Dear friends, what's wrong with this picture?

[darkemeralds]

I know there's something wrong with this, but I'm having trouble articulating exactly what it is, so I'm hoping some of the more savvy in my circle can help me figure it out, 'cause it's bugging me.

The full story is here--mostly in the comments.

The summary is this: in a move that gives provides medical and scientific backing, the Centers for Disease Control have declared their support for the Department of Transportation's recent and controversial "active transportation" initiative, which puts biking, walking, and mass transit on an equal footing with cars and highways in its planning efforts. The CDC's reason for supporting it is that walking and biking as transportation would be a good way for a lot of Americans to be more active, and that more activity would be better for Americans' overall health.

I'm fine with that part. Excited, even. It's good news for American cycling.

Then come the comments. "Jackattak" (a regular on that blog) at number 2 says: "Here's a good idea: Get your fat ass out of your car and get a bike, walk, jog, or skateboard to work" and goes on to bemoan his mother's morbid obesity (including her height, weight and age).

This bothered me, so I commented back requesting an end to that kind of name-calling, and said that active transportation wasn't magically going to solve the nation's obesity epidemic. I cited my own cycling and my own wide posterior in evidence, and I think I was groping towards pointing out the fallacy of his broad brushstrokes, but I don't think I got there and I wasn't really clear on what I wanted to say.

He posted back giving me (I'm pretty sure) permission to accept myself under certain circumstances. I, uh, may have thanked him for this with a wee bit of sarcasm.

Now I feel all inarticulate and icky. I know that I'm sick and tired of the "fat ass":"lazy" equation (stated or implied), I know I don't like being reduced to a single physical characteristic, and I'm sure that I've had it up to here with the bootstrap philosophy of the privileged. But I need a better set of answers, a clearer conclusion--if only just to repeat in my own mind.

I'm not going back into the fray or anything, and I don't want to score points off the guy, but I'd LOVE some clarification.

If anyone interested in these fat-related, privilege-related types of issues would care to read the comments (they're pretty short) and help me think this through, I'd be very grateful.

Comments

[darkemeralds]

This may be the best comment I've ever gotten on a post. I've spent at least two hours reading the blogs at your links and following further links (perfect timing, since I happen to have the day off). I've read Kate Harding and Jezebel before, but don't follow either blog regularly, and hadn't seen those posts. Twisty Faster was new to me, and she makes a fantastic point about the morality of health. I saw myself, not in her, but in the group of those with "assiduously applied, sanctimonious personal health programs" believing I can prevent death.

I'm so glad I posted this whole issue, because it's brought me tremendous food for thought in return.

I can't possibly do justice to all your points, but I'm thinking about them and assimilating them, and feeling very much better prepared to meet any future onslaughts (though you'd be quite right in pointing out that Jakattack's "onslaught" didn't really merit the energy I've given it). It's not about the onslaughts, it's about the integrity and clarity of my own thinking, so thank you very much!

[tehomet]

Thanks for your kind words. I really got my rant on when I was replying and I appreciate you being so gracious about it.

Twisty Faster was new to me, and she makes a fantastic point about the morality of health.

I love TF and IBTP in general. She's funny and her blog is incredibly educational to me, even as steeped in feminism as I (like to think I) am.

I saw myself, not in her, but in the group of those with "assiduously applied, sanctimonious personal health programs" believing I can prevent death.

Ooh, when I quoted TF, I didn't mean to criticise *you*. Far from it. Your efforts to improve your situation through healthy eating and exercise and things like Project Empty (which I was only recommending today, as it happens) have really inspired me. I think they make good sense in the here and now, and are simultaneously mindful, enjoyable and of benefit. In other words, there's nothing at all wrong as you know with an 'assiduously applied... personal health program,' just with being 'sancimonious' and thinking that it is a means of gaining status. When I quoted that passage of TF, I meant to say that Jackattak is the kind of person who thinks that being healthier or thinner than someone else makes him morally superior too, which is obviously the kind of idiocy that I don't think you would be capable of or dream of spouting in a million years.

Anyway. I'm sorry that I have again ranted on. I'm glad the links were of use. :)

[darkemeralds]

Oh, no! I didn't take the link as a criticism at all, and I'd like to think that the health, fitness and food blogging I do comes from a purely "this is cool and I'm loving it" perspective. But I found myself thinking that if I met the woman Twisty Faster describes herself to be, thoughts about the relationship between her (apparent) lifestyle and her health would have crossed my mind.

It was educational for me to read what she had to say about it, because it forced me to realize how deeply entrenched those ideas are in my brain. One is always one's own "average" when it comes to judgement, I think: "I may not be as perfect as so-and-so over there [skinny, beautiful, healthy, fit], but I'm not as bad as that person [smoker, drug-dependent, fatter than me, sedentary]" and therefore I am "just about right".

We all do it, I think. It's salutary to be made conscious of it.