So Survey Says You're Fat...

Last week I saw an NPR item that was posted to their Tumblr account. I found it interesting. And also kind of depressing. It basically said that the majority of Americans probably think that obesity is a "major issue" impacting the country (it is), but that it's mostly a personal self-control problem (um...yes and no, sometimes, maybe?) and that maybe the government should do something about it, possibly through either legislating food restrictions or with charging the obese more for healthcare (neither of which addresses some of the underlying issues that can be considered contributing risk factors, such as socioeconomic status, so...yeah: lolwut.jpg). But it also hints at the undercurrent of self-loathing that runs through much of our culture and social perceptions.

If better than half (based on this sampling) of Americans are in the range of overweight to obese, but better than half of the respondents do not perceive themselves as having a weight problem and think that fat people only have themselves to blame and should be punished for being fat, what does this say about our culture's sense of self? And our collective ability to be really self-deluded?

These survey results are just sad. Look. I'm not a slim little waif. I know it. I own it. I need to put the bag of chips down and go for a walk sometimes. I know it's hard. I struggle with it, so I know. But you can't just lie to yourself forever, people. Just look at this bar graph.

I said look at it!

The cognitive dissonance. There is no unit of measure that can properly convey the vastness of the gulf between these people's perception of themselves and the reality of the situation. Granted, I think the BMI is unreliable and can give a false reading (and this data relies in part on the honesty of the respondents, which cannot be measured or observed, which makes it faulty). But that's really not the point. We could come up with a new system and a large portion of the population would still come up as being an unhealthy weight. We're a nation of fatally sedentary, reality-tv watching, convenience-food guzzling consumerists.*

So I have to ask, what happened to the Fat Acceptance movement? To Chubby Equality? I mean, we have shows like "Mike & Molly" where the main characters are overweight, but that part of the show is typically played for cheap laughs. Culturally, in my opinion, it reinforces the idea that it's still okay to laugh at the fat girl because she doesn't mind - she has a "great personality" to make up for what she may lack in traditional sex appeal and is so cool she can make fun of herself for her shortcomings. But when do you stop being in on the joke and are once again relegated to being the butt of it?

*According to the CDC, in the last recorded study data, 33.9% of adults age 20 years and over were obese and 34.4% were considered overweight. (The CDC)

(Aside: Seriously? This is what journalism has come to? Posting tidbit articles on an aggregating website? Oh the humanity...but you can see it *here*.)