#anti-bias

[fatliberation]

anti-fatness is not just body shaming.

anti-fatness is discrimination. anti-fatness is having next to no legal protections for being discriminated against. anti-fatness is being denied housing, jobs, receiving less pay and promotions (legally) because of your size. anti-fatness is being denied access to clothing, seating, transportation, and other human rights because infrastructure has been designed to exclude you. anti-fatness is less likelihood of receiving a fair trial. anti-fatness is dehumanization. anti-fatness is being denied necessary surgeries, but not surgery that amputates the digestive tract with the intent to starve and shrink you (it doesn’t work either). anti-fatness is mutilation. anti-fatness is being subject to torture devices that bolt your mouth shut. anti-fatness is being told by close friends, family, and professionals that you are better off living with an eating disorder or other life-threatening illness. anti-fatness sells you starvation as a guaranteed opt-out of oppression, but doesn’t tell you that bodies will always regain weight to survive. anti-fatness blames and punishes you for failing at an achievement that is quite literally impossible. anti-fatness is a $90 billion dollar industry. anti-fatness is being denied gender-affirming care. anti-fatness is being barred from in vitro fertilization and reproductive healthcare. anti-fatness is being barred from adopting children. anti-fatness is being removed from your loving parents because they couldn’t make you thin. anti-fatness is intentionally starving your own baby so they won’t get fat. anti-fatness is disproportionately high suicide rates. anti-fatness is being killed at the hands of medical neglect and mistreatment. anti-fatness is the world preferring a dead body over a fat one.

[sayruq]

[troythecatfish]

[evsacademicessaysblog]

EDPR202: Annotated Bibliography

  EDPR202 Relationships in Inclusive Settings

Nimmo, J., Abo-Zena, M., & LeeKeenan, D. (2019, November). Finding a Place for the Religious and Spiritual Lives of Young Children and Their Families: An Anti-Bias Approach. YC Young Children, 74(5), 37-45.

Finding a Place for the Religious and Spiritual Lives of Young Children and Their Families: An Anti-Bias Approach (Nimmo, Abo-Zena, & LeeKeenan, 2019) is an American article that focuses on how to navigate religion within secular Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in a majority Christian Protestant society with the goal of inclusion for learners of all religious backgrounds, affirming their beliefs, religious and communal identity and home life and celebrating diversity while acknowledging the conflicts and difficulties that can arise and have historically made religion a forbidden topic in ECE settings to the detriment of learners not from the majority Christian Protestant and secularised Christian backgrounds.

 The article presents a wealth of theories around anti-bias teaching, inclusion and diversity dealing with the religious identities of children in ECE, centred on the importance of religion in the personal and family identity of the religious. Religious identity’s role in development and especially on using religious literacy and anti-bias teaching to create inclusivity for diverse learners. Presented alongside examples of children of different backgrounds and instances where they brought their religion into the classroom with strategies rooted in this anti-bias teaching used to affirm the religious identities of the child as well as the other children in the interaction. The anti-bias theory builds on the work of Derman-Sparks & Edwards (Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves., 2010) but specialised into religion in ECE.

  The article is co-authored by three writers with the theories and concepts of the article and the papers it references being compared to examples from their own teaching experiences. From this I see their research methods as reviewing grounded in decades of ECE lived experience. One example that stands out to me is a First Nations child who in an activity classifies as a living creature, the lesson from this is that if this is declared wrong it is teaching the child that all their home knowledge is not welcome in the centre, that their home knowledge is wrong. This example shows the consequences of not affirming the religious identity and religious funds of knowledge of learners.

 While written from and for an American perspective, this article has applicability to New Zealand ECE as it describes teaching within a secularised Christian, colonial country with a diverse population which while specifics differ, fits as a description of New Zealand (NZ). The four goals of anti-bias education outlined in the article (p. 41) align with principals found in Te Whāriki (Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga-Ministry of Education., 2017) and The Code of Professional Responsibility (OCOS) (Education Council | Matatū Aotearoa, 2017).

 In point 1. Affirming Identity, as well as throughout the article, stresses the importance of making a place within centre life for children’s personal and social identities. OCOS 2.5 covers a duty of kaiako in NZ to respect the diversity of the heritage, language identity and culture of all learners, within Te Whāriki (2017), children are acknowledged as possessing their own mana and a right to fully belonging within a centre and themselves with their home culture included and celebrated and all aspects of their identity celebrated and affirmed. As such the pathways and means to create inclusive environments and teaching through practicing the four goals of anti-bias from the article also serve as means and pathways to fulfilling our obligations under OCOS and create inclusive environments for children of diverse faiths and religious communities and to build relationships and learning experiences that affirm and are inclusive of their religious identities and beliefs, promoting their belonging and supporting them in building their own identities and worlds that build upon their own religious funds of knowledge and beliefs not the biases of kaiako.

 The authors provide tools and methods to aid kaiako in developing authentic, inclusive, and affirming relationships between themselves and learners and between learners and the centre environment. An example is the section “Create curriculum with mirrors and windows” (pp. 42-43) which covers providing resources (Books, toys, posters, media, etc) as mirrors in which the child can see themselves and their own religious identity reflected at them, as well as resources as windows to explore diversity and expanded experience, in which to see others. Other sections speak the importance of not feeling like you need to hide your religious identity from learners at the risk of being inauthentic in your communication and losing an opportunity to connect with whānau and learners and their diverse religious identities, methods to expand your own religious literacy and how it allows you to better understand, accept and cater to the religious needs and culture of learners and their families. These are others provide a foundation for learning to be a better kaiako, better prepared to develop effective relationships within their centre and support and needs and identities of religious whānau and learners in an environment inclusive and supportive of their diversity.

 From this article, kaiako are given methods to build effective relationships with whānau, learners and others through practicing anti-bias, religious literacy, and authenticity. The article heavily emphasises self-reflection and education to prevent kaiako being limited in their interactions, support and understanding with others by their own religious beliefs or preconceptions about religions to create an inclusive learning space where all religious identities are affirmed and give space to develop not be imposed or discouraged.

 Milne, A. (2017). Coloring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools: Chapter 6: Coloring in the School-Learning Space. Counterpoints, 513, 95-127.

 Coloring in the School-Learning Space (Milne, 2017) deals with making a place within education centres for Māori culture and the cultures of learners in a system built from a western perspective that prioritises Pākehā culture. The chapter builds upon the research of Te Kotahitanga project for culturally responsive context for learning (Bishop, Berryman, Richardson, & Tiakiwai, 2003) among other theory as seen through the practice of Kia Aroha College’s move to create inclusive pedagogy through the centring of the cultures of the learners, or colouring in the white space that is the dominant Pākehā dominated education landscape.

 The chapter discusses the importance of relationships with students for kaiako to develop cultural competence and understanding to meet their cultural needs and how those relationships are negatively affected by the pedagogy of whiteness and deficit in understanding race and racism of kaiako.

The goal of inclusive pedagogy through cultural competence is codified through the Critically Conscious, Culturally Responsive, Teacher Profile (CCCRTP), a six-pointed requirement for kaiako at Kia Aroha College to provide both a framework and requirement on top of OCOS and ministry guidelines to prioritise cultural competency and learner’s cultures in an inclusive pedagogy. CCCRTP would have applicability to any school, ECE centre or educational organisation in New Zealand.

 The next section covers a definition of whānau and expands on the meaning of OCOS’ mandate for affirming Māori as Māori (Education Council | Matatū Aotearoa, 2017) through showing how rarely Māori are allowed to live or learn as Māori with explanations and quotes from such experts as Mason Durie and Taima Moeke-Pickering. Whānau is an important concept as CCCRTP and all the methods and praxis to ‘colour in’ pedagogy are rooted in both whānaukataka, reciprocal relationships and viewing school-spaces as whānau spaces and through a whānau contexted lens, which Milne defines as communal, comprised of core Māori values, and co-authored with Māori with the Māori community of the school having influence in curriculum and policy.

 Throughout the text, Māori are centred however Pasfika, First Nations and other communities are presented and pathways to inclusive pedagogy centring their cultures are shown. Māori are the example, and the chapter is written from a perspective of Māori pedagogy however the CCCRTP and inclusive practices described have applicability to being inclusive and affirming of any cultural identities of learners and whānau, decentring Pākehā supremacy to colour in learning spaces in all shades.

 The author centres relationships with learners, whānau and community as central to inclusive pedagogy and teaching. The chapter presents questions to both learners and kaiako to consider the role culture, perceptions of culture and intuitional whiteness in their schooling and relationships while presenting pathways to build environments, pedagogy and relationships that are not only inclusive of indigenous and minoritized cultural identities and experience but centre them.

 Longley, J. M. (2020, May). Embracing LGBTQIA+ Staff in Early Childhood Programs. YC Young Children, 75(2), 66-73.

 This article starts with an account of the uncertainty a queer kaiako feels towards disclosing her identity and marital status to her employer in a climate of homophobia and heteronormativity, this ties well to the article’s focus on embracing queer professionals within ECE, building on the same anti-bias theory as the first article covered in this report (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) to outline a four step programme for embracing queer colleges, kaiako and staff within ECE environments that are inclusive of them as well as the reasons for doing so. Working towards greater equity within ECE an aside in included explaining the applicability of the steps outlined for embracing any minoritized group. These steps are developed with the United States (USA) ECE environment in mind; however, NZ has a similar socio-cultural history around homosexuality, gender identity and nonconformity with same-sex marriage legalised in 2015 for the author’s USA and 2013 in NZ and a shared Anglo-Saxon Protestant cultural background between our two settler-colonial societies.

 Much of the article deals with the negative effects on building reciprocal relationships or belonging caused by hostility or lack of understanding towards queer individuals and their identity, in how they may be limited in their connections and expressions harming their pedagogy and willingness to teach beyond a narrow scope out of fear of questions or suspicions being raised about their personal lives. Examples shown of kaiako unable to follow up on a child’s interest or use resources affirming their experience for fear of intolerance from adults harming their career, or even of being perceived as ‘recruiting’ young children into queerness and other hostile stereotypes.

 The steps presented show how through welcoming, accepting and celebrating the diverse identities of early childhood professionals, including queer culture within at every level within the culture of the centre and challenging our own biases and preconceptions around gender and sexual identities an inclusive centre environment that embraces it’s queer staff and celebrates diversity is achievable and vastly to the benefit of all members of the centre community, queer kaiako and also all learners, allowing stronger, more open and authentic pedagogy and care from queer kaiako and the celebration of all for who they are.

 As the article says, “Celebrating staff helps builds relationships between children, families, and staff and enriches classroom curriculum.” Learning, belonging, and wellbeing come from relationships. By embracing minoritized staff without bias they can be free to develop those relationships and authentically teach. Through inclusive practices towards staff a centre becomes a better environment for all.

 Conclusions

 These texts deal with the importance of inclusive practices both of specific minoritized groups and of more abstract dimensions of identity that can cross minority/majority lines. While the underpinnings and whakapapa of the second texts differs greatly from the first and third as they share a corporate publisher and can be seen as part of a single wider conversation anti-bias education (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010) all three agree on the importance of recentring away from the secularised white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism cultural norms and biases to not just make room for learners and kaiako from minoritized groups but centre and celebrate them in their own identity as not accepted or tolerated but affirmed and normalised within inclusive environments that don’t just allow their identities but uphold.

 Another common element is in going beyond theory to outline examples in practice, with protested and tested methods towards achieving inclusion and affirmation. Drawing on real world examples both of this praxis and drawn from previous experiences.

While only one of the texts is written with a New Zealand perspective, all three align with the goals and intentions of NZ curriculum, regulations, and best practices. Specifically focused on fostering belonging and upholding the mana, identities and home cultures of learners (Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga-Ministry of Education., 2017), working in the best interests of learners and respecting diversities and heritages, effectively managing assumptions and personal beliefs, building effective relationships and affirming Māori learners as Māori, alongside like responsibilities towards colleagues, families and society (Education Council | Matatū Aotearoa, 2017).

 Each text has a specific focus, combined through the shared goal of inclusive and diverse pedagogy and care liberated from the biases, bigotries, and frameworks of established hegemony. Though each shows a path towards affirmation and inclusion of its subject together they can serve as a foundation towards building fully inclusive and affirming communities where all are celebrated and strong reciprocal relationships can be built in the best interests of learners and their diversity identities.

Bibliography  

Bishop, R.,  Berryman, M., Richardson, C., & Tiakiwai, S. (2003). Te Kõtahitanga:  The experiences of year 9 and 10 Maori students in mainstream classrooms.  Report to the Ministry of. Wellington: Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga-Ministry  of Education-Ministry of Education.

Derman-Sparks,  L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children  and Ourselves. Washington D.C.: National Association for the Education of  Young Children (NAEYC).

Education Council  | Matatū Aotearoa. (2017). Our Code Our Standards: Code of Professional  Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Ngā Tikanga  Matatika Ngā Paerewa: Ngā Tikanga Matatika mā te Haepapa Ngaiotanga me ngā  Paerewa mō te Umanga Whakaakoranga. Wellington: Education Council |  Matatū Aotearoa.

Longley, J. M.  (2020, May). Embracing LGBTQIA+ Staff in Early Childhood Programs. YC  Young Children, 75(2), 66-73. Retrieved from  https://www.jstor.org/stable/26979150

Milne, A. (2017).  Coloring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream  Schools: Chapter 6: Coloring in the School-Learning Space. Counterpoints,  513, 95-127. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/45136371

Nimmo, J.,  Abo-Zena, M., & LeeKeenan, D. (2019, November). Finding a Place for the  Religious and Spiritual Lives of Young Children and Their Families: An  Anti-Bias Approach. YC Young Children, 74(5), 37-45. Retrieved from  https://www.jstor.org/stable/26842304

Te Tāhuhu o te  Mātauranga-Ministry of Education. (2017). Te Whāriki: He whāriki  mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa early childhood curriculum.  Wellington: Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga-Ministry of Education.

[bluemoontarot]

I have found that the biggest deterrent to assholes is asking "why?" Over and over.

"We can't have universal healthcare!"

Why?

"Because I don't wanna pay for a strangers health!"

Why?

"Because if they can't afford their own health care that isn't my problem!"

Why?

And so on and so on. Keep making them dig. Keep making them explain until they can't anymore and are faced with nothing but the ugly mask of bias and prejudice. Only then can they truly see that taking it off is an option. Whether they do or not is up to them. And that choice tells you whether they deserve more of your energy or not.

Trans kids can't be trans. Why? Why not? Why?

Free food is bad for ppl. Why? Why? Why? Why is feeding ppl bad?

Why?

Why is helping one another bad?

Why is doing what humans are genetically designed to do, to help and care for one another to ensure survival, bad?

[karingottschalk]

Deadline Reports Win For SAG-AFTRA & GLAAD With IMDb Allowing Industry Professionals To Remove Dead Names & Birth dates

Deadline Reports Win For SAG-AFTRA & GLAAD With IMDb Allowing Industry Professionals To Remove Dead Names & Birth dates

“”UPDATED with IMDb statememt: In a major victory for SAG-AFTRA and GLAAD, IMDb has initiated a new policy that will allow industry professionals to remove their dates of birth, birth names and other demographic information from its IMDb and IMDbPro sites. SAG-AFTRA long had maintained that publishing actors’ ages without their permission fuels ageism, while GLAAD has argued that publishing…

[edenfenixblogs]

How do you know if you’re antisemitic?

Well, if a Jew telling you you’re antisemitic won’t make you believe it, here is a guide to help you figure it out yourself.

1. Do you think Jews, en masse, are ACTIVELY REPLACING/ATTEMPTING TO REPLACE some other group — especially a somehow more deserving group? (For example, White people, Black people, African people, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, indigenous people, etc.) Do you feel there are JUST TOO MANY JEWS IN A GIVEN LOCATION?

2. Do you think Jews are PRETENDING TO BE SOMETHING THAT THEY ARE NOT? (For example, White, PoC, “Real” Jews, Indigenous/Native, an Ethnic Minority, Devoted Citizens of [YOUR COUNTRY] etc.)?

3. Do you think Jews are CONTROLLING OR ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL SOME INTEGRAL ASPECT OF SOCIETY? (For example, the government, media, banks, business, medicine, etc.)

4. Do you think Jews that you criticize are UNIQUELY BLOODTHIRSTY OR GENOCIDAL — especially when hoping for personal achievement or cultural supremacy? (For example, trying to stage a global war so they can control the world; using/consuming blood of Christians and babies to do satanic rituals; sexually seducing non-Jews in order to contaminate bloodlines and erase other pre-existing identities; immigrating to a new location with the intention of murdering those who already exist there; desiring to murder Arabs, Muslims, or Palestinians in their homelands by means of genocide in order to control a region at the exclusion of other ethnicities, etc.)

5. Do you think Jews are APPROPRIATING A PRIVILEGE THAT THEY DO NOT DESERVE AND THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM? (For example, freedom, wealth, power, whiteness, G-d’s favor, a safe home in the Levant, Arab land, colonial power, representation as a minority group, etc.)

6. Do you think Jews at large or the specific Jews you disagree with and who wield power in a way you disapprove of CAN BE COLLECTIVELY LABELED? (For example, might you call them slaves, vermin, insects, dirty, scheming, communists, fascists, Nazis, satanic, Zionists, scum, etc.)

IF YOU ANSWERED YES TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS YOU ARE AN ANTISEMITE. This is literally textbook antisemitism. If you answered, well yeah but only “the Jews in Israel” or “the ones who vote for Bibi” or the “ones who moved to my town/country/region” or if you saw something on one of the lists and think “well no fair! That one is actually true,” your exception isn’t exceptional. You haven’t found the one true bad thing that Jews ACTUALLY are. It’s not some conspiratorial propaganda to equate reasonable beliefs with hate. You’re just hateful. Some part of you hates Jews. And you have to confront what that part of you is and you have to destroy it if you want to engage in any conversations that impact Jewish welfare anywhere in the world.

One way to start deconstructing is to ask yourself “Why do I feel this way?” “From whom did I learn to think this way?” “Who in my life approves and supports me thinking this way?” “Am I comfortable telling a Jewish person I feel this way in person?” “How do I think a Jewish person will feel/What do I think a Jewish person will think if I tell them this?” “Do I care what they feel or think? Why or why not?” “How would I feel/what would I think if someone felt this way or thought this way about me or an identity I value deeply?”

[selfindulgentcompetition]

TRYING AGAIN WITH CLEARER WORDING. PLS READ BEFORE VOTING

*Meaning: When did you stop wearing a mask to a majority of your public activities? Wearing a mask when you feel sick or very rarely for specific events/reasons counts as “stopping”

[jewelleria]

I know it's not how you rationalize it to yourself, but your posts about Israel/palestine come off as a support of the destruction of Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Insisting that it's a war (Palestine isn't allowed to have an army, and Israel cannot claim self-defence against a territory they occupy), denying that Israel is at fault, obscuring support of Palestine in general as being motivated by antisemitism - it paints a picture.

At least 30 000, probably closer to 100 000 Palestinians have been killed as of now. That is so monumentally worse than anything currently happening to Israel / zionists. So when you spend most of your energy focusing on those wrongs, or insisting that people talking about Palestine should focus on them, it comes off as brushing it off or trying to diminish its importance.

You don't have to answer, as I'll be blocking you, but I'm asking you to please consider what you're willing to support, excuse or tone down, and why. I know what it's like to be too focused on the discrimination we're facing to really take in what other groups might be going through.

hey anon, that's some great useful idiot syndrome you got there. how much college debt did you go into to earn it?

[psymachine]

villain origin story

[fatliberation]

they have a point though. you wouldn't need everyone to accommodate you if you just lost weight, but you're too lazy to stick to a healthy diet and exercise. it's that simple. I'd like to see you back up your claims, but you have no proof. you have got to stop lying to yourselves and face the facts

Must I go through this again? Fine. FINE. You guys are working my nerves today. You want to talk about facing the facts? Let's face the fucking facts.

In 2022, the US market cap of the weight loss industry was $75 billion [1, 3]. In 2021, the global market cap of the weight loss industry was estimated at $224.27 billion [2]. 

In 2020, the market shrunk by about 25%, but rebounded and then some since then [1, 3] By 2030, the global weight loss industry is expected to be valued at $405.4 billion [2]. If diets really worked, this industry would fall overnight. 

1. LaRosa, J. March 10, 2022. "U.S. Weight Loss Market Shrinks by 25% in 2020 with Pandemic, but Rebounds in 2021." Market Research Blog. 2. Staff. February 09, 2023. "[Latest] Global Weight Loss and Weight Management Market Size/Share Worth." Facts and Factors Research. 3. LaRosa, J. March 27, 2023. "U.S. Weight Loss Market Partially Recovers from the Pandemic." Market Research Blog.

Over 50 years of research conclusively demonstrates that virtually everyone who intentionally loses weight by manipulating their eating and exercise habits will regain the weight they lost within 3-5 years. And 75% will actually regain more weight than they lost [4].

4. Mann, T., Tomiyama, A.J., Westling, E., Lew, A.M., Samuels, B., Chatman, J. (2007). "Medicare’s Search For Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not The Answer." The American Psychologist, 62, 220-233. U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 2007.

The annual odds of a fat person attaining a so-called “normal” weight and maintaining that for 5 years is approximately 1 in 1000 [5].

5. Fildes, A., Charlton, J., Rudisill, C., Littlejohns, P., Prevost, A.T., & Gulliford, M.C. (2015). “Probability of an Obese Person Attaining Normal Body Weight: Cohort Study Using Electronic Health Records.” American Journal of Public Health, July 16, 2015: e1–e6.

Doctors became so desperate that they resorted to amputating parts of the digestive tract (bariatric surgery) in the hopes that it might finally result in long-term weight-loss. Except that doesn’t work either. [6] And it turns out it causes death [7],  addiction [8], malnutrition [9], and suicide [7].

6. Magro, Daniéla Oliviera, et al. “Long-Term Weight Regain after Gastric Bypass: A 5-Year Prospective Study - Obesity Surgery.” SpringerLink, 8 Apr. 2008. 7. Omalu, Bennet I, et al. “Death Rates and Causes of Death After Bariatric Surgery for Pennsylvania Residents, 1995 to 2004.” Jama Network, 1 Oct. 2007.  8. King, Wendy C., et al. “Prevalence of Alcohol Use Disorders Before and After Bariatric Surgery.” Jama Network, 20 June 2012.  9. Gletsu-Miller, Nana, and Breanne N. Wright. “Mineral Malnutrition Following Bariatric Surgery.” Advances In Nutrition: An International Review Journal, Sept. 2013.

Evidence suggests that repeatedly losing and gaining weight is linked to cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and altered immune function [10].

10. Tomiyama, A Janet, et al. “Long‐term Effects of Dieting: Is Weight Loss Related to Health?” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6 July 2017.

Prescribed weight loss is the leading predictor of eating disorders [11].

11. Patton, GC, et al. “Onset of Adolescent Eating Disorders: Population Based Cohort Study over 3 Years.” BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 20 Mar. 1999.

The idea that “obesity” is unhealthy and can cause or exacerbate illnesses is a biased misrepresentation of the scientific literature that is informed more by bigotry than credible science [12]. 

12. Medvedyuk, Stella, et al. “Ideology, Obesity and the Social Determinants of Health: A Critical Analysis of the Obesity and Health Relationship” Taylor & Francis Online, 7 June 2017.

“Obesity” has no proven causative role in the onset of any chronic condition [13, 14] and its appearance may be a protective response to the onset of numerous chronic conditions generated from currently unknown causes [15, 16, 17, 18].

13. Kahn, BB, and JS Flier. “Obesity and Insulin Resistance.” The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Aug. 2000. 14. Cofield, Stacey S, et al. “Use of Causal Language in Observational Studies of Obesity and Nutrition.” Obesity Facts, 3 Dec. 2010.  15. Lavie, Carl J, et al. “Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease: Risk Factor, Paradox, and Impact of Weight Loss.” Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 26 May 2009.  16. Uretsky, Seth, et al. “Obesity Paradox in Patients with Hypertension and Coronary Artery Disease.” The American Journal of Medicine, Oct. 2007.  17. Mullen, John T, et al. “The Obesity Paradox: Body Mass Index and Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Nonbariatric General Surgery.” Annals of Surgery, July 2005. 18. Tseng, Chin-Hsiao. “Obesity Paradox: Differential Effects on Cancer and Noncancer Mortality in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.” Atherosclerosis, Jan. 2013.

Fatness was associated with only 1/3 the associated deaths that previous research estimated and being “overweight” conferred no increased risk at all, and may even be a protective factor against all-causes mortality relative to lower weight categories [19].

19. Flegal, Katherine M. “The Obesity Wars and the Education of a Researcher: A Personal Account.” Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 15 June 2021.

Studies have observed that about 30% of so-called “normal weight” people are “unhealthy” whereas about 50% of so-called “overweight” people are “healthy”. Thus, using the BMI as an indicator of health results in the misclassification of some 75 million people in the United States alone [20]. 

20. Rey-López, JP, et al. “The Prevalence of Metabolically Healthy Obesity: A Systematic Review and Critical Evaluation of the Definitions Used.” Obesity Reviews : An Official Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 15 Oct. 2014.

While epidemiologists use BMI to calculate national obesity rates (nearly 35% for adults and 18% for kids), the distinctions can be arbitrary. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as fat overnight—to match international guidelines. But critics noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs [21].

21. Butler, Kiera. “Why BMI Is a Big Fat Scam.” Mother Jones, 25 Aug. 2014. 

Body size is largely determined by genetics [22].

22. Wardle, J. Carnell, C. Haworth, R. Plomin. “Evidence for a strong genetic influence on childhood adiposity despite the force of the obesogenic environment” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 87, No. 2, Pages 398-404, February 2008.

Healthy lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index [23].  

23. Matheson, Eric M, et al. “Healthy Lifestyle Habits and Mortality in Overweight and Obese Individuals.” Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 25 Feb. 2012.

Weight stigma itself is deadly. Research shows that weight-based discrimination increases risk of death by 60% [24].

24. Sutin, Angela R., et al. “Weight Discrimination and Risk of Mortality .” Association for Psychological Science, 25 Sept. 2015.

Fat stigma in the medical establishment [25] and society at large arguably [26] kills more fat people than fat does [27, 28, 29].

25. Puhl, Rebecca, and Kelly D. Bronwell. “Bias, Discrimination, and Obesity.” Obesity Research, 6 Sept. 2012. 26. Engber, Daniel. “Glutton Intolerance: What If a War on Obesity Only Makes the Problem Worse?” Slate, 5 Oct. 2009.  27. Teachman, B. A., Gapinski, K. D., Brownell, K. D., Rawlins, M., & Jeyaram, S. (2003). Demonstrations of implicit anti-fat bias: The impact of providing causal information and evoking empathy. Health Psychology, 22(1), 68–78. 28. Chastain, Ragen. “So My Doctor Tried to Kill Me.” Dances With Fat, 15 Dec. 2009. 29. Sutin, Angelina R, Yannick Stephan, and Antonio Terraciano. “Weight Discrimination and Risk of Mortality.” Psychological Science, 26 Nov. 2015.

There's my "proof." Where is yours?

[rynnthefangirl]

The evil, power hungry Queen- agrees to set aside her political aims and give all her strength and focus to defeating the White Walkers while being promised nothing in return.

The good, selfless Queen- argues against getting the resources they desperately need to even stand a chance against the White Walkers because it threatens her political aims.

[diazisms]

every time i hear a new taylor swift lyric i tilt my head in confusion like a dog cuz ain’t no way this is the lyrical genius people talk about

[troythecatfish]

[alwaysbewoke]

“The American Revolution was not revolutionary.” Since the colonial rebellion maintained the same slavery, wealth inequity, and power of White elites it had under Britain, was it just another war?

x