Apparently Bar-B-Que Wives hit a new low in its most recent episode. Haven't seen it, but a clip from the Basketball Wives "reunion" show has Shaunie O'neal the alleged "producer" of the show claiming that VH1 and O'Neal's production company have seen the error of thier ways. VH1 is indicating that they are establishing some type of anti-violence policy- but is it too late? Who cares. Put a fork in it.
I don't know how this spring ended up be the season of FAT here on WAOD, but I didn't start it. Let me be clear - this current focus on trying to label Black women as fat and engaging in a bunch of hyperbolic hand wringing about Black women falling out of the "norms" set by the BMI- Body Mass Index will not improve health outcomes, it will only lead to the persecution of Black women. And if you think you'll be immune - remember that when the finish with team chunk, they'll be coming for you.
Anywhoo, I pointed out that the Body Mass Index - which is to sole determination fo health for determining "obesity - by programs such as Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign - is RACIST. Several folks on the WAOD Facebook Fan Page - which is piping hot right now on account of me making it rain fire these days- asked me to support my statements that the BMI is racist. Well don't take my word for it, the Washington Post knows it is biased against Black women:
"This scale was created years ago and is based on Caucasian men and women," said Molly Bray, one of the study's researchers and an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "It doesn't take into account differences in body composition between genders, race/ethnicity groups and across the life span." - Washington Post
So I'm not making this up. Why on earth any Black person would embrace a definition of health based on a system that was inherently race-based discrimination, I'll never know.
I'll close with a popular post on the Facebook fan Page from Jerene:
I don't think anyone is using the BMI article as a justification to not be well. White folks creating some flawed standard of health has absolutely nothing to do with what may or may not cause illness in the black community - particularly black women. At one point I was mostly muscle and about 18% body fat and the BMI still claimed that I was overweight. It begs the question......
As I have stated in other posts, folks don't give two damns about the health and well being of black women. This is clear in the approach to medical treatment in this country and the fact that black women until recently have been ignored. Hell, you rarely hear about missing black women and girls outside of blogs.
This whole idea that writing a bullet barrage of articles dissecting our pathologies as a way to motivate black women to be healthier is ridiculous. It doesn't solve anything. Instead pointing out the obvious - over 50% of AMERICANS are fat, perhaps we can have a conversation about the whys.
Why are these types articles being introduced now? Why is this story being presented in the NYT, WAPO to an audience that is predominately not black? Why did the CDC state that most black women have herpes? Why is there a 20/20 special implying that most professional black women will die old and alone with 80 cats? Why is it that many urban areas don't have immediate access to fresh and inexpensive healthy fruits and vegetables? Why are folks still in denial about that? Why aren't black folks having a discussion with solution oriented action about the mental well being of black women? Why aren't the folks writing these articles and hocking books and television air time actively working on true ways to affect change? Why are folks continuing to speak on black women when their situation is just as, or even more messed up than ours? Why do folks feel they have the right to continue to prop themselves up at our expense as black women? Why aren't all black women on the same page asking these type of questions? Why?
What you know and what you do with what you know are two different things. I think when it comes to the media, historically it has been used as a propaganda tool. I personally think that black women as group need to critically think MORE about why these articles are showing up, what is the agenda and what is the end game? THAT makes more sense to me.
If we are really going to go down the road of treating "mental health", then why is the NAACP or CRIC creating scholarships that promote blacks going into that field of study? Why are there not health professionals going into black churches to provide that service at affordable costs (most folks in church are women)? Again, people that are really interested in solutions actually DO. They don't write books, they create 20/20 specials to get viewers, they do post articles to get internet hits of adsense money. #actionishonestandtherestisBS WAOD Facebook Fan Page
Le sigh. Just when we are recovering from Alice Randall's rhetorical terrorist attack on Black women in the New York Times where she declared that Black women are the only fat women on the planet and we are fat because we want to be, now I get an email from the publicist at TheRoot.com announcing that they are going to be launching their own "year-long" series on Black "obesity." Wait. Wait. Wait! NO FAIR. The Washington Post ( The Root's corporate cousin/uncle) Already started a year-long series attacking Black women and their bodies, you mean to tell me y'all are starting the clock over? Now we've got a six-month extension on the Washington Post's public vivisection of Black women? Does everyone associated with the WAPO organization think Black women are like animals at a petting zoo? Leave our hair, our marital status, our butts, our bellies, and our ovaries ALONE!
Per the press release I received:
The Root, an online magazine featuring black news and perspectives, is launching a year-long series on the obesity epidemic among African Americans with an ongoing collection of interviews, articles and analysis.
We at TheRoot.com are about to spend ANOTHER 12 months featuring stories about Black women's bodies and denigrating them for not fitting some arbitrary ideal of "health." We know that our sister publication, the Washington Post already opened a human petting zoo featuring Black women, but we don't want to be left out of the conversation or the ad revenue. Our entire series will be built around the BMI which is inherently racist because is does not take into account race-based physiological differences.
In addition, we are going to limit the definition to improving health narrowly to weight loss. Who cares if you lose the weight through exercise bulimia, anorexia, or smoking crack- weight is the ONLY thing that matters. Who cares if exercise-alone- can improve health outcomes. We won't emphasize the weight-independent benefits of exercise.
We won't talk about reasonable solutions to improve the wellness of Black women. We will gather together a group of ineffective "experts," who no one listens to, to tell us that y'all are all gonna die die die.
We're goign to cash a lot of checks from advertisers and at the end of the year, y'all are going to be just as FAT as ever. Because the only way we know how to address public health is by nagging, ostracizing, and promoting racist junk science and we're too lazy ( just like you fatties) to try something else.
Now I know some of you are like:
Blogmother, you're fat, so you're biased.
Au Contraire mi Trollopian pest - the irony is that during all of these recent attacks on Black women's bodies in the name of "combating obesity" I've been shrinking. The less fat I get, the more militantly fat I become. Why? Because having finally experienced some long-term lifestyle changes, I'm ticked off and realize that almost everything I've ever been told about "health" = "weight loss" is a LIE. It wasn't until I told myself that I wanted to run a 5K just for the hell of doing it, no matter how fat i was that I finally figured out the whole "lifestyle" change thing. And I'm still figuring it out.
Alas, nothing brings the clicks and cash like bashing black women, a pastime all that aren't black women can enjoy guilt free, like air popped popcorn (that us fat black women don't eat, because that's too low cal and we don't eat things that aren't fried). Call me when these concern trolls put their money where their mouths are and start up a chain of sliding-scale priced gyms in low income areas with on-site childcare and food co-ops attached. Saidah
Funny, I don't see anyone in the root's lineup offering to watch someone's kids so they can get some exercise or cook a 'heart-healthy' meal or get extra sleep (sleep deprivation can make weight gain much more likely.) Tawonya
It is all about ad dollars and not about improving health or wellness. Joy
I will end with this.
We will not go quietly into the night while this racist BMI-based definition of wellness gets imposed to define our bodies as abhorrent. We will fight you on Facebook. We will fight you on Twitter. From every blogpost to every email. We will fight you in the streets and in the towers. We will fight you in the hills, the valleys, the alleys in front of Salleys... Beauty Supply. Viva la Resistance!!!!.... Oh wait, I'm retiring from blogging... eh hem .. We will fight you until I retire!
Oh what is that I see? oh its some more slander of Black women by another Black woman thirsty for attention. Sorry for the sensational, possibly offensive title- I'm just taking my cue from the New York Times. For those of you who have been sleeping under a rock, Alice Randall, an incredibly privileged Black woman, detonated a cultural car bomb on Black womanity in the New York Times.
She basically said we're ignorant, stubborn, and reckless... "becuz of our menzeses" In support of her attack on we "less privileged" Black women, she offers only anecdotal evidence of her dysfunctional relationship with her husband and her own struggle with self hatred. There is noting more dangerous than a self hating person- if they hate themselves, what do you think they will feel about your.
If you will recall earlier this year, the Black women who write for the Washington post and the Kasier Family Foundation defamed Black women everywhere.
Our most recent bigoted anti-Black woman carnival barker, Alice Randall, wants the world to know that Black woman are "fat" because we want to be. Mainly to please our parasitic mates who apparently want us all to die die die.
Because too many experts who are involved in the discussion of obesity don’t understand something crucial about black women and fat: many black women are fat because we want to be. Alice Randal, Anti-Black Woman Propagandist.
Did you ever long for the days when we were being publicly dissected because of our marital status, or skin color, hair texture, or the various STDs that must only afflict we Black shebeasts? Apparently fat is the new perpetual single hood. I don't know who opened the door on this most recent attack, I blame Kasier and the WAPO, but suddenly everybody wants the world to know that Black women are just fat fat fat and we're all gonna die die.
How many middle-aged white women fear their husbands will find them less attractive if their weight drops to less than 200 pounds? I have yet to meet one.
But I know many black women whose sane, handsome, successful husbands worry when their women start losing weight. My lawyer husband is one.
Another friend, a woman of color who is a tenured professor, told me that her husband, also a tenured professor and of color, begged her not to lose “the sugar down below” when she embarked on a weight-loss program.
Who are these Black people? She has to be making this up. Sounds like she's been hanging around Huggie Bear.
Now I know the sheeple will not be able to resist coming up in here and sharing their "concern" about we fat Black sheBeasts, but I ain't buying what y'all are sharing. Alice Randall didn't write that editorial for Black women. She wrote that editorial so that other people could gawk at us. She wrote it to confirm every nasty negative stereotype about Black women and wellness she could think of. If I was Alice Randall's husband, I would be embarrassed to basically be called homicidal. I mean she's saying we're all gonna die because we're fat and she's saying she's that way because that's how her husband likes her. So she said it, not I.
It is a horrible slander on Black women that we, more than any other group of women, in this country don't give a rip about our health. Sure, we struggle just. like. every. other. group. of women and it's defamatory to imply that we don't give a rip.
Notice how conveniently the WAPO and Alice Randall ignore the works of
IN this video she talks about what her motivation is to stay fit. Notice she doesn't say anything about men. Also wait for the moment when she speaks about her grandmother.... again, no mention of men.
She actually works out in what appears to be her breakfast room. No Gym required. Ingenious.
I actually did this exercise in my office swivel chair and you definitely isolate your glutes and make it difficult to sit back down your office chair :)
HA! I bet y'all never thought you'd see a positive mention about someone called Buffie the Body up in here, but her videos are actually pretty good. I love the fact that she's not hyperactive and over the top bubbly. She's like- this is what you need to do and if it hurts you need to go sit down somewhere. She should do a workout DVD. All you "concerned" anti-fat bigots need to help fund the production of Buffy's workout videos.
There is so much wrong with this current assault on the incredible Fat Black Womanicus - first there is the imposition of an arbitrary definition of health based solely on weight. There is the coupling of exercise with weight loss when it should be tied to wellness. There is the over reliance on the junk science of BMI. All black women aren't fat. All fat women aren't Black- the majority of fat women aren't Black. Just because you deem another woman fat doesn't mean she's not fit.
Then there is the lunacy that attacking, shaming, nagging, irritating, annoying, judging fat people will lead to successful health outcomes. How about all you concerned anti-fat bigots try the tactics of sisterhood, camaraderie, competition, fellowship ? Or heck what ever happened to how much FUN some movements can be? But no, it's always shame shame shame. Judgement. judgement. judgement. How's that working for the fat haters?
When can we start talking about how hopelessly single Black women are again? Remember the good old days of the Great Unmarriagable Black Womanicus Singlesaurus?
And to all the concern trolls who can't miss an opportunity to feel morally superior to another woman by hiding about behind "health" concerns, have a seat. If fear was a motivation to wellness, then we wouldn't still be writing these articles.
Have you heard about Beasts of the Southern Wild? Probably not unless you are a film festival follower.
This film stars a little Black girl named Quvenzhane Wallis who plays a character named Hushpuppy. It won at Sundance and is going to be featured at Cannes and the commentators at a certain Black film blog are doing their best to tear the movie down and rip it to shreds. What happened to "supporting Black actors"? Which is the standard line they throw at US when we point out how poorly Black women are being treated in "Black" films.
According to the comments section at a certain Black film blog, the sole basis for not embracing this film is that was written and directed by a non-Black man named Benh Zeitlin. Ha! Ha! Ha! Chile BYE! Go somewhere with that mess. I've got one response to this argument against non-Black writers and directors and the treatment of Black actresses. RED TAILS! RedTailsRedTailsRedTails! You know, the war movie where every single Black actress was EDITED OUT!
I can't comment on Beasts of the Southern Wild and I don't trust critics' assessments of films featuring Black women. You know the critics just loved Lee Daniels pathology porn, Precious. I admit I have my own reservations about Beasts of the Southern Wild. Once again, we've got a down trodden Black woman or girl living in poverty in a single parent household. I might end up HATING this movie. I said, I may very well not like this movie at all. But one thing I'm not going to support is the LIE that the race of the writer director somehow impacts the fortuned of Black actresses or the depictions of Black women on screen.
Let's play a game called, Supposing a Black Filmmaker made this movie:
If Lee Daniels had written and directed this, Hushpuppy would have probably had to endure every type of violent criminal sex act at the hands of her father before we hit the midpoint in the movie.
If Red Tails, Anthony Hemmingway had directed this, Hushpuppy would have been cut out of the movie entirely in the final edit.
If Tyler Perry had written and directed this film, Hushpuppy would have been played by a little Black boy dressed in drag.
Shall I go on?
If John Singleton had written and directed this film, Hushpuppy would have been a loud mouth angry screaming banshee.
And NONE of these directors would have dared to include freaking computer generated mythical creatures.
You've got a film featuring an adorable little Black girl and these hateraid swilling Black film critics are whining because a Black filmmaker didn't write and direct the film. Chile BYE!
Y'all would have some credibility if you had spoken out forcefully when Anthony Hemmingway edited each. and every Black woman OUT of the movie Red Tails. I'm not saying Black women and girls are better off with non-Black writer/directors. I'm just saying that you can't even say with a straight face that Black actresses are worse off.
Again, I haven't seen this movie, so I might end up hating it, but it won't be because it wasn't written or directed by a Black filmmaker. Go sit down with that mess!
P.S. Red Tail! Red Tails! Red Tails! I'm never going to let folks live down the cinematic genocide on Black women that was Red Tails!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 7:02AM 