Online fat activists are yelping about negative community attitudes towards obese people. Some have even called for Ms Freedman's dismissal.
Why can't we talk about obesity? Raise the issue and the speaker becomes a bigot or a hypocrite. Online sites allow freedom of expression to shoot the messenger. Better that than listen to a confronting message. Or should we continue to behave like the fashion industry and ignore the presence of widespread obesity?
A visiting alien might glance at a fashion magazine and wonder why skinny women feature in all the photos while fat women walk the streets. Most of the clothing shops near my house cater for pint-sized teenage girls. These businesses have come under fire in the past because they do not stock higher sizes. Walk inside and feel fat if you wear a size 12. Skin tight boob tubes and skirts which sit just under skinny little bottoms: anyone with normal curves can’t wear this fashion, let alone the obese.
If your daughter aspires to be fashionable and shop in these places, be afraid as she leaves the house resembling an underfed prostitute.
One particularly seedy clothing chain has located its Sydney stores almost exclusively in the city, the eastern suburbs and the north shore. Perhaps the bosses don’t think fat woman live in these neighbourhoods. They would be correct.
Interestingly, the fat lobby has made noises about this issue. They seek attention on matters relating to obesity, but only when it suits them.
There is an elephant in the corner and it is trumpeting a message. Obesity is a class issue.
Thankfully a recent study has shown small improvements in obesity levels among preschoolers. Boyd Swinburn, the director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University, said the fall began after childhood obesity started to receive attention in the early 2000s.
Children from poorer families have benefited most from the turnaround. Among the most disadvantaged two-year-olds, the prevalence of obesity fell slightly between 1999 and 2007.This is welcome news, but what happens when preschoolers grow up?
A Victorian Government website is careful to note that “people with lower levels of education and lower incomes are more likely to be overweight or obese. This may be because they have less opportunity to eat healthy foods and take part in physical activities”.
No judgement here, but the facts speak for themselves. Next time anyone comments about all those fat people in America, be sure to laugh. That country is full of them, but just as there are very few fat people in affluent San Francisco or Manhattan, there aren’t too many in Sydney’s wealthier suburbs either.
If you want to find fat people, stroll through the foyer of your local public hospital. Hop in the lift, find a ward and check out the bloated bodies lying in the beds. It is truly frightening. It is as if you have entered the sick bay on Land of the Giants. The health system is clogged full of seriously overweight people, but when their doctors advise weight loss, some will go shopping and find another GP with a more forgiving bedside manner.
The latest medical drama in NSW is the $1.5 million which the Health Department has just dished out for five new “mega-lift” ambulances to transport people who weigh more than 180 kilograms and who cannot fit on a normal ambulance stretcher. There were 45 patients this size in 2002. By 2008 this number had risen to 576.
I am not suggesting a public flogging, but this nation needs to face up to its rapidly growing obesity problem. There is no point heckling the brave who dare to speak.
Perhaps we should cancel cooking shows and replace them with weekly episodes featuring Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Programme which began in 2001 and has since been rolled out in 180 primary schools across all states and territories of Australia. This wise chef is putting her energy into educating children about the goodness, satisfaction and joy around home cooking with healthy produce. One campaigner’s antidote to Maccas. God bless her.
Some might recall Norm from the 'Life Be in It' campaign launched 35 years ago. That little guy was supposed to reflect the inactivity, obesity and lethargy problems endemic in our community. We were supposed to recognise the Norm in all of us. He was popular because he had a sense of humour. We could relate to him. He was credible and like a lot of Australians back then, he made his point in a light-hearted fashion.
Guess what happened to Norm? People started to copy his "couch potato" approach.
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