We just got done with a hotly-contested national election. (Pardon me for resurrecting the nightmare corpse from its shallow grave.) One of the most fun parts of that carnival was the “The Media Is Biased!” ride. Both sides vocally proclaimed that the Media was either selling out to its rich right-wing overlords or to its hippie liberal reporters’ ideals. Much time was spent on analysing stories and photos for propaganda.
Now it’s January and since we don’t have Our Nation’s Future to talk about anymore, we’re talking about everyone’s favourite New Year’s Resolution. It’s all fat-shaming, all the time.
“No wonder America is the Fattest Nation In The World!!”
“Obesity is driving up health care costs!”
“Americans are the fattest, laziest people who eat nothing but junk.”
All of these are propaganda; the CDC admits it. The bariatric specialists admit it. But it’s “good” propaganda because it’s supposedly going to make us healthier.
Yet everyone who was so against the media during the election, so eager to point out its many biases, rushes to believe these proven lies.
I have yet to fully understand why.
I’m here to tell you and everybody else that being thin or of average weight does NOT make you healthy, or make you feel better about yourself, or turn you into a sex goddess. I wish I could say I was a sex goddess, but….no, I don’t.
I think it’s because these are values held by class, not so much by rational argument. Upper-mid to upper class urban people are thin, and value it because it shows hard work, discipline, and severity. The classes below believe it because they want to emulate those guys and become like them, so they try to diet and be thin. The traits are associated with something.
Another example I guess would be laptops. If you want the absolute worst value for your money when you buy a computer, get a laptop. Laptops originally were designed for mobile computing, and you always paid a premium for it in price and power compared to desktops. You still do. But people have associated it with being a upper-mid to upper class knowledge worker that they’ll buy them, even if the only moving it does is from desk to desk in your house.
If you ever are in a dark mood and watch to read a fun takedown of ideas along these lines, Paul Fussell’s Class is a big, snobby eye-opener.