ve brought up some good points about fat and growing up.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:12:46 +0000

Thanks for this. I’ve been pitching stories about the childhood obesity non-epidemic to all kinds of progressive publications, only to be met by utter disinterest. People are just not interested in having their preconceived notions challenged. As a result, I think kids in this generation are probably going to die younger than their parents, but not because they’re fat. It’s because the kind of crap that happens every single day to fat kids is abuse, pure and simple.

By: Thorn

Thorn — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:45:54 +0000

OMG. What the hell are they thinking??

Why oh why is it so damn hard for people to comprehend that what children need is not sermons and fearmongering about fat, but healthy, whole food to eat and wide open, safe spaces to run around in and the encouragement to do both?

I remember when I was a kid, just about the time I hit puberty (or more accurately, just about the time puberty hit me), so 11 or so. I went blueberry picking with my aunt and cousin, who was about a year older than me.

It was the mid-’80s and I had thoroughly absorbed the “Hardbodies” notion of what “fitness” meant, and further realized that I did. Not. Fit. That. Notion.

I remember sitting in the back of the station wagon with my cousin, who I’d always thought of as taller and prettier and MUCH thinner than me, and I noticed that the flesh of her thigh flattened out a bit, resting on the vinyl of the bench seat. And I remember being appalled. I remember being shocked. I remember thinking, “Oh my god, Laurie’s a lardass like me!”

Why? Because apparently I had absorbed the “Hardbodies” message so well that I thought “fitness” meant having flesh so hardened it defied the laws of physics. That prompted years of careful analysis of other people’s bodies looking for jiggles and any sign of fleshy movement.

It wasn’t until at least a decade later, when I was helping to prepare a big roast beef or some dang thing, and I was patting some spices onto it and it wobbled a little. I patted it several times in fascination and astonishment. That was when I learned that muscles are just flesh too.

By: WereBear

WereBear — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:20:00 +0000

Boy, does this hit home for me.

I was one of those rail thin children, so getting hips and thighs seemingly overnight completely whacked me out. I had the opposite build problem; not a big bust, otherwise just BIG all over; at 13 I was already 5’7″, and my shoe size was 8 1/2 US.

Even now, at a healthy weight that lets me get into size 10 pants, I find myself flashing into momentary despair over what a Horse I Am. Then I must remind myself that standing next to another woman of the same height, my shoulders are six inches wider than hers; it stands to reason my butt would be too.

People come in many shapes and sizes. That goes for children too.