It's all about distracting us...
Profmarcus sent me this joke today:
I read this on the heels of this NYT article, Women's Health Studies Leave Questions in Place of Certainty. This article is a follow-up to recent disclosures that, contrary to the popular wisdom, low-fat diets and calcium supplementation do no appear to provide women with greater protection from breast cancer, heart disease or bone fractures.
That quote reminded me of a eye-opening book I read years ago, that began my odyssey, not only out of my eating disorder, but to a broader view of what is done to women in our culture to keep them fearful and preoccupied so as not to allow them too much room to engage fully in the world, and make a difference. In the case of The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf focuses on the ways women are focused on attaining unrealistic standards of beauty and how they are punished by our culture if they don't, and even more so, how they punish themselves, both mentally and physically, for not attaining this standard.
Further in my journey I read The Obsession by Kim Chernin, a number of books by Geneen Roth, Jane R. Hirschmann, Carole M. Munter, and Carol Emory Normandi and Laurelee Roark, among others.
What these women taught me was that all my obsession served to do was disconnect me from the wisdom of my body, and further, to give me an out from participating in the greater world outside my self-made prison. I quit playing the "Change your body, change your life" game, started listening to my body, and lo and behold, the yo-yo weight stablized, and better still, I got sane.
Finally, I began to see the diet and "health" industry to be just another in a series of fear-inducing devices designed to keep us cowed and in line. If we are told that we aren't worthy of participating in our society until we look a certain way, achieve a certain level of health, wealth or whatever, we remain focused on our tiny little world of weight loss, aerobic fitness, cholesterol numbers, or wealth acquisition without ever thinking to lift our eyes to the greater world beyond where atrocity upon atrocity abounds.
So, I clicked on the NYT article to see if there would be some sound advice for women. Would there be any advice, similar to what our parents and grandparents told us many years ago that moderation is the key? What I found instead was an article that continues to regurgitate the establishment view, and instead of telling women to trust the wisdom of their bodies, they act like we are uncontrollable five-year-olds with statements like this:
Well, no shit, Sherlock. Good Gawd.
See? It doesn't matter what the study says. It doesn't matter that high incidents of cancer and heart disease might be related to other things like, oh, say, all the toxins that are being spewed into the environment, or even the explosion of prepared foods filled with all sorts of chemicals and corn syrup. Never, ever, will any of these studies do a seven-year study on the effects of agri-business on our health. Oh no. It's us. We just can't control ourselves. But you see, they know the truth. And they have to obey their corporate masters. So, as is always the case, they put onus on us. And so we continue to believe them, distracted and blaming ourselves.
We are a nation of co-dependents, always blaming ourselves for our mate's abuse, and never, ever entertaining the notion that it might not be our fault. Submit To Propeller
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I recently picked a new primary care physician. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing "fairly well" for my age.
A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, "Do you think I'll live to be 80?"
He asked, "Do you smoke tobacco or drink beer/wine?"
"Oh no," I replied, "I'm not doing either."
Then he asked, "Do you eat rib-eye steaks and barbecued ribs?"
I said, "No, my other Doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!"
"Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?"
"No, I don't," I said.
He asked, "Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lot of sex?"
"No," I said. "I don't do any of those things."
He looked at me and said, "Then why do you give a shit?"
I read this on the heels of this NYT article, Women's Health Studies Leave Questions in Place of Certainty. This article is a follow-up to recent disclosures that, contrary to the popular wisdom, low-fat diets and calcium supplementation do no appear to provide women with greater protection from breast cancer, heart disease or bone fractures.
The researchers admit that the findings were an unexpected and puzzling challenge to firmly held, almost religious beliefs about nutrition and health.
That quote reminded me of a eye-opening book I read years ago, that began my odyssey, not only out of my eating disorder, but to a broader view of what is done to women in our culture to keep them fearful and preoccupied so as not to allow them too much room to engage fully in the world, and make a difference. In the case of The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf focuses on the ways women are focused on attaining unrealistic standards of beauty and how they are punished by our culture if they don't, and even more so, how they punish themselves, both mentally and physically, for not attaining this standard.
Further in my journey I read The Obsession by Kim Chernin, a number of books by Geneen Roth, Jane R. Hirschmann, Carole M. Munter, and Carol Emory Normandi and Laurelee Roark, among others.
What these women taught me was that all my obsession served to do was disconnect me from the wisdom of my body, and further, to give me an out from participating in the greater world outside my self-made prison. I quit playing the "Change your body, change your life" game, started listening to my body, and lo and behold, the yo-yo weight stablized, and better still, I got sane.
Finally, I began to see the diet and "health" industry to be just another in a series of fear-inducing devices designed to keep us cowed and in line. If we are told that we aren't worthy of participating in our society until we look a certain way, achieve a certain level of health, wealth or whatever, we remain focused on our tiny little world of weight loss, aerobic fitness, cholesterol numbers, or wealth acquisition without ever thinking to lift our eyes to the greater world beyond where atrocity upon atrocity abounds.
So, I clicked on the NYT article to see if there would be some sound advice for women. Would there be any advice, similar to what our parents and grandparents told us many years ago that moderation is the key? What I found instead was an article that continues to regurgitate the establishment view, and instead of telling women to trust the wisdom of their bodies, they act like we are uncontrollable five-year-olds with statements like this:
But the researchers who conducted the study said their findings were not a signal to binge on bacon cheeseburgers.
Well, no shit, Sherlock. Good Gawd.
"I was a little uncomfortable with some of the reactions," said Dr. Jacques Rossouw, the project officer for the Women's Health Initiative, the program that has created the stir. It worries him, he said, that some people think the studies mean fat and calcium do not matter.
"It's not what we say, and I don't think it's what the papers say," Dr. Rossouw said.
"For folks who are on a low-fat diet, by all means continue," he added. "If you're on a high-fat diet, certainly get it down. That's the message we would like to send."
See? It doesn't matter what the study says. It doesn't matter that high incidents of cancer and heart disease might be related to other things like, oh, say, all the toxins that are being spewed into the environment, or even the explosion of prepared foods filled with all sorts of chemicals and corn syrup. Never, ever, will any of these studies do a seven-year study on the effects of agri-business on our health. Oh no. It's us. We just can't control ourselves. But you see, they know the truth. And they have to obey their corporate masters. So, as is always the case, they put onus on us. And so we continue to believe them, distracted and blaming ourselves.
We are a nation of co-dependents, always blaming ourselves for our mate's abuse, and never, ever entertaining the notion that it might not be our fault. Submit To Propeller
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posted by cls at
2/19/2006
