An Evening with the Author of Skinny B****: PART II

CLICK ON THE PIC TO SEE FULL SIZE.

Ok so as not to overwhelm you, but I felt it was necessary to break this post into a few sections as we have a lot to say about it. Above, I have shown the first two pages of Chapter 1 and have highlighted some points of interest. If you want to see the rest of the exurb, you can go on Amazon.com as I did and do the whole search inside the book thing. Before I can even say anything about this book, can we please 1st define what the word skinny really means.

Websters defines skinny as:

¹skin·ny Pronunciation: \ˈski-nē

\ Function: adjective

Inflected Form(s): skin·ni·er; skin·ni·est Date: 1573

1: resembling skin : membranous 2 a: lacking sufficient flesh : very thin : emaciated b: lacking usual or desirable bulk, quantity, qualities, or significance

Ok I don’t know about you, but none of these descriptions look appealing to me. What’s with the whole fat=unhealthy and thin=healthy…can we please see the research on that “science”? I can live with the fact that they use the word skinny , but what I can’t live with is the message it sends to women. I’m just baffled by the fact that in the course of only two pages they have called the reader a fat pig 3 times. I’m just a little confused on a what a fat pig is. If I am a size 2 and eat poorly does that make me a fat pig? What if I am a size 16 and eat healthy…am I still a fat pig? I think we need to start questioning the real message that most women will hear when they read this book. Although I respect Rory’s love for animal rights activism, I’m just not sure how affective it is under the guise of a weight loss book…and more than that, I just don’t buy it.

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An Evening with the Author of Skinny B****: PART I

Ok, so this past week a friend of mine text me letting me know that Rory Freedman would be at UCLA to talk about her book Skinny B****. As you may have noticed, we here at EAC refuse to use such offensive language as it is a downgrade to women everywhere. It’s 2008, decades after the Women’s Rights Movement…can we please move on from calling each other these names?? (besides the point). Well anywho, as you can imagine we were excited at the chance to confront Rory on the book’s harsh language and tone towards women. I preceded to ask:

Tiffabee: With all the negative views on body image and women do you think that your message about fat may cloud the view of veganism? Do you think that your book contributes to negative body image?

Rory: No, we don’t want to tell women to forget about their body image issues. We don’t want to rob peter to pay paul. Women are obsessed with being thin, the book doesn’t scream body image or feminism.
We think everyone that has read the book will see that that message is clear.

She then read the P.S. section in the last pages of the book in which they “confess” that their book is not really about getting skinny, but rather eating healthy.

I’m not sure that she answered my question. I’m just confused. How can you tell me how awful it is if I’m fat (more on this in Part II) and then tell me that your book is not really about getting thin, but rather veganism? Yea, sure…OK.

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Good Things Happen When We Eat Cheeseburgers!

 

After a long night of fighting social crimes, we decided to have one of our favorite dinners last night–that’s right, you guessed it! Cheeseburgers (and some fries too)! And guess what? Yesterday was our best day ever, as lots more people decided to Eat A Cheeseburger! We would like to give a big shout out to all of you for your support to Eat A Cheeseburger! And thanks for getting the word out to your friends!

The eagerly awaited “Skinny” book post is on it’s way so don’t fret! For now we’ll just say that it was a VERY interesting night. Stay tuned…

Fighting social crimes one cheeseburger at a time,
Tiffabee

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Cheeseburger Rule #8: Don’t Let Your Jean Size Define You!

Today has been a tough day. I’ve been reading a lot today. And the stuff I’ve been reading keeps reminding me that in our society today, size really does matter. It matters A LOT. Take for instance the Cheeseburger News from earlier about the Miss England Finalist (See Below). Although I am happy that we are broadening our definition of beauty (as I mentioned in the post) I am saddened by the fact that the media coverage on Chloe Marshall just keeps reminding us that size DOES matter.

I also stumbled upon a blog today that was so disappointing. A young bride-to-be is documenting her weight loss from now until her wedding day in October. But here is the kicker…she is already small. What more is she trying to lose?

Then I found this article on the JunkFood Science blog (which is a GREAT blog) that further saddened me. Self Magazine recently reported from an online survey that “An incredible 97.6% say they would be upset if they gained 5 pounds — one third of all the respondents say they’d be moderately upset and 44.1% would be extremely upset.” Is this true ladies? Are we really so indoctrinated by the belief that size matters that 44.1% of us would be extremely upset if we gained 5 measly pounds?!

In addition, tonight I will attend a discussion on the campus of my alma mater by a woman who has a VERY popular diet book out right now. I’ll just say that one of the words in the title is “Skinny” and her and her co-author are further promoting this idea that size does matter. Be skinny or else. We’ll see what answers she can give me tonight when I attend this talk. Stay tuned.

This day has inspired a new Cheeseburger Rule which I know is similar to Rule #7 but non-the-less we need the reminder. Stop letting your Jean Size Define You! You are worth so much more than one or two numbers. I would like to live in a world where size doesn’t matter.

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Cheeseburger News: Miss England Finalist LOVES Her Body

This year will mark the first ever that a “Plus-Size” girl will compete in the Miss England Final. I personally have mixed feelings about the media coverage Chloe is receiving because of her “Extra Large” size.

On one hand, it gives me hope that a girl who is not a stick figure CAN be considered beautiful. And I absolutely love the confidence she has. But on the other hand, I think its telling that she is receiving so much media coverage for her size. I know its partly because she is breaking a stereotype (yay!) and that in and of itself makes this big news. But on the other hand, the media coverage is further pointing out her difference, which just reiterates the fact that it’s hard for “plus-size girls to make it in this world.”

It’s almost like she is some kind of wild anomaly because she is in a beauty pageant. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled that we are finally making steps to broaden our definition of beauty when it comes to size (well, at least the British are, our Miss America was just as tiny as ever this year). I am also so glad that there is a woman in the media right now who loves her body because it’s hers, not because it fits a stereotype. We are rooting for you Chloe, although we here at Eat A Cheeseburger aren’t the beauty pageant types, we hope you blow that contest out of the water!

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“Let the fat wars begin!”

“Knocking off excess winter weight is never easy. We sweat, we starve and still that hot, Halle Berry beach bod eludes us all. Never mind! The route from flab to fab may not be laden with cheesecake. But the pound-whittling strategies found in these hot diet plans could make your bikini bod the envy of the beach in 2008. Consult with your doctor before you start any diet. Then let the fat wars begin!”
Click here for full article.

Hold up! Did she really just say “let the fat wars begin?” Does anyone else see something wrong with that?! And what if I don’t want to look like Halle Berry?! And does it ever occur to us that the reason we are sweating and starving and yet still don’t have Halle Berry’s body is because we weren’t meant to have her body?! We were meant to have our own body? And what’s with promoting body envy and jealousy? Is that just the total norm now? At least she encourages us to consult a professional before we start a crazy diet (although the professional will probably just measure your “BMI” and if you are anything over a 25, encourage you to go for it, cause you could stand to lose a few pounds)!

Let’s take a few moments to analyze the promises of each diet:

1) The 5-Factor Diet: Lose weight fast and suppress your appetite.

2) The Best Life Diet: Life style change over dieting will help you slim down and look like the celebrities.

3) The French Diet Why French Women Don’t get Fat: Combine foods in a way that promotes “fat loss” despite “hormonal imbalances.”

4) The Volumentrics Eating Plan: Eat “high density” foods sparingly and lose weight.

5) The South Beach Diet: Drops “stubborn belly fat first,” (not quite sure what that means).

6) The Zone Diet: A “waist-whittling” plan that helps you have the “hot bods” of Jennifer Aniston and/or Brad Pitt.

The language that articles like this one use pose a real problem for us. When will we stop falling for these “diets” and stop centering our lives around trying to fit back into the same size jeans that Jennifer Aniston wears? I think as soon as we stop falling for this nonsense, the sooner they will stop writing it!

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Cheeseburger News: Eat A Cheeseburger is one month old!

Hi Faithful friends,

We here at Eat A Cheeseburger would like to thank you for all of your support! We are only one month old and so far we have had a lot of positive responses which we SO appreciate. We have many more exciting things coming your way so please stay tuned. And don’t forget to tell you friends about us!

Love,
The Cheeseburger Girls

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Cheeseburger definition of the week: BMI

What’s the BMI?
The BMI stands for body mass index. Maybe you’ve never heard of it (you’re lucky). Maybe you’ve heard others talk about it. Maybe your dirty little secret is that you check your BMI on a daily basis and memorize your exact number. Wherever you stand, we are here to inform you that the BMI is not at all what you thought it was.

What’s it for?
The BMI is what the government uses to determine who is considered underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. I’m not going to do the number break down here (because I don’t want to encourage random bmi checking), but the numbers, according to the government, are meant to determine who is considered healthy and not so healthy.

What’s the problem with BMI?
The BMI uses two things to indicate whose fat and whose not: height and weight. That’s right folks, the BMI does NOT take into consideration things like sex, age (I could stop there), family history, bone density, body fat percentage, muscle mass. And furthermore, the BMI assumes that everyone in the “overweight” and “obese” category is unhealthy based on this narrow definition. Before you get yourself in a huff and start yelling at me through your computer “Don’t you know Obesity Kills?! What in the world are you saying here?!” Let me just clarify that we here at Eat a Cheeseburger are no “experts.” But we can read (as can you obviously) and we do know that the government keeps changing their definition of healthy and unhealthy based on this narrow scale (haha no pun intended). To us, this is problematic. If you are going to tell us that we are all doomed because we are so fat we can’t even see straight, can you at least get your measurements right? The BMI does not account for the two most important indicators of health: diet and exercise. And guess what? There are a lot of skinny folks who stuff their faces with lots and lots of junk food all the time and have no concept of exercise or a healthy life. And there are people in the “unhealthy weight” category who eat right and exercise and yet will never be thin. So what’s up BMI? How do you account for these shortcomings? How can you tell a person they are unhealthy based on weight alone? We here at Eat a Cheeseburger are not so sure you can.

Cheeseburger Definition of BMI: Biased Misleading Indicator. So there you have it, our cheeseburger definition of the week. Just as we have thrown our scales out the window, we have also thrown out the BMI as an accurate measurement of our health. And we encourage you to do the same!

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Won’t Somebody Please Think About the Children!

Cartoon found here
Sad news is, children are beginning to learn about our culture’s hatred towards fat at an increasingly earlier age. With more and more parents giving plastic surgeries as gifts, Australia having to ban underage surgeries and the new My Beautiful Mommy Book, the future is starting to look grim. I don’t know about you, but the prospect of living in a plastic-zombie world doesn’t look all that appealing. So before you get all worried about putting on the pounds and anxious about your weight, remember there may be little eyes watching.

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Weight Loss=Records Sales

Ok let’s face it, pretty much all the hype about Mariah (as mentioned in the previous post) is centered on her “dramatic” weight loss. “Oh yea and she released an album..but what about her weight loss how did she do it?” The same things goes for Madonna. I feel like it always has to be mentioned how “great” Madonna looks for her age. Obviously when people say great they really mean skinny…I mean, let’s just call it what it is. Truth is, Mariah’s publicist was smart… and so was Madonna’s. America LOVES a good weight loss story. And they really LOVE it when “fat” celebrities get skinny or when the normal ones get a little bit skinnier. Mariah’s sexy new bod is a perfect match for her new album and Madonna’s hot youthful physical helps maintain the illusion that anyone can be skinny and “hot” at any age. Don’t be fooled by the hype, the media knows what sells-thin. And the more you keep buying the more broke you may start to feel. If you like the music, great! But don’t for a second be fooled into thinking that your money gets you only a CD it’s also paying for your desire to be thin.

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