Julie's World: TOO OPPRESSED TO BE FIT Author(s): Julie Harris Reviewed work(s): Source: Off Our Backs, Vol.

34, No. 5/6 (may-june 2004), pp. 60-62 Published by: off our backs, inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20838088 . Accessed: 04/08/2012 19:14
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OPPRESSED l

Lately, I have come to realize that Imust confront sizeism from an economic standpoint. According to the media, now, suddenly, as a fat person, I am personally

millions a year in Medicare and Medicaid. As a licensed health and life insurance agent in Washington, DC, I can tell you the health care crisis is worse than you thought, but I doubt being fat is

responsible for huge numbers of disability claims and for overburdening a decaying health system. A so-called "fat epidemic" is now being blamed for costing tax payers

like people inother parts of theworld. So the problem ismore a lack of fitness epidemic really, a fat epidemic, and 1 think it disproportionately hits women due to sexism.

vacations

than

Women have less time. Part of this is a work-related problem. We seem to always have overtime and too much to do during our regular hours. Those of us in the workplace who are childless must stay and clean up the messes of those parents who simply must pick up their kids now. We often have to work through lunches to make deadlines. Many women have work shifts that last forever per day. Then add commute time to and

THI PMBitM ISMOJ? A LACKOF FPIOEMIC A ffHf&S fWt*4/C THAN FAT 17-LY AND fItNHK fJ DtSTROPQKTIONfi HtJSWDAftM W/f TOSEXISM

themain culprit. Anyway, in the insurance industry I am subjected to articles in professional journals as well as in regular

The rumors are true... I can go all night!) This rant is about fitness, which I think is one of the real major problems in this country. We are a country thatwill drive to themail box and consider watching exercise on television. We eat crap. We work

newspapers and I can tell you I am pissed off. But this rant isn't about sizeism. (Justwrite oob, snail or e-mail, ifyou want more about sizeism from me.

too hard and don't take

60 seconds against us. They wouldn't pay overtime if you stayed 5 minutes late with a difficult call, but they threatened to fine you ifyou pulled out of the queue 2 minutes early. Use of the bathroom was also monitored.

from this time we call work. Many women also have consuming thing worked in a cell jobs where they cannot move around. 1 call center one summer where we were tethered to phone a phone for 8 hours a day and they counted as much as

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help you ifyou had a bladder infection! The center was 95 percent female and none of us could even so much as stand up while taking a call because thenwe couldn't work the computers. While some fields inwhich as nursing or domestic women tend to dominate?such work?are very active, most of us are in positions where Goddess is considered a hike. So the of each day and themajority of our week is majority taken up with survival. to the fax machine a walk

wrong to not want to listen to a man say, "You know, if you just..." like he knows me? Is it so wrong to not want a strange man to touch a muscle group and tellme how

Part of the problem is also the home. As Arlie Russell Hochschild has proved, women have a "Second Shift" at home, so we have double duty. Once we get off work from the job that has eaten our lives and barely lets us

I'm not "following your orders," and I'm beginning to wonder what else someone who would touch a stranger in public is capable of.) And

tense I am? (OK, I'm much tenser now that a stranger is touching me in public. Iwas fine a moment ago and now thatYOU want me to relax, I am further freaked! Now

Having both pets and kids means you will never read a complete novel front to back for years. But even ifyou don't have those ties, then there are volunteer

keep a roof over our head, we now face making sure that roof stays there and isn't condemned by the health department. This home shift becomes exponentially more time consuming should you have children or even pets.

let's not get into the types of clothes itappears are expected towear in a gym. What is the you point of having underwear-like itemsOVER your leotard-like body suit thing? I don't like thong underwear as underwear? but as useless outerwear over a body suit that encourages an invasion intomy hiney in public?is itjust me who sees how wrong this is!?! Did Imention that such clothes, especially for largewomen, are expensive? We are lucky now to have plus-size catalogues such as

Junonia

a while or maybe travel. How many of us spend night after night getting home after 11pm and wondering where the day went, let alone last year? The home front doesn't give us much time to exercise. But let us assume a perfect world where we don't have to work so much at home if jf^.

commitments and religious commitments in addition to the demands of other types of family, both biological and created. Heaven forbid you see a play or a movie once in

inwhich to find exercise clothes at all. Before that, therewas nothing. But Junonia isn't cheap. And then one great exercise is swimming but do you think I'm comfortable exercising in a swimsuit in front of men in

general? True, we can exercise outside of a gym. Assuming no disabilities, we can walk outside. But then there is the issue of weather. If tyou live inCalifornia, maybe this is not a

or at paid employment. Even we have the time, how can we access / exercise modes? Women f traditional

not safe. In summer I have to get up at 5:00 a.m.

make less money to

memberships.

afford expensive gym Forget female-only space

/Sl

JM
weigh over 200 pounds and I walk 5K per day and stretch

while you are sweating ^s^jf^j^^y^^^^^^^ inspandex.Those gyms >?s*J\

are really expensive. And in a mixed gym it isn't ^BN^:

for 40 minutes each day. (In theory, I don't exist, the fat chick who is fitter than an |

polite tomention you hate to hear men grunting, sweating and groaning next to you. Then YOU are being sexist and it is public space and he has rights and he is a member too and blah blah blah blah.

anorexic girl. Remember thin always means fit?umm, walk the eating disordered ward inyour nearest hospital to permanently dispel that fantasy from your mind.) Anyway, you would think that hour would be a reasonable hour towalk. Sometimes even at 6:00 a.m. it is 80 degrees and code orange air quality but that is the best time towalk in summer. So, no, you can't always be outdoors to exercise.

"Just leave me alone while I do this!" Iwant to shout. Is it so bad of me to want to only have women around when I am exerting myself, tired and vulnerable? Is it so

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2003

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Then

there is the safety issue. Many neighborhoods that are safe towalk

of us don't

live in

inmuch after dark,

which

are watching me, so 1doubt 1 will be mugged. How women can say that? many other But let's not forget the actual eating component this issue. What about food? A

iswhen we are home during winter. I am lucky in that I can walk around theWhite House nearby and know that something like 17 different law enforcement agencies

job site and I have tended to be taken seriously by males in thework place. I have changed size over time from size 14 to 28 and all stops in between in the last four years. I have found thatmy size seems to be a factor in

how seriously I am taken. While it is true that there are always situations where women are excluded and ignored no matter what their size, Iwould rather have at least some semblance
larger.

in

lack of time and money affects this. Healthy, good food is difficult to get. Often, we just don't have the time to go to the store and cook from scratch. And for people who live alone, like permanently dateless?it (Actually I have

of respect, which

I get only when

myself?the cook much.

does seem silly to

And it isn't just at work where being large can be a shield. Maybe many women don't like being stared at on the train or chatted up when we sit down to read in the park, and being large provides that protection in this country. (Warning: not so much protection in other countries, I

days, but that can be tiresome

experience discrimination smaller women don't. Clearly there are trade offs being made, but how dare anyone question my choice of battle to fight and when.

emotionally painful in some ways and economically disastrous in others: for example, large women

know.) So maybe some women likewhat being large does for us, even though being large can be

And while we are on

the topic of talking about these people being blamed

four and nights several ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

lunches in between. Then what about the emotional issues with a woman's body? What does being large mean to me? Did anyone think to ask what was harder and what was easier about being large in this society? Maybe part of me likes being large in that it shields me from a lot of male attention inmany ways. It is an odd thing but I find men can't think a girl is pretty (read traditionally attractive and thus thin) and really

us? Do they ask how we can support women in getting fitter? Surprise?the answer is no. We are just held responsible for the fall of western civilization (Yeah team!) by simply being large.We are the problem but apparently there is no solution but to berate and blame us. Because women

for everything, does anyone ask how to "fix" the problem for

week.

respect her ideas at work. Most of the time they can't even remember what she said, but I have seen them remember what color bras she wore which day of the

have towork harder and longer hours for less money, we have less time and money to eat right and fewer opportunities and places to exercise safely, therefore the "fat epidemic" is a feminist issue. Iwon't even bother to go into how "epidemics" are

I'm not even sure what color bra I have on right men do discuss these things?or so I but darn it, now, have overheard. To the best of my knowledge, my underwear has never been a topic of conversation at any

defined by the Center for Disease Control, which does not recognize FAT as a disease. But Imust add, fat isn't contagious. 1 swear. OK, I'm not a medical practitioner of any kind?but this one I'm really sure about.

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