Recently it has been reported that some doctors in South Florida are refusing to treat patients who weigh more than a certain amount or qualify as 'obese' (Use the word fat, it won't kill you I promise!). Some of these physicians have claimed that their equipment won't stand up to the strain of such fat bodies on them and fear we fatty fat fatties will flatten them with our fat asses. Others don't even make the attempt to cover up their dislike of fatties (can you say phobia and disgust my dears?) and simply state that the risk is too great for them to treat patients who are so obviously more likely to have complications and major health issues.
I would like to ask these doctors if they took the Hippocratic Oath when the graduated from medical school. And if they did if they were just shooting hot air out there ass when they took it, or slept through that part? Allow me to present to you my dear readers a modern copy of this oath that was created some time during the 5th century BCE by Hippocrates the supposed father of Medicine. (supposed only because history can't entirely prove it was him)
"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."
—Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today. Found at Nova's website.
Now the really important part is toward the beginning of the oath. It states, "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism." In layman's terms, I will to the best of my ability treat all the sick who come to me while avoiding overtreating them (read overdosing them on medications), or turning them away because I feel that I can't (won't) help them. This oath, though not binding as it was centuries ago, is performed to my knowledge by almost 100% of medical schools today, and has some bearing on how medical ethics work. So in essence these doctors who are refusing patients because of their fatness are breaking an oath held in high esteem by doctors for over 2000 years. An oath that they themselves most likely took upon graduating!
Now important part #2 in this oath, "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure." Now I ask, how the hell can you prevent disease when you refuse to even look at fat patients. You claim that they are at higher risk for diseases and complications. Could this perhaps be because fat people have been so ridiculed by doctors in the past that they don't come in to see one unless some huge emergency has reared it's head? Could it be that they have complications because it takes longer to diagnose them?! MY GOD WHAT AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT! If you catch the disease/cancer/whatever early, treatment is easier!
So my dears can you say bullshit with me? BULLSHIT! It is bullshit that these doctors are refusing patients who come to them in need. And we all know how many fat people go to the doctor unless it's an emergency; not very many! So these doctors are not only denying fat patients in their area care, they are also showing fat people everywhere that they should just go home and die because it's just too much of a risk for them to treat our fat asses. I continue to call bullshit! It is no more or less risk for a doctor to treat a fat patient than it is for them to treat a thin one! Thin patients have all the disease and complications that fat people do! Thin patients are just as likely to sue their doctor if they believe that doctor fucked up as a fat person! And actually if you think about it a fat person might be less likely to sue because they are beaten down so often that anything that goes wrong they immediately feel it is their fault!
So South Florida doctors...go back to your offices and start doing your job. And yes I realize this has been written about all over the place but I wanted to put my two sense worth in.
Showing posts with label fat hate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fat hate. Show all posts
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Fat Poem 2
So here's another poem about fat. Be warned this one is written in the voice of those who are fat phobic, so it may cause a very negative emotional response. I hope that if it ends up in the hands of someone who thinks like this they realize how horrid they sound.
Fatty McFatterson
Get on the treadmill Fatty! Lose those pounds,
Exercise Fatty! Try harder! Make yourself vomit
after you eat! Good Fatty force it all out. Starve
yourself Fatty! Show some self-control! Count those
calories Fatty! Everything that goes in has to come out!
Quit dawdling Fatty! Get off the couch! Put down the
cheeseburger! Do us all a favor and disappear.
Fatty McFatterson
Get on the treadmill Fatty! Lose those pounds,
Exercise Fatty! Try harder! Make yourself vomit
after you eat! Good Fatty force it all out. Starve
yourself Fatty! Show some self-control! Count those
calories Fatty! Everything that goes in has to come out!
Quit dawdling Fatty! Get off the couch! Put down the
cheeseburger! Do us all a favor and disappear.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Poetry, Oh How I Love Thee!
So while in my advanced poetry class I've decided to take it upon myself to inform people about fat hate, the 'obesity epidemic', and various fat acceptance topics through my poetry. Here is the first of my attempts. Please be aware the title is a work in progress I am not happy with it at all, but I need at least a working title to take it in and have it critiqued in class. There will be others in this series hopefully. And I'm not completely happy with this one yet either.
Fat Hate
A cow, a bitch, a woman, curved and round, maybe lumpy.
Called ugly, unloved, unhealthy, obese. Vilified by a society
obsessed with thin, perfect BMI* beauties, impossibilities of
flesh. Bombarded by diets, drugs, and surgeries. Call Curves,
call the gym, Atkins diet, Phenphedrine**, Apidexin***, Gastric
Banding. A fourty billion dollar Industry, with less than five
percent success. Have you called Jenny yet?
* body mass index
** + *** two of 2011’s “best” diet drugs
Fat Hate
A cow, a bitch, a woman, curved and round, maybe lumpy.
Called ugly, unloved, unhealthy, obese. Vilified by a society
obsessed with thin, perfect BMI* beauties, impossibilities of
flesh. Bombarded by diets, drugs, and surgeries. Call Curves,
call the gym, Atkins diet, Phenphedrine**, Apidexin***, Gastric
Banding. A fourty billion dollar Industry, with less than five
percent success. Have you called Jenny yet?
* body mass index
** + *** two of 2011’s “best” diet drugs
Friday, February 18, 2011
Dear Douchecanoe
Dear Douchecanoe,
Leaving nasty little notes in elevators telling people to take the stairs is not appropriate. It is not funny to tell people that they are worthless, ugly, lazy pigs because they take the elevator instead of using the stairs. Do you realize how many people are disabled but not visibly so in our school? Do you know how many people take the elevator because a previous injury makes taking the stairs painful? Obviously not, or you would not be leaving such notes in the elevators.
Please consider respecting other human beings by not choosing to comment on their bodies or self worth, even in writing.
Sincerely,
Uses the Elevator
So the story behind this is that someone on my campus has taken to writing nasty little things on one of those little cough notices in the elevator. Telling people to stop taking the elevator up one floor. This week, on top of being hormonal, sleep deprived, and just all around cranky, I found one of these notes had turned viral. Words like "lazy" and "ugly" have begun to appear in the same handwriting as the first note. So I'm a little more than peeved at this person. Mind you I know there's nothing that will change this persons opinion, and writing anything back just encourages them, but I am so tired of whoever this is being judgmental in this way. This is my way of getting it off my chest without writing something on their little note...Maybe I should go to the dean of the college and ask him to take down the notes anytime this person writes on them.
Leaving nasty little notes in elevators telling people to take the stairs is not appropriate. It is not funny to tell people that they are worthless, ugly, lazy pigs because they take the elevator instead of using the stairs. Do you realize how many people are disabled but not visibly so in our school? Do you know how many people take the elevator because a previous injury makes taking the stairs painful? Obviously not, or you would not be leaving such notes in the elevators.
Please consider respecting other human beings by not choosing to comment on their bodies or self worth, even in writing.
Sincerely,
Uses the Elevator
So the story behind this is that someone on my campus has taken to writing nasty little things on one of those little cough notices in the elevator. Telling people to stop taking the elevator up one floor. This week, on top of being hormonal, sleep deprived, and just all around cranky, I found one of these notes had turned viral. Words like "lazy" and "ugly" have begun to appear in the same handwriting as the first note. So I'm a little more than peeved at this person. Mind you I know there's nothing that will change this persons opinion, and writing anything back just encourages them, but I am so tired of whoever this is being judgmental in this way. This is my way of getting it off my chest without writing something on their little note...Maybe I should go to the dean of the college and ask him to take down the notes anytime this person writes on them.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Lets Talk Trolls
Recently in the Fat-o-Sphere I have noticed a number of other bloggers being set upon by trolls, either on the internet or in real life. Some of them are pissed off about it, and some of them are feeling rather vulnerable because of it and then getting pissed off about it. Now while reading others posts about their troll problems I remembered a little saying my mother had taped to the fridge for the longest time.
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day, and may their arms be too short to scratch."
While this thought is not particularly nice of me, I think it's appropriate considering how many days trolls have ruined for all us fatties out there. Honestly I think we'd run out of fleas before we ran out of trolls to infest.
But even should such an infestation occur, trolls will be trolls, and some days we can turn the other cheek to them and not be affected by their miasma of hate. And other days we crumble under the weight (ha!) of that hate. But we still try to keep our chins up. Because trolls hate themselves, and we are just the convenient target for their hate. But hey the idea of fleas and short arms helps me sometimes so I thought I'd share.
"May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who screws up your day, and may their arms be too short to scratch."
While this thought is not particularly nice of me, I think it's appropriate considering how many days trolls have ruined for all us fatties out there. Honestly I think we'd run out of fleas before we ran out of trolls to infest.
But even should such an infestation occur, trolls will be trolls, and some days we can turn the other cheek to them and not be affected by their miasma of hate. And other days we crumble under the weight (ha!) of that hate. But we still try to keep our chins up. Because trolls hate themselves, and we are just the convenient target for their hate. But hey the idea of fleas and short arms helps me sometimes so I thought I'd share.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Body Equality
Let’s talk again about fat hate and quite possibly fat discrimination. Recently Marie Claire had one Maura Kelly post a blog about a new American sitcom about a fat couple. In her post as far as I could stomach to read, she basically says fat people are disgusting, ugly, and they make her want to lose her lunch. I’ve also read several articles in response to her blog post and while the articles themselves are very balanced and often…well not exactly pro-fat but very fat and skinny and average are equal. The comments however leave something to be desired.
Many of the comments are full of fat hate or the whole ‘health concern’, and comments about how having to sit beside a fat person on a plane or on public transport is just so traumatizing. But what I really want to address is the idea that because of free speech people are allowed to go out and spout any kind of acidic comments they want to about fat people.
Ladies and Gentlemen, freedom of speech does not protect your right to harm others. I cannot stand up in a packed theater and shout fire. I am not allowed to call a black person the ‘N’ word. So why should freedom of speech protect someone’s right to fat bash? It is causing harm, psychological harm sure, but psychological trauma as we’ve all seen can easily lead to physical harm of one’s self. And don’t you dare tell me that racist comments are different from fat hate, they are both the same! You are judging someone and discriminating against them based on how they look!
On top of the whole freedom of speech thing, fat bashing is no different than what the news has been going on about for weeks about bullying! Bully’s bully because they want to make themselves feel better, or they think if they make that person feel bad enough about themselves they’ll change. Well fat haters (hell all bullies/haters/bashers/whatever) life doesn’t work out like that, you hurt people and they tend to lash out, either at you or in many people’s cases at themselves. Even if they bottle it up for now eventually it’ll come out.
Now onto the issue of another comment: why should a complete stranger’s opinion matter? Well it really shouldn’t, however, most fat people have been attacked and ridiculed so much throughout their lives that they have virtually no self-esteem left to combat the hate this complete stranger spews at them. And when I say they’ve been ridiculed I mean they’ve had family members telling them to lose weight, they’ve had diet coaches, they’ve had gym memberships, and they have the whole of the media telling them how horrible and worthless they are because they’re fat! Even the First Lady has gotten in on this! On top of it some people receive unwanted and unwarranted attention while in public: people making snide comments in pseudo low voices, people taking pictures to make fun of the fat person, people reposting photos from facebook or any other photo sharing sites to fat hating sites or groups. So now tell a fat person that a stranger’s opinion shouldn’t matter. To most of them that’s the only attention they’ve ever gotten so they start to think that that’s the only attention they deserve. So don’t tell me that we fat people should have the self-esteem to just ignore it.
Now my dear fatties, I feel we are justified in our attempt to speak out about the issues surrounding our fatness. Because if we don’t say a word it’ll just continue in the way it has, and that to me is unacceptable. We deserve to be happy and to be able to go to a restaurant or on a plane, bus, or train without having to worry about if someone is going to be cruel, or if we’re going to be kicked off. Our plight is no different than Civil Rights back in the 60’s, we want body equality.
Many of the comments are full of fat hate or the whole ‘health concern’, and comments about how having to sit beside a fat person on a plane or on public transport is just so traumatizing. But what I really want to address is the idea that because of free speech people are allowed to go out and spout any kind of acidic comments they want to about fat people.
Ladies and Gentlemen, freedom of speech does not protect your right to harm others. I cannot stand up in a packed theater and shout fire. I am not allowed to call a black person the ‘N’ word. So why should freedom of speech protect someone’s right to fat bash? It is causing harm, psychological harm sure, but psychological trauma as we’ve all seen can easily lead to physical harm of one’s self. And don’t you dare tell me that racist comments are different from fat hate, they are both the same! You are judging someone and discriminating against them based on how they look!
On top of the whole freedom of speech thing, fat bashing is no different than what the news has been going on about for weeks about bullying! Bully’s bully because they want to make themselves feel better, or they think if they make that person feel bad enough about themselves they’ll change. Well fat haters (hell all bullies/haters/bashers/whatever) life doesn’t work out like that, you hurt people and they tend to lash out, either at you or in many people’s cases at themselves. Even if they bottle it up for now eventually it’ll come out.
Now onto the issue of another comment: why should a complete stranger’s opinion matter? Well it really shouldn’t, however, most fat people have been attacked and ridiculed so much throughout their lives that they have virtually no self-esteem left to combat the hate this complete stranger spews at them. And when I say they’ve been ridiculed I mean they’ve had family members telling them to lose weight, they’ve had diet coaches, they’ve had gym memberships, and they have the whole of the media telling them how horrible and worthless they are because they’re fat! Even the First Lady has gotten in on this! On top of it some people receive unwanted and unwarranted attention while in public: people making snide comments in pseudo low voices, people taking pictures to make fun of the fat person, people reposting photos from facebook or any other photo sharing sites to fat hating sites or groups. So now tell a fat person that a stranger’s opinion shouldn’t matter. To most of them that’s the only attention they’ve ever gotten so they start to think that that’s the only attention they deserve. So don’t tell me that we fat people should have the self-esteem to just ignore it.
Now my dear fatties, I feel we are justified in our attempt to speak out about the issues surrounding our fatness. Because if we don’t say a word it’ll just continue in the way it has, and that to me is unacceptable. We deserve to be happy and to be able to go to a restaurant or on a plane, bus, or train without having to worry about if someone is going to be cruel, or if we’re going to be kicked off. Our plight is no different than Civil Rights back in the 60’s, we want body equality.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
I'm Allowed to Ride the Elevator too!
So last week I had the experience of getting on an elevator and going up one floor and having a guy remark upon me taking it up just one floor. Now as some of you have read I have issues with my knee acting up on occasion. As a result I kinda avoid steps as much as possible as they make it worse. Mind you I can't do that at work or home and there's enough of them that frequently I come home with my knee twinging and my hip hurting because my knee is out of wack. So this guy says something about me taking the elevator. And I said the first thing that came to mind "I busted my leg right below my knee two years ago and it makes my knee acts up so I take the elevator." What I really should have said was, "Yeah because I'm, you know, fat." and smiled at him.
I always do that come up with the greatest comebacks after the fact. But since then it irks me when people give me dirty looks for getting on the elevator. Just because I'm fat doesn't mean I'm not allowed to use the elevator. Elevators are not a thin-centric privilege. You do not know what other people's abilities are nor do you know if they have an injury/past injury/disability that makes taking the stairs hard or painful.
I always do that come up with the greatest comebacks after the fact. But since then it irks me when people give me dirty looks for getting on the elevator. Just because I'm fat doesn't mean I'm not allowed to use the elevator. Elevators are not a thin-centric privilege. You do not know what other people's abilities are nor do you know if they have an injury/past injury/disability that makes taking the stairs hard or painful.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Tubes and Training to make you thin!.....
I went and saw Despicable Me last night, and while the movie was alright, the ads made me a bit cranky. One of the ads was for a pair of sneakers from K-Swiss called Tubes. This is the ad.
I had no problem to begin with with what the ad was saying and portraying. I mean it's for a pair of sports sneakers after all. But at the very end of the ad the man who is doing all the talking makes a comment that I find offensive and fat-hating. Undoubtedly it was part of a script he had to use, but still that the company can get away with such comments makes me mad.
I had no problem to begin with with what the ad was saying and portraying. I mean it's for a pair of sports sneakers after all. But at the very end of the ad the man who is doing all the talking makes a comment that I find offensive and fat-hating. Undoubtedly it was part of a script he had to use, but still that the company can get away with such comments makes me mad.
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