I woke up this morning to a headline that made me feel sick. It read: “Tips for how to avoid the Freshman 15,” published by CBC News. The headline did not make me feel uncomfortable because I just downed a tub of ice cream the night before, nor was it because I know I gained weight during my freshman year. Instead, I felt uneasy about the national headline because of the way it narrates our obsession with weight, thinness and disciplining our bodies.
Contemporary culture is saturated with messages, programs and concerns regarding the “obesity crisis.” While many are quick to point out that there are many body types and sizes, there is a consensus that excess fat is unhealthy and that individuals must make behavioural choices to reduce their so-called fatness. Such assumptions are founded in the supposed indisputable body of scientific evidence that equates fatness with illness (much of which current feminist scholars are uprooting and questioning). And while fat may or may not be unhealthy, it is likely that our very discourse on fat is. It is widely recognized that fat people experience discrimination in every facet of contemporary society – in schools, doctors’ offices, the job market, the housing market… the list goes on. It is no coincidence that fat people report fewer job opportunities, stigmatization in the workplace and school, lower pay and more bullying.
The “Freshman 15” is yet another consequence of such discrimination. By warning students about the “dangers” of getting “fat,” we are encouraging an unhealthy discourse about our bodies – a one-dimensional image of health. Before we begin to educate each other on how to be healthy, perhaps it’s time we open the conversation to question what health actually looks like. What makes someone healthy? Who has the privilege of being healthy? Who does not? Who gets to say who is healthy? Who does not?
These questions are particularly important in a town like Squamish. In a community where fitness and athleticism are assumed to be the norm, we must be particularly aware of how we frame our discourse on health and fatness. So before we encourage each other to eat “healthy” and to adopt a “healthy lifestyle,” we should take a long, hard and critical look at the consequences of our rhetoric. If we don’t, we stand to loose a lot more than body fat.
Laura Finkler
Squamish
