Archive for the ‘Interviews Citing Linda: Do we hate fat?’ Category
1/6/16, Upworthy, Last week, Melissa Harris-Perry was “a bit distressed” by a new commercial featuring Oprah Winfrey, by Robbie Couch
[snip] Harris-Perry is on to something. Because not only should someone’s size be irrelevant to their self-worth, it’s not even necessarily relevant to their physical health. Don’t take my word for it, though — listen to Linda Bacon, Ph.D. She’s a researcher and author of the new book, “Body Respect,” and well-versed in weight-regulation science. Bacon told Upworthy that, despite a lot of commonly held notions, you can’t tell much about an individual’s health simply by looking at their waistline. “Even the heavily entrenched idea that heavier people eat more than thinner people isn’t supported by data,” Bacon explained.
Link to article2/2/15, BriarPatch Magazine, Why Fat Matters: Why isn’t weight stigma seen as a social justice issue?, by Sydney Bell
“My question is, how can the fat acceptance community continue to move forward and gain credibility with broader social justice movements? In my conversation with Bacon, she suggested starting inside the fat acceptance movement itself by bringing a broader analysis to weight stigma work. This means exploring how the experience of fat women who live in poverty differs from those with greater economic security and looking at how race and sexual orientation impact the experience of living in a larger body. We have a unique opportunity from within the fat acceptance movement to demonstrate the importance of including weight stigma within an intersectional social justice framework. This will help us bring fat oppression into the public domain and encourage critical analysis of body size rhetoric.”
Link to article4/3/14: Vitae, ‘I’m the Biggest Man on Campus’, by Stacey Patton.
[snip]… There’s no data to prove size discrimination in academia, according to representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance, an advocacy organization, but there’s no reason to believe that academe is immune, either. In the meantime, fat-studies scholars trade anecdotes. Linda Bacon, a nutrition professor at the City College of San Francisco and author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, shares one, from a search committee she served on. One overweight candidate applied for the position. She was at least as qualified as the other applicants, Bacon says, but she didn’t get the job. “When it came time to discuss the lone fat candidate, one of my colleagues dismissed her by saying, ‘Well, she really isn’t the role model for someone who eats nutritiously, is she?’” Bacon recalls. “I was horrified. What it reinforced for me was that had this candidate had been up against a thinner woman similar in other aspects, or even with lesser qualifications, the thinner person would have gotten the job just by virtue of what she weighed.” When Bacon attends NAAFA’s conference, an annual gathering place for fat people, she says she’s usually the only thin person in attendance. She says a good number of the attendees are academics. “I’m struck by how many people in the room have Ph.D.’s, how many of them are incredibly brilliant, but they are underemployed and can’t get tenure-track positions,” Bacon says. “It’s got to be because they are fat. But how do you prove any of this stuff?”
Read more2/8/13: Star Ledger, Risky business: Christie claims good health, but weight could prove heavy burden, by Dan Goldberg.
“Looking just at the scale does not necessarily give the whole picture said Linda Bacon, a professor of nutrition at city college of San Francisco and the author of “Health at Every Size.” She said no one can look at a person and determine their health or their health risks. “It’s prejudice in action when people make that assumption,” she said. ”
See entire article here1/31/13, WebMD, Pros, Cons of Weight Loss Reality Shows, Janet Helm.
“I can’t find anything ‘pro’ or positive about shows built on shaming and self-hate,” said Bacon, who is the author of Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight. “The damage to the participants seems pretty obvious. For viewers, rather than inspiring people to care for themselves, weight-loss shows are more likely to inspire discomfort and fear: Even thin people can fear being judged by the harsh standards of reality TV.”
See entire article here