And I’ll reiterate that FAT ACCEPTANCE (which is what that handy acronym stands for) is about ACCEPTING FAT, which you by definition cannot be doing while simultaneously deliberately trying to eradicate it through diet, exercise, eating through your ear or whatever the fuck else. Sing it with me if you know the words: you’re not accepting fat if you’re trying to get rid of it! They are two different things.

I also love Sarah H. I think the segment is purposely kept fairly light; IMO you can tell by the topics she/the show selects that they are quite sharp and have some really subversive ideas, but it’s a 3-minute segment and (I’m talking out of my ass, but this is my thought) I wonder if they want to get people thinking about these topics without getting too bogged down in the segment itself. She may not have explicitly questioned diets’ effectiveness in the same way that folks do in the fatosphere, but at the same time it would be hard to come away from that video without a strong impression that you need to question all of the glib crap you’re fed by morning shows and commercials this time of year and that this skepticism can be taken to other subjects other than the ones specifically addressed in the video.

Like all the Target: Women segments, the point seems to be more to poke fun at the shallow, inconsistent, hypocritical, misogynistic crap that originates from the media. I think the glaring omission of any judgment as to which diets are “good” and which are “bad,” references to the obesity epidemic, and even the selection of the subject for the segment, speak loudly in terms of fat-positivity and recognition that fat is a feminist issue (even though most people these days appear to think that it is for women who are actually thin but have body issues, but magically not for fat women who have body issues). It’s sad I have to read so much into what isn’t said, but if the producers were at all fatphobic, you can bet all that crap would have been there in spades and most commenters wouldn’t have even blinked an eye. It’s par for the course on any segment about weight, health, body image, even eating disorders.

I’m not criticizing anyone who doesn’t think she’s that great, just musing about my thoughts on the segment…

THIS HAPPENED TO MY FRIEND. She decided to shell out $300 for some something or other and ended up getting so weak that she couldn’t walk from one end of her small house to the other end of her small house without having to stop and rest for half an hour. She’s better now and managed to avoid any serious, long-term health problems, so I got a good laugh out of that line.

STICK IT IN YOUR EAR.

WIN.

So, like, if the soda I drink already doesn’t have sugar in it because I’m hypoglycemic, does that still mean I lose 52 pounds a year? OH NOES! In a little over 3 years, I won’t exist!

Don’t look now, but Ricki’s smelled the class prejudice inherent in most financial AND diet advice bubbling over on the stove!

And what if there’s people who, if they don’t get their Starbucks latte, or their Pepsi, will fall off the wagon and become alcoholics again?

I too wish this piece had been a little more pointedly anti-diet, but a little anti-diet is better than none, especially in January.

I do have to admit however to it tearing me apart in very painful ways when people act like this is my choice, that the only reason I am like this is that I have just chosen to be, and that it would be just that simple to be “normal” if I would just chose to do these simple things. when I realize that it is those things that in effect made me this way to begin with, that the yo-yo dieting and the subsequent gaining back the weight I lost plus more combined with the disordered eating I learned from all that has me trapped in something that is not what I would chose.. and so yes I do feel alot of hurt when someone acts as though it is.

That doesn’t mean I don’t defend their right to be in the FA movement as long as they are on the side that no one should be treated as less of a person or discriminated against because of their size, etc. It just means that at times I am going to have a very hard time ignoring or accepting that kind of attitude and that I really hope that maybe they will understand why I get defensive about it.

I am glad you said what you did, it was kind of a aha! moment for me and if you hadn’t said it i would still be in the dark about it lol

I think the other thing that bugs me about the “give this up” bit is, what if that’s really the one pleasure people get out of life? I saw some spending-diet guru (that’s what I think of the people who are telling people how they “should” spend less money; as spending-diet gurus and their advice is about as generally useful as the average diet guru) talk about people giving up “expensive coffee drinks.” What if that’s the person’s sole weekly indulgence? What if it makes them really happy? What if they don’t spend money on other things, so they can have the money for their latte?

One-size-fits-all isn’t just a bad idea for clothing.

But she DIDN’T have to explain why she doesn’t drink pop. As you stated, that’s totally her own business. This post is not about whether or not you should drink soda and what that means for you. We all know (around here at least) that people of all sizes eat and drink all kinds of different foods for all kinds of different reasons. So forgive us if we’re a little quick to jump on people who explain why THEIR diet is SO DIFFERENT and SERIOUSLY IT’S JUST A LIFESTYLE CHANGE. giannakali is a regular here and we totally understand the mixed feelings that come with medically induced food restrictions — in fact, we’ve talked about it a lot here and at the Ning site. I appreciate her clarification, and we’re all good as far as I’m concerned. But seriously, you have no idea how many comments we delete from people who just HAVE to tell us about their diets and just HAVE to justify the fact that they are not actually into accepting their fat at all but they still want us to give them space to talk all about how evil certain foods are.