P90X: "Disney Obesity Rant" Day 28 of 90

I can’t get this out of my mind…maybe If I rant enough it will break free.

I read yesterday where Disney is changing an exhibit in Epcot because it was deemed offensive for stigmatizing overweight and obese children.  They had crafted the exhibit to educate the children and to point out the dangers of living a life of eating unhealthy foods without discipline…combined with no activity.  This is a formula that we all know results in weight gain and, if it becomes your lifestyle, obesity.  Their exhibit was focused on two healthy living characters and two unhealthy ones, and contrasted their lifestyles with the obese ones eating too much junk food and watching too much television.

Disney has always been an organization that had kids as its primary market.  While I have really not liked the way they have seemingly turned into a shameless money machine in the past fifteen years, this seemed like an effort of theirs that I could applaud.

In a very short explanation, this is why they are changing their exhibit.  The National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance is appalled that Disney would reinforce the stereotype that obese children are lazy and have poor eating habits.  They accuse Disney of advancing the prejudice against people of “higher body weight.”

They are appalled.  THEY are appalled?  First of all, I have been very large and obese.  I have a pretty good perspective on it.  The condition of people in general, as far as overweight and obese, is dangerous and epidemic.  Over 65% of the population is overweight and over 30% are obese.  OBESE.  35% in some states.  We are becoming the society pictured in Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E movie.  That movie was NOT as fictitious as many would love to think it is.  Just walk around a shopping mall on a Saturday afternoon or evening.

The numbers are going up and have been for forty years.  There is only one reason for it.  The lifestyle and acceptance of that unhealthy medical condition of FATNESS as a ‘lifestyle’ is on the rise.  More and more kids are being raised to believe that being obese is acceptable, un-fixable, and okay.  That somehow it is a ‘condition’ that they can’t control or change.  That is so wrong it is beyond belief.

The medical issues that accompany the overweight and obese are well documented.  To raise children and allow kids to get that big is criminal.  CRIMINAL.  These parents and these organizations should be criticized loudly for encouraging this behavior.  Why was there such a push against smokers?  It caused cancer.  The cigarette companies KNEW it caused cancer, so we ban cigarettes.  There is no National Association for the Advancement of Cigarette Acceptance.  The only reason that the organization for Fat Acceptance exists is because the shame about a condition that people have caused and have brought upon themselves is accompanied by the laziness and lack of desire to change.

What is the other reason for the group?  65% of the people are fat.  So they have numbers.  They are a majority.  So why should they be shamed into feeling bad about being fat.  So instead of getting healthy, they form an association.  All these people of “higher body weight” get together to tell the rest of the world to stop judging them for having really bad and unhealthy habits.  PLEASE!

The only reason that we dance around this subject with political correctness is because 'fat' is a visible condition and is marked by how people LOOK.  And you can't criticize how people look.  We are told 'that is wrong.'  You can't criticize how people look when it can't be helped or changed, of course.  Race, skin color, medical conditions, etc...you don't criticize that...that is entirely understood.  But FAT is not one of those conditions.  IT ISN'T.  FAT is the result of behavior in 95% of the cases of fat and obesity.  But the responsibility for the choice is being hidden by the fact that the result of that choice is a visible condition.  It is a ruse...sorry, I am not buying it.

Their unhealthy habits (and I know because I used to have them for 30 years!!) are putting a crush on society’s medical costs.  Those costs are borne equally by ALL of us.  In the same way that the costs of fighting cancer were paid for by all of us, so too are the results of obesity.  And I will add, and you may be surprised to know, the costs are HIGHER.  So instead of paying the costs, it was cheaper to stop the root cause of cancer.  But please, please, don’t stop the root cause of obesity!  Oh my God.  What WILL we do?

I have sat in chairs and watched them explode under me.  Literally.  I have gotten so big I had to sleep on my side for three years.  Acid reflux.  Allergy increases.  Edema in my legs.  Ambulance rides.  Many tests of my heart that ended up being related to the acid reflux from being obese.  I actually couldn’t fit in the seat at a baseball game and could not fit in a roller coaster ride at the amusement park.

Do you overweight people have any idea at all how much it costs people trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle?  You have to pay more for food WITHOUT high fructose corn syrup, Nutra-Sweet, chemicals, all kinds of unnatural fat additives.  You cannot find decent food on a standard restaurant menu.  The foods you stock in your house, if you are trying to eat healthy, can be put in one small cabinet.  About fifteen items of very expensive food.  Physical education is being slowly removed from schools not to mention any education at all about maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  There IS plenty about sex education though. 

There is a cry from the “higher body weight” people that is about to come out.  I will answer that cry before it even surfaces.  I KNOW THAT NOT ALL OF YOU CAN HELP BEING FAT.  There are about 3% of the world that have documented and real medical conditions like thyroid issues that result in them being fat or obese.  The other 62% of you riding that excuse train can just get the hell off at the next stop.  The only medical condition you suffer from is ‘can’t put down the food-ism’ and ‘won’t get off my ass-ism.”  I know I WAS ONE OF YOU.  I did not blame the food industry, or society, or my upbringing, or my job, or my genetic predisposition…the list goes on...I blamed me.  And then I fixed it. 

Take responsibility for your condition.  If you don’t want to do anything about it, don’t.  You have every right to your condition, so long as you bear the costs, not me.  But stop telling children, who are going to live a shorter and unhappier life, that it is okay.  They still have choices.  They don’t know anything but what you tell them.  They deserve to hear the truth.  They do not have to look like fat mom and dad.  It is not genetic.  You and society and the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance are LYING TO THEM.  They can live their lives any way they choose.  Don’t warp these kids into thinking they are unable to control it simply because you won’t.  It is not okay, just because you have accepted it for yourself and are too ashamed to call it what it is, for you to tell them you are that way for some reason other than you ‘don’t want to change your lifestyle.’

The obese kids cannot even make one lap around Epcot and Disney should hold their position on childhood health and health education.  It’s either that or get more of those electronic ‘wheelchairs’ for the electively disabled group known as fat people.  The number of those carts has quadrupled in four years.  Next, they will be parking in the disabled parking spots and displacing the truly old and disabled.

There are MANY overweight people who know how they got that way, feel bad about it, and have to fight the battle every day to get back to health.  They aren't lying...they feel awful and wouldn't wish it on anybody.  I stand and applaud every one of them and will always be there to answer emails and help them in any way that I can.  They are not making excuses.  They are all my people and are NOT the ones this rant is about.  They wouldn't wish their condition on any child.

I want Disney to re-reverse their thoughts on this.  Tell the National Association for Advancement of Fat Acceptance to change THEIR platform.

Killing yourself with obesity is NOT acceptable.