Conference rocks::weight_control

751.0. ""The Famine Within"" by POWDML::GRACE () Wed Jun 24 1992 16:09

    I saw a film last night called "The Famine Within" which addresses
    the whole question of women's desire to bring their bodies into
    conformity with the "ideal" body shape.  Interviews with booking agents
    for modelling agencies indicate that the modelling "ideal" (by which we
    are measured) is found in less than 0.1% of the population.  Naturally
    we are set up for a sense of failure.  The ensuing discussion with
    recovering anorexics, obese women, Susie Orbach (Author of "Fat is a 
    Feminist Issue"), psychotherapists, writers, and academics was 
    extremely interesting.
    
    Some of the points made in the film were:
    
    	Fat people are discriminated against.  Only thin people are
    	"allowed" to join the ranks of the successful - therefore most
    	women will remain excluded from power. 
    	
    	Women try to control their body as a substitute for lack of control
    	in other areas of their lives.
    
    	Dieting alters body chemistry and can in some cases make people
    	gain more weight as the body adjusts to starvation and stores as much
    	food as possible.
    
    	The anorexia problem is getting worse.  Children are beginning to
    	diet at an earlier and earlier age.
    
    	It is natural for women to gain weight in order to bear and nurture
    	children.  Anorexics unconsciously "choose" weight loss as a way to 
    	avoid sexual maturity.
    
    	Fat people are not as unhealthy as previously assumed.  They have a
    	longer than average life expectancy.  A significant question is the
    	distribution of fat over the body which apparently does affect health.
    	
    I am not qualified to comment on most of these assertions.  Some of the
    discussion was contradictory, which indicates our lack of complete
    understanding of the forces at work here.  I recommend this film highly
    if you get a chance to see it.  It respects the intelligence of the
    audience and raises many interesting and disturbing questions about
    what we are doing to ourselves and why.
                                             

    Please don't forget men. We get fat and need to lose weight too.

    I didn't mean in any way to exclude men.  The film focussed on women,
    but I think the issues it raises, apply to everyone.  In general,I don't 
    think men are quite as tortured as women in trying to reach unrealistic 
    and unhealthy "ideal" bodies, but I do know men who have suffered
    anorexia, and men find other ways to make themselves feel inadequate. 
    Men are not "allowed" to feel unsure, in need of nurturing etc.
    But that is a whole other discussion.  The film addresses the problems
    of women, but biology applies to everyone.
    
    We need to focus on more realistic and positive goals and not deny
    rights and respect to those who do not fit into absurd categories.