The very obese wait longer for organ transplants, up to ONE YEAR longer. The likely reason is that doctors view the obese as being at greater risk for complications and death, therefore donor organs are more likely to go to slimmer patients.
Well, you know why the obese patients might be doing worse? Because you're making them wait months and years longer than other patients for a transplant, giving them plenty of time to get sicker. And then you're blaming their weight for their failure to do well after a transplant!
Patients are being denied treatment, and then blamed for it. Words cannot express the cruelty of this situation.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
After an Eternity of Pressure to be Thin, the Universe Caves
"The universe just got a little bit slimmer. Revised calculations indicate the universe contains less normal and dark matter than previously thought, resulting in a "weight loss" of 10 to 20 percent."
New Measurements: The Universe Weighs Less
When interviewed, the Universe credited sensible eating and exercise for its weight loss. "I feel so much happier now! I don't understand why all of the other Universes don't do what I've done. It's not a matter of dieting, it's a whole new lifestyle."
The Universe's mother promptly began pressuring the Universe's sister to lose weight, leading to laden silences and flung recriminations at Thanksgiving dinner.
New Measurements: The Universe Weighs Less
When interviewed, the Universe credited sensible eating and exercise for its weight loss. "I feel so much happier now! I don't understand why all of the other Universes don't do what I've done. It's not a matter of dieting, it's a whole new lifestyle."
The Universe's mother promptly began pressuring the Universe's sister to lose weight, leading to laden silences and flung recriminations at Thanksgiving dinner.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Richard Jewell / Tania Head
The news story that came out yesterday, about Tania Head, a woman who has for six years presented herself as a survivor of the World Trade Center attacks, but who apparently had no connection to them, is weird and surprising.
I can't imagine what motivated her to develop her story and to continue to build on it, volunteering with victims' groups and giving tours of the WTC site. Did she mean for it to go this far? Did she start by telling a story that was mis-heard, and then took it farther and farther with each retelling?
Apparently she was fairly subdued, if not in the details of her story, in her telling of it. She would hold back parts of her tale until prompted, but then would claim that she'd been one of the few survivors from a floor above the crash site in the second tower, saved by a man who later died, given an inscribed wedding band by a fatally burned man (which she later returned to his unnamed widow), badly burned herself, and lost a fiance (or husband, depending on the telling of her story) in the collapse of the first tower. Her supposed rescuer and supposed fiance are real men, but neither has a demonstrable link to her. She won't name the dying man or widow who are part of her tale.
Others will hash over her story. But here's what has worried me since I saw the article about this in the New York Times: Head is a fat woman. And our society so vilifies fat people that it was just a matter of time before people started associating her behavior with her size, and in many ways blaming it on her size. Did she decide to attract the attention accorded a 9-11 survivor because nobody wanted to pay attention to an average fat woman in America? Did she need to create a fictional husband because she can't find love? Whatever her motivations, whatever happened, there is no doubt whatsoever that she will receive more criticism for carrying out her charade as a fat woman than she would have if she were a size six.
But why should her size matter at all? Thousands of people died on September 11th! Families ripped apart! Two cities scarred! And for whatever reason this woman took advantage of that moment of collective horror to embed herself into the culture of 9-11 survivors. (I doubt that she is the only one.) So why, why, WHY must fat become a part of this narrative? It trivializes the lives of the victims of 9-11 to focus editorials on this story on the size of Tania Head's body. I want to know what was going on in her mind! What did she feel in her heart! What difference could it possibly make to this story to focus on what the number on her bathroom scale reads?
Remember Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of having planted Eric Rudolph's bomb in Olympic Park in Atlanta? Not only was he vilified by the press, but criticisms often focused on or at least alluded to his size. Somehow his body was offered up as visible evidence of flawed ethics, of a criminal mind. Those criticisms were unfounded. He was not only innocent, but a hero who led people away from the bombed park. But the insults that were hurled at him in the media plagued him for the rest of his life, until he died, young, earlier this year.
Gina Kolata does a wonderful job in her recent book, Rethinking Thin, of demonstrating that body size is not a behavioral choice or an outward manifestation of emotional flaws. Some people are fat, some are skinny, and the difference is almost always determined by genetics. But Americans don't see things that way.
America likes to judge people, and wants to think that people can be judged by looking at them. Fat people are easy targets, standing out from the crowd with a physical trait that the thin like to think indicates sloth, greed, laziness, stupidity.
It took less than a day before Tania Head was tarred by that brush. All that remains to be seen is how thoroughly will she be slandered not as a tragic and bizarre psychological case but as a fat woman.
I just did a google search on "Tania Head" and "fat", and the first page of hits tells me that I'm sadly, disappointingly, right.
I can't imagine what motivated her to develop her story and to continue to build on it, volunteering with victims' groups and giving tours of the WTC site. Did she mean for it to go this far? Did she start by telling a story that was mis-heard, and then took it farther and farther with each retelling?
Apparently she was fairly subdued, if not in the details of her story, in her telling of it. She would hold back parts of her tale until prompted, but then would claim that she'd been one of the few survivors from a floor above the crash site in the second tower, saved by a man who later died, given an inscribed wedding band by a fatally burned man (which she later returned to his unnamed widow), badly burned herself, and lost a fiance (or husband, depending on the telling of her story) in the collapse of the first tower. Her supposed rescuer and supposed fiance are real men, but neither has a demonstrable link to her. She won't name the dying man or widow who are part of her tale.
Others will hash over her story. But here's what has worried me since I saw the article about this in the New York Times: Head is a fat woman. And our society so vilifies fat people that it was just a matter of time before people started associating her behavior with her size, and in many ways blaming it on her size. Did she decide to attract the attention accorded a 9-11 survivor because nobody wanted to pay attention to an average fat woman in America? Did she need to create a fictional husband because she can't find love? Whatever her motivations, whatever happened, there is no doubt whatsoever that she will receive more criticism for carrying out her charade as a fat woman than she would have if she were a size six.
But why should her size matter at all? Thousands of people died on September 11th! Families ripped apart! Two cities scarred! And for whatever reason this woman took advantage of that moment of collective horror to embed herself into the culture of 9-11 survivors. (I doubt that she is the only one.) So why, why, WHY must fat become a part of this narrative? It trivializes the lives of the victims of 9-11 to focus editorials on this story on the size of Tania Head's body. I want to know what was going on in her mind! What did she feel in her heart! What difference could it possibly make to this story to focus on what the number on her bathroom scale reads?
Remember Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of having planted Eric Rudolph's bomb in Olympic Park in Atlanta? Not only was he vilified by the press, but criticisms often focused on or at least alluded to his size. Somehow his body was offered up as visible evidence of flawed ethics, of a criminal mind. Those criticisms were unfounded. He was not only innocent, but a hero who led people away from the bombed park. But the insults that were hurled at him in the media plagued him for the rest of his life, until he died, young, earlier this year.
Gina Kolata does a wonderful job in her recent book, Rethinking Thin, of demonstrating that body size is not a behavioral choice or an outward manifestation of emotional flaws. Some people are fat, some are skinny, and the difference is almost always determined by genetics. But Americans don't see things that way.
America likes to judge people, and wants to think that people can be judged by looking at them. Fat people are easy targets, standing out from the crowd with a physical trait that the thin like to think indicates sloth, greed, laziness, stupidity.
It took less than a day before Tania Head was tarred by that brush. All that remains to be seen is how thoroughly will she be slandered not as a tragic and bizarre psychological case but as a fat woman.
I just did a google search on "Tania Head" and "fat", and the first page of hits tells me that I'm sadly, disappointingly, right.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
The Cheapest Home Security System Ever
For all that I complain about the place where I live, it cools off nicely at night. Most nights I can open the windows and turn off the air conditioner, enjoying the resulting silence and saving a few bucks on electricity.
But I worried about sleeping with the windows open. What if someone broke in?
So I've put a bunch of cookie tins on the floor below the windows, with their lids askew. If anyone comes in they'll make such a racket that I'll wake up. Then I can yell for my non-existent husband, or threaten that I'll come after them with my non-existent gun, or call 911 for real, because thanks to my previous weird job I can dial 911 FAST.
A bunch of cookie tins: The cheapest home security system ever.
But I worried about sleeping with the windows open. What if someone broke in?
So I've put a bunch of cookie tins on the floor below the windows, with their lids askew. If anyone comes in they'll make such a racket that I'll wake up. Then I can yell for my non-existent husband, or threaten that I'll come after them with my non-existent gun, or call 911 for real, because thanks to my previous weird job I can dial 911 FAST.
A bunch of cookie tins: The cheapest home security system ever.
When Nice Guys Go Bad
Reading the comments in Confessions of a Community College Dean the other day, I saw references to an earlier dust-up during which women readers took the Dean to task by arguing that some men present themselves as "Nice Guys" simply as a way to manipulate women. The point seemed to be that Nice Guys are actually Creepy Guys.
I wouldn't go that far. I know a great many truly nice men. But then something happened that reminded me of one way in which a supposedly Nice Guy can overplay his hand, and show his true colors.
I was walking out of my office, heading to lunch, when a guy who wants to date me but who I don't want to date caught me on the way out of the door, and then, uninvited, decided to come along with me.
Shit, I thought, now I can't go watch Days of Our Lives in the TV lounge while I eat my slice of pizza in peace.
So he tagged along to the food court, and sat down for some of what I consider to be awkward small talk but he seemed to consider an appropriate lead-in to asking me when we can start dating. In the course of finding a kind way for me to say, "Um... never.", I commented on how challenging it can be for a person older than 21 to find a social life in the small town where we live. His response was something like "Why would you think nobody would want to date you? You are a very nice woman."
Well, I think there are plenty of men who'd like to date me. They just don't happen to be over 21 and live in this godforsaken town. His assumption that I would consider myself undatable is insulting. His attempt to use what he presumed to be my weakness in order to demonstrate that he is a Nice Guy is abhorrent.
This had happened before. I'd exchanged email with another male friend who has made some pretty strong suggestions that he's interested in more than friendship. In a moment of weakness I wrote about how difficult it's been for me to live here, where I've had a hard time making friends outside of work because I don't have local family, and don't go to church, thus having closed off what seem to be the only two options for building social ties here in the flatlands. "Oh", he wrote, "I wish the rest of the world could see in you what I see in you, and value you as highly as it should. But people make so many judgments based on people's surfaces, when they should look into our hearts. You have such a wonderful heart."
Let's diagram that one:
1. He assumes that the problem is that nobody likes me.
2. And that's because I'm fat.
3. But he's the only one who won't care that I'm fat.
4. Because he's some kind of champ.
I am fat. And plenty of people like me. Most of them like me because of the very qualities that I've developed thanks to my experiences living as a fat woman. My trouble is that I live in an area where people can't seem to hold a conversation with someone they don't already know, no matter what body she lives in.
I thank whatever force there is out there for me to thank that I've got self esteem enough to see past what these guys are doing. Because their tactics are predicated on setting up a false competition between a world that doesn't want me, and them, the Nice Guys who do, the only guys who do. But to accept their logic I'd have to accept that I am somehow repulsive to normal people, which just isn't the case, and which is an abusive idea to try to plant in a person's mind.
So this is, I think, what some women mean when they complain about Nice Guys actually being Creepy Guys. The guy who uses a Nice Guy persona to play on a woman's insecurities for his own benefit is not a nice guy. The guy who goes after a woman because he assumes she has been weakened by others' rejection is not a nice guy. The guy who's having a conversation with me while measuring in his mind the degree to which others must find me repulsive is certainly not a nice guy. He's an insecure, manipulative, and passive aggressive guy. He gives truly nice guys a bad name.
And no matter how hard it is for me to find friends around here, I'm sure as hell not going to date him.
I wouldn't go that far. I know a great many truly nice men. But then something happened that reminded me of one way in which a supposedly Nice Guy can overplay his hand, and show his true colors.
I was walking out of my office, heading to lunch, when a guy who wants to date me but who I don't want to date caught me on the way out of the door, and then, uninvited, decided to come along with me.
Shit, I thought, now I can't go watch Days of Our Lives in the TV lounge while I eat my slice of pizza in peace.
So he tagged along to the food court, and sat down for some of what I consider to be awkward small talk but he seemed to consider an appropriate lead-in to asking me when we can start dating. In the course of finding a kind way for me to say, "Um... never.", I commented on how challenging it can be for a person older than 21 to find a social life in the small town where we live. His response was something like "Why would you think nobody would want to date you? You are a very nice woman."
Well, I think there are plenty of men who'd like to date me. They just don't happen to be over 21 and live in this godforsaken town. His assumption that I would consider myself undatable is insulting. His attempt to use what he presumed to be my weakness in order to demonstrate that he is a Nice Guy is abhorrent.
This had happened before. I'd exchanged email with another male friend who has made some pretty strong suggestions that he's interested in more than friendship. In a moment of weakness I wrote about how difficult it's been for me to live here, where I've had a hard time making friends outside of work because I don't have local family, and don't go to church, thus having closed off what seem to be the only two options for building social ties here in the flatlands. "Oh", he wrote, "I wish the rest of the world could see in you what I see in you, and value you as highly as it should. But people make so many judgments based on people's surfaces, when they should look into our hearts. You have such a wonderful heart."
Let's diagram that one:
1. He assumes that the problem is that nobody likes me.
2. And that's because I'm fat.
3. But he's the only one who won't care that I'm fat.
4. Because he's some kind of champ.
I am fat. And plenty of people like me. Most of them like me because of the very qualities that I've developed thanks to my experiences living as a fat woman. My trouble is that I live in an area where people can't seem to hold a conversation with someone they don't already know, no matter what body she lives in.
I thank whatever force there is out there for me to thank that I've got self esteem enough to see past what these guys are doing. Because their tactics are predicated on setting up a false competition between a world that doesn't want me, and them, the Nice Guys who do, the only guys who do. But to accept their logic I'd have to accept that I am somehow repulsive to normal people, which just isn't the case, and which is an abusive idea to try to plant in a person's mind.
So this is, I think, what some women mean when they complain about Nice Guys actually being Creepy Guys. The guy who uses a Nice Guy persona to play on a woman's insecurities for his own benefit is not a nice guy. The guy who goes after a woman because he assumes she has been weakened by others' rejection is not a nice guy. The guy who's having a conversation with me while measuring in his mind the degree to which others must find me repulsive is certainly not a nice guy. He's an insecure, manipulative, and passive aggressive guy. He gives truly nice guys a bad name.
And no matter how hard it is for me to find friends around here, I'm sure as hell not going to date him.
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