I hope my babysitter doesn't read this...

[elfs]

omahas and I are cultivating teenagers who can watch over Kouryou-chan (and Yamaarashi-chan when she's here). We've found three so far, and like all teenagers they need money and, y'know, Omaha and I pay pretty well, at least minimum wage, which is better than most people according to the teens we've asked. Friday night, we asked Lily to come over and try it out.

She's a neat kid. Brought a stack of books to read for when Kouryou-chan went to sleep, as we expected to be out until after midnight. Omaha and I went out and had a good Valentine's day party, and when we came home we found Kouryou-chan safely in bed and Lily asleep on the couch, her book on the the floor next to her, curled up on a Tazmanian Devil pillow and under my favorite Sad Girl In Snow blanket. We woke her long enough to ask if she wanted to go home or crash for the night-- offering to feed her if she stayed, a bribe as I was tired enough I didn't want to drive anywhere.

She's pretty, too, but... While she walked about in a t-shirt and jeans I noticed that her triceps just sorta hung there. She has absolutely no muscle tone at all in her arms. It was a moment when I realized that she was falling into that category of teenager who spends too much of her time not doing anything at all physical. Smart as she is, it was sad to realize that physically she's probably already caught in that downward spiral that has made America the most obese nation on Earth.

Comments

[ixx.livejournal.com]

"Smart as she is...?" Does this mean fat people are stupid now, too? Aren't the routine and casual accusations of laziness and gluttony enough?

Reading this a couple of weeks after reading about Rush Limbaugh accusing America of "food stamping its way to obesity," I'm feeling a little touchy. Being overweight is not a crime, it's not really even a tragedy, and it upsets me when people look at it as some sort of tremendous blemish on a person's overall worth or attractiveness. "You've got such a pretty face, but..." The most obnoxious part is how often our society estimates a woman's worth on whether or not she could conceivably be stripping in a bar for money. It's not really -great- for a guy to be fat, but there's no male equivalent of the 'No Fat Chicks' slogan.

"If you’ve grown up in twentieth-century American society, you probably believe that being fat is a serious personal, social, and medical liability. Many Americans would rather die or cut off a limb than be fat, many believe that fatness is a serious health risk, and many are convinced that it is a simple matter to reduce one’s body size and are so offended by body fat that they believe it is acceptable to shun fat people and make them the butt of cruel jokes. Those who are fat quickly learn to be deeply ashamed of their bodies and spend their lives trying to become what they are not and hide what cannot be hidden. Our society believes that thinness signals self-discipline and self-respect, whereas fatness signals self-contempt and lack of resolve. We’re so accustomed to this way of thinking that many of us have never considered that there might be an alternative." --National Assosciation to Advance Fat Acceptance (http://www.naafa.org/documents/essays/fatandhappy.html)

Excuse me???

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that you should be slamming Elf for his comments on obesity, while sporting a thin caricature for your avatar.

[(Anonymous)]

I took "smart as she is" to mean that she is smart enough to know that physical activit is essential to health in general.

His comments about "downward spiral" seem on target as well. There is a direct relattionship between lack of physical activity and obesity.

I notice that he did not say anything negative at all about "fat people" (as you seem to think) or that he ever said that all "fat people" show "laziness and gluttony" (as you seem to imply)

All I see him saying is that she is smart enough to know that physical excercise is important to health and that lack of physical excercise usually leads to obesity.

--Wendor