For all those of you who insist that fat is a choice, please, please do some reading before you spread opinions that don't reflect the best contemporary research. You believe you know things because you've read newspapers and magazines. Sigh.

And so, a public interest reading list--as opposed to medical journal articles. I apologise that it's UK publications, but I'm taking it from the recently published Fat Studies in the UK (Raw Nerve Books, 2009):

Campos, Paul, (2004) The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health London: Gotham Books.

Evans, J., Rich, E., Davies, B., Allwood, R. (2008) Education, Disordered Eating, and Obesity Discourse: Fat Fabrications. Abingdon: Routledge.

Gaesser, G. (2002) Big Fat Lies: The Truth about Your Weight and Your Health. Carlsbad, CA: Gurze Books (a bit older, but very good.)

Gard, M., and Wright, J. (2005) [i]The Obesity Epidemic: Since, morality and ideology London and New York: Routledge.

Each of these books debunks the presumptions being repeated over and over and over here through surveying the medical literature and thinking through the contradictions as well as reporting on cutting edge research.

There are lots and lots of other kinds of things to read--sociological types of studies like Katie LeBesco's Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity, fat activist works like Marilyn Wann's Fat!So? and Charlotte Cooper's Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size, interdisciplinary projects like The Fat Studies Reader and Fat Studies UK.

But it is crucial to stop blaming fat people for things that are as genetic as race. There are environmental factors involved in everything, but with over 40 gene sites already identified as related to obesity, and with the 95% failure rate of diets, it is smug at best and surely mean-spirited to think that being fat is simply the fat person's fault.

Don't I wish... Sigh. FF guys tell me this 'fact' all the time, but I have to say, given that I won't just date *anyone* just because he's a feeder, I have yet to find someone who lives within dating distance with whom I can hold a conversation and who is a feeder or, better yet, mutual gainer.

The grass is always greener... And you have my every empathy.

To Will 88:

While it is sorely tempting to answer your very unpleasant post point by point, I will keep myself to two points.

1. I hope--not expect, just hope--that people who care about fat people will stand up for us when we're being mistreated. Not a one-man crusade, just being a stand-up guy. I've seen a number of thin people do such things, like pointing out that fat jokes aren't funny, and it's very powerful.

2. Being fat is not always a choice--in fact, not often a choice.



Medical research suggests that obesity is a very complicated process indeed, and that the old ideas about simple calorie-counting just don't hold up under serious examination. While some of us may choose to gain, or to enjoy our food, many--perhaps even most--fat people can't simply choose to be skinny. That's why--and I've never seen this figure denied--95% of all diets fail. I would be happy to offer a reading list if you're seriously interested in this subject.

*RANT WARNING*

OK, so this is partly in response to many of the responses to Shazzy's thread about Gervais' fat people bit, and partly in response to a lot of things I've heard over the years here.

How on earth can you claim to care about fat people and not care about how we're treated? And know so little about how fat works, and how fat discrimination works, and how fat hatred works?

For pete's sake, if that man had stood on that stage and said the same kinds of things about black people, he'd have been booed off the stage. But fat people are a safe target? why?!?!?

There are studies in almost every field of medicine showing the complexity of fat--there are a whole group of processes and hormones involved, and that's only the ones that have been found so far.

And there's so much great fat activism out there in the world. People who are really working to stop the hatred and discrimination. Why isn't that ever an issue here?

Y'all want to complain when fat people have self-esteem issues? And you also want the 'right' to call that hatred Gervais was spewing 'funny'?

Sorry. Can't have it both ways.

**RANT OVER**

My sentiments exactly... I love really fat guys with beer bellies, so that they're round and firm on top, with a soft, begging-to-be-fondled lower belly. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I think underdog's post is fantastically sensible. And I love the idea of someone encouraging me not only to keep eating but to keep moving, too--this is particularly hard for me because of non-weight-related health issues.

I keep small weights around and do some stuff to counteract being essentially sedentary, but if someone were around frequently and encouraging me to eat more, it would be all the more important for that person to be encouraging me to keep moving as well.

Two points:

1. I really find it shocking that people here aren't more critical of the propaganda about weight and health. I know the docs, including my dear friend Stavros, will disagree, but there are very good studies to suggest that the medical industry likes calling fat an epidemic, and makes lots of very good money off it.

Now let me be clear. I am not saying there's no relationship between fat and certain health issues. What I am saying, rather, is that medical researchers are so so happy to leap on the bandwagon of blaming fat, that the quality of the research is compromised.

And I'm not making that up all by my little lonesome. There are plenty of books and articles out there to read if you want to. While there's MUCH more to say on this issue, as it pertains to this thread, that's that.

2. Someone once asked me the following question, and she was right: Would you stop being friends with a smoker? Is that so different than a gainer choosing some health risks for the pleasure s/he chooses?

I think we all leap to say 'Oh, no, no health risks' quite quickly, me included. But this is an intriguing questions. Flying in a plane is a health risk, but we choose to do it. So where are the stats acceptable and not? and as Treasure pointed out, do we have good data on our own risk groups? and are the studies differentiated enough to allow us to make good calculations? I don't think this one is as simple as it seems.