Humanitarian Aid —
In an effort to reduce the amount of bullying that gay teens endure, which contributes to an astonishing 20% increase in suicidal ideation among gay teens according to one study, the Atlanta School Board has released a new advertising campaign to address the heart of the matter.
In fairness, it’s modeled after the anti-bullying efforts of Strong4Life, which I learned about through this Twitter exchange.
Wow, Strong4Life has resulted in fat kids being bullied less? And it’s covered on NPR, no less? This I have to see:
Gayla Grubbs owns a sandwich shop in Griffin, Ga. Her son Sam, 15, is obese. Grubbs says she’s not upset by the anti-obesity ads that have raised controversy here.
…
“I was being bullied a lot because of my weight, and after I started losing it, it cut down quite a lot. They don’t call me names or anything like that anymore,” Sam says.
“It’s a self-esteem issue,” his mother says. “If you feel better about yourself, you’re going to carry yourself differently; and so that has helped.”
Emphasis most assuredly mine.Let me get this straight: Strong4Life’s anti-bullying solution is stop being so fat?
Bullshit.
An article in the June 2005 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reported that teens who perceive themselves as very underweight or very overweight were between 230% and 250% more likely to have suicidal ideations compared to those who perceive themselves to be the “right weight.”
And that’s not even considering the eating disorders among teenagers now with anorexia nervosa being deadlier among teenagers than obesity. You’ll also recall that the former chaplain for the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta told CHOA directly that self-harm and eating disorders caused by bullying is the much bigger problem facing kids today.
Gay kids have It Gets Better, and what to do fat kids get?
Keep in mind, this is actually the kinder, gentler version. Left on the cutting room floor is the part where, after hanging her head in shame, Bobby’s mom looks into his eyes and says, “It’s because God hates you, Bobby.”
But these kinds of cruel, in-your-face ads are necessary, CHOA insists.
“It has to be harsh. If it’s not, nobody’s going to listen,” says Linda Matzigkeit, vice president of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the pediatric hospital running the campaign.
I pointed out yesterday, CHOA justifies this campaign as a “wake up call” since, according to their research, 75% of Georgia’s parents don’t know… something… about fat kids. CHOA can’t seem to keep its message straight, as we just had this exchange:
And yet, in the video with Bobby, the warning appears to indicate something else entirely.
Which is it, CHOA? Are parents unaware of their child’s official fatty status or are parents unaware that there’s a childhood obesity problem? Because those are two very different issues.
After repeatedly requesting this “survey” that CHOA did, the results of which seem to be the total justification for targeting fat kids, I finally got a partial answer, albeit from our own vesta.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta chose the straightforward approach after its survey of two towns in Georgia found that 50 percent of parents did not know childhood obesity was a problem and 75 percent of parents with obese children did not think their child was overweight.
CHOA decided to print ads insulting and degrading fat children, shaming them for being too big, and telling them that the bullying can stop once they lose the weight. That decision was based on a survey of two towns in Georgia, which they have turned into “75% of Georgia parents” not knowing that childhood obesity is a problem.
Here’s what I want to know from CHOA: how was this sample taken? Was it representative? Were these interviews done in person, door-to-door, or over the phone? Exactly which two towns did they choose? What are they demographics for the people who answered your questions? What is their education level, socio-economic status? What were the questions you asked and what answers were they allowed to choose from? Finally, where are the results of this study that justify your cruel and hostile campaign against fat children?
These unanswered questions, along with the sketchy way in which the results are have been repeatedly misrepresented, are just another piece in the puzzle. Do you want to find out the answers? Don’t care what the answers are because you just want them to tear down these billboards?
Then help us put pressure on CHOA. Join our Facebook Group, Stop Strong4Life’s Fat Shaming Campaign, which is organizing our response to CHOA.
Also, I now have the most accurate phone numbers for three contacts at CHOA, including Linda Matzigkeit, who justified the harshness of the campaign for NPR. I have done some phone sleuthing and located the most direct line they have, which will reach their respective administrative assistants (except McClellands, which goes to his voicemail)
Linda Matzigkeit
Vice President of CHOA
404 785 7824
linda.matzigkeit@choa.org
Stephanie Walsh
Medical Director of CHOA
404 785 6104
stephanie.walsh@choa.org
Kevin McClelland
Public Relations Director for CHOA
404 785 7600
kevin.mcclelland@choa.org
Children’s Foundation
404-785-4483
choagiving@choa.org
Fierce, Freethinking Fatties 
The thing about this campaign that is most maddening, to me, is that it’s saying parents of fat kids don’t know their kids are fat. Now, I want to know how a parent of a fat kid couldn’t know their child was fat? When your child comes home from school crying because zie has been bullied about hir weight, do you not know it’s because your kid is fat? When your kid refuses to eat, do you not know it’s because your kid is bullied because zie is fat? When you find out your child has been self-harming, do you not know it’s because zie has been bullied because zie is fat? When your child doesn’t want to shop for school clothes because there is nothing cute and trendy to fit hir, do you not know it’s because your kid is fat? The only way you wouldn’t know your kid is fat with any/all of this happening in your child’s life is if you are closing your eyes/ears to what is going on in your child’s life.
For CHOA to say that 75% of parents don’t think their kids are overweight/obese makes me wonder mightily how the questions were worded and what choices the parents were given for responses. For CHOA to say that 50% of parents don’t think that childhood obesity is a problem makes me wonder mightily how the question was worded and what responses the parents were given from which to choose. Those questions and responses can be worded so that no matter how a parent answered them, it gave CHOA the ammunition it wanted to shame, blame, and bully fat kids and their parents. It makes me wonder if CHOA picked and chose which parents it was going to poll – say, only parents who lived in certain parts of those 2 towns (the lower income parts), only parents who made below a certain amount of money, only parents who had certain types of health care, etc. And how did they decide which 2 towns to pick for polling those parents? Were they towns who had an especially large population of lower income parents, parents of color, etc? All things that can influence one’s health, the health of one’s children, and one’s size.
As long as CHOA refuses to make their poll public, how they decided what questions to ask of whom, their methods are suspect and so are their conclusions.
ha Vesta- That all fits in nicely with the myth that “fat people are stupid….”
You know most fat kids have fat parents, right? Well, now we can tell just by looking at a chubby kid that he’s got “dumb” parent(s) and therefore is probably dumb too, after all, how dumb are they that they don’t even know their kid is FAT?? (note sarcasm)
Please… this whole chapter in targeting fat kids (and by insinuation, their parents) really is nauseating.
I was bullied in high school about my weight. I never told my parents.
I stood at 5’5″ and 180 lb. I wanted to lose weight in the past, but my friends discouraged me and told me that I looked fine. One had already developed type II diabetes in grade school from her weight. I had some blood work done and my doctors were frankly surprised that I didn’t already have diabetes since my blood sugar was so high.
I dieted, I began to exercise, and I got to 155 lb. I am much healthier, I have a lot more energy, and my blood sugar is back down to normal. My overweight 12 year old cousin, however, developed hypertension. His 18 year old brother, also overweight, developed metabolic syndrome.
As harsh as the ads may be, I feel that they do a good job communicating that being overweight often will have serious medical repercussions. I wish my cousins were aware of the gravity of their choices before they developed these diseases. I don’t feel the ads encourage bullying, but the area between being happy about your body image and being aware of the medical risks surrounding it is very complex. If I continued to listen to support from my friends when I was 180, I would have to live the rest of my life with a chronic illness, and I don’t wish that on anyone.
Lana – My husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1994 because his blood sugar was high – it was 300 (it was during his discharge physical from the US Navy when he was getting ready to retire). He was told to come back the next day to have his blood sugar retested – it was over 300 again and he was given a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes (at his last physical, a year earlier, his blood sugar was normal and he was the same weight he’d been for almost 15 years). So if your fasting blood sugar was elevated (over 126) for more than 2 consecutive tests, you would have been told you had type 2 diabetes, and your doctors wouldn’t have been surprised that you didn’t have type 2 diabetes with your blood sugar being that high (over 126). If your blood sugar was under 126, they were being disingenuous in telling you they were surprised that you didn’t have type 2 diabetes (you can’t have a disease if you don’t meet the diagnostic standards for it). A normal fasting blood sugar for someone who does not have type 2 diabetes is anywhere from 60 to 110. Blood sugar two hours after eating can be anywhere from 70 to 145 (if you don’t have T2D), and random blood sugar can be anywhere from 70 to 125 (if you don’t have T2D). If you had a glucose tolerance test and your 2-hour results came back 200 or less, that’s not diabetic either. If you improved the way you ate and added exercise to your life, those numbers would improve (if they were slightly high) whether you lost weight or not. Oh, and for the record, my husband’s weight didn’t cause his T2D, it was the fact that both his parents had type 2 diabetes (so do 4 of his 6 brothers, who are all thin). The risk of getting type 2 diabetes increases if you have a parent who has it, and if both your parents have it, your risk is even higher, no matter where you fall on the BMI scale (my hairdresser has type 2 diabetes and he’s thin).
I’m glad you’re happy with the results you’ve gotten, but this campaign is bullying kids, it is shaming kids for something over which they don’t have a lot of control. I speak from experience here, I was a fat kid who was bullied because of my weight, and I have a lot of experience with controlling my husband’s type 2 diabetes (I had to learn a lot about it really quick when we got married 5 years ago, I knew nothing about it before that).
Vesta,
I spoke with 2 different doctors during my hospitalization who both told me that if I did not make serious lifestyle changes, I would develop diabetes in the near future because my blood sugar was very, very high. Diabetes does not run in my family. I did not eat before the blood test because I was hospitalized (for an unrelated issue) in the very early morning.
I don’t necessarily feel the campaign bullies kids. I feel that health takes precedent over emotions, though both are important. It may be hard to hear, but it’s important to understand the repercussions of obesity for children. The kids in the ads are at the age where they should be taking a degree of control over what they choose to eat, how much they choose to exercise, and how much they consume. I don’t feel that dancing around the issue does anyone any good.
I’m happy to hear you learned about managing Diabetes. I imagine it’s a very useful topic to be knowledgeable about given that it’s becoming increasingly common.
Your last paragraph here is condescending as hell. Where’s Atchka? We need a statistical smackdown, please
I don’t mean to sound condescending- I genuinely think it’s a good thing to be aware of current, as well as growing issues.
Stress causes serious health problems and bullying certainly causes stress. Health takes precedence over emotions? Well, it’s kind of hard to be healthy when you have people ridiculing you all the time and you hate yourself. Being bullied causes self hate and in some cases drives people to suicide. Last time I checked, killing oneself was not terribly healthy. Nor is hating oneself. I ought to know–I was bullied mercilessly, and at nearly 50 I still struggle with the hateful messages that I internalized in my youth.
The damage from bullying has the potential to get better. The damage from life long diseases literally will last them the rest of their lives. I’m not saying to neglect emotions, just that I feel it’s better in the long run for someone to deal with an uncomfortable reality than it is for them to deny it and suffer consequences that will never go away.
Lana, do you think people should be bullied for a disease symptom?
Fatness doesn’t cause diabetes, but it can be a symptom for some people.
How do you feel about people who are bullied and taunted for exercising, as many fat people are?
What about people who do exercise but don’t lose weight or lose only negligible amounts?
The ads don’t distinguish between appearance and behavior. They create an image of fat people as being diseased and weak and lazy, and this has nothing to do with a blood sugar test. That’s what’s wrong with these ads.
Mulberry,
I don’t think that anyone should be bullied for anything. That being said, obesity is not always a symptom of a disease.
Obesity doesn’t cause diabetes, but it is a major contributor to it.
I have honestly never seen or heard of anyone being taunted for exercising.
Nowhere did I get the message that these children are weak, though there’s no point in denying that there are a number of serious and chronic diseases associated with obesity. It would be doing these children a disservice to tell them that their bodies are okay when so many of them are a hair away from developing ailments that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. A blunt campaign that addresses these realities may be the kick these kids may need to start watching their weight.
Lana,
Sad to say, but I’ve seen plenty of people taunted either to their face or behind their backs, about exercising, if those people weren’t considered attractive for whatever reason. Generally the reason in my experience was because the individual was fat, but I’ve heard many comments towards thin women with cellulite, towards men with lots of body hair, etc.
I’m sorry to say that in my High School, I never received flack for exercising. Many of my friends were larger than I was, and they also never received criticism for exercising. In any case, there are just some bitter people in the world who will find a reason to taunt people for any reason they can find, and there’s nothing that can be done about that.
You’ve never seen a fat person taunted for exercisng. Well I have. Any fat person going to the gym is open for ridicule. And Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat spoke of going for a run and having some asshat yell out the car window “run, Fatty, run!” One of the main reasons that a lot of fat people are afraid to exercise is that they are afraid of the ridicule that will ensue. It most certainly does happen.
I’m sorry that those things happen, but those are the types of situations where people have to consider what matters more to them: some jerk on the road, or their own wellbeing. I understand how much that may impact a person, but not everyone in the world is kind, and choosing not to exercise only hurts them individually. With campaigns like this one, I feel that people may be more likely to acknowledge obesity as a problem, and thus take the initiative to adopt healthier lifestyles.
Lana,
I have emailed you directly. Please respond confirming that this is your email address. We have had troll problems and I need to confirm your identity if you are to continue commenting.
Peace,
Shannon
Lana – You said you went from 180 lbs to 155 lbs, that’s a loss of 25 lbs. How long did it take you to lose it? How long have you kept it off? If you haven’t kept it off for at least 5 years, you aren’t out of the woods yet. Diets fail for 95% of people – they regain what they’ve lost within 5 years (usually within 2 years) unless they continue watch every calorie they eat and exercise for at least an hour every day. If they slack off on the calorie watching or the exercising, the weight starts to creep back on. So – unless you’ve found a fool-proof, safe way to lose weight and keep it off forever (which no one has yet), saying that this campaign is a good wake-up call for these kids to start watching their weight is as specious and harmful as the campaign itself. You’re promoting bullying of fat kids, and from a former fat kid, that’s pretty sad.
As for diseases being associated with obesity, correlation is NOT causation. Thin people get those same diseases, but no one is rushing to proclaim a “thin epidemic” and trying to find ways to end it. And for some of those diseases, fat people survive them in higher numbers than thin people (like heart attacks and strokes). It’s called the “obesity paradox” – when researchers can’t figure out why fat people (those in the 30 to 35 BMI range) survive certain diseases better than people in the 18 to 25 BMI range (which is supposed to be “ideal”). For the record, obesity is not a major contributor to diabetes, the major contributor to diabetes is genetics. If obesity was a major cause of diabetes, there wouldn’t be thin diabetics (and there are, believe me, there are).
And if bullying worked to make fat people thin, I can guarantee you that there would be no fat people – fat people are bullied, in one way or another, nearly every day of their lives by a society that tells us we’re ugly, stupid, smelly, useless, lazy, and every other pejorative they can think of. We’re bombarded with weight loss ads that tell us we can’t have a life of any kind until we lose weight and get thin, we’re told by our doctors that unless we lose weight we’re either going to die or get some disease (even if we have no risk factors for that disease other than the fact that we’re fat, which is only ONE risk factor out of many), the media tells us on a daily basis that only thin people are beautiful, only thin people matter, only thin people can achieve – and with all of that “incentive” to be thin, there are still fat people in this world.
You don’t see this as bullying, but there are plenty of kids who do, and plenty of adults who do too. You can justify it to yourself all you want, but bullying is bullying and telling a fat kid the things this ad does is bullying and needs to stop.
Vesta,
I lost my weight over a period of roughly 4 months. I have kept it off for a year without any significant effort. I find it alarming that you suggest that my decisions to eat healthy and exercise is not valid until 5 years pass. 5 years is a plenty of time for all sorts of problems to develop considering that I went from a BMI of obese to healthy.
I understand that correlation is not causation, but correlation is still correlation. You may not have a heart attack, a stroke, osteoarthritis, heart disease, need knee replacement, have high cholesterol, develop metabolic syndrome, have hypertension, diabetes, etc. from being obese, but you also need to understand that the risk of developing/suffering from these is exponentially higher for people who choose to eat poorly and neglect exercise. Speak to any doctor if you need clarification of the diseases associated with obesity.
I’m just going to have to disagree with you that this campaign is bullying because I do consider obesity a growing problem with serious repercussions, and I feel that being ignorant of that has the potential to do worse damage to a child than it does to continually assure them that their obesity is healthy.
That being said, I feel most people here are not willing to willing to see physical illness brought on by childhood obesity as a problem, and I feel like I’m repeating myself, so this will be my last post. Take care.
I think you are missing the big issue here… It IS bullying for the simple reason that they are not *really* as interested in a kid’s “health” as they are in a kid’s SIZE.
Because if it was really HEALTH issues they wanted to address and tackle, then show ALL kids of ALL sizes leading more active lives, eating healthy foods, shunning excessive sweets and desserts, and being aware how better habits will result in better (internal, long term) health.
Weight and size should NOT BE THE SOURCE OF JUDGEMENT AS TO HEALTH – FOR ANYONE. That is judging and presuming (the unknown health of anyone) based solely on LOOKS.
Gee, in my day we called that “prejudice”, and when a person overtly ridiculed someone else because of any aspect of their looks — we called that bullying.
Lana, I find it hard to believe that you were not harassed about your weight at 155 pounds and 5’5″. That was about my size in high school and I certainly got harassed. Not as badly as some of the other posters here, but harassed nonetheless.
Vesta is extremely knowledgeable about this topic and you are clearly not, so stop patronizing her. Look, thinness correlates with cancer, too, so should you gain weight to lower your risk? You also confuse obesity with poor eating habits and lack of exercise, which in itself shows great ignorance. Why not stick around and learn something and escape your trollish ways?
I like you Musketry.
That’s what I got from autocorrect typing left-handed in my phone.
Peace,
Shannon
Why thank you, Cannon! I like you too.
I can list several doctors who know FAR LESS about obesity, the newest research, studies and findings than most of the people who you see here among these pages! (Especially vesta, shannon, dr. Deah, etc, etc).
You seem to treat Doctors as “experts” in the field of obesity.
Well, this may come as a shock to you, and you probably won’t believe it…. but the vast majority of doctors don’t know shit (about nutrition, obesity and related topics) except what they read in their monthly medical magazines and well publicized main stream media articles. Oh yeah, and from drug reps selling pharmaceuticals for obesity issues.
Because if that’s not their ‘specialty’ they don’t look beyond the week’s worth (?) of education regarding obesity that they got in medical school once they are out.
Well gosh–as long as they conform and become Acceptably Thin they’ll stop being bullied–duh! So there’s your solution right there. Just be what we tell you to be and you won’t get bullied! Derp derp derp!
What condescending jerks the Strong 4 Life lot are.
My doctor just informed me last week that (recently) some medical research group, the AMA, or whomever/whatever has now determined that the “normal” glucose range should be LOWERED.
(Drum roll please!!)
80-99 is now the “normal range”
It used to be 90-110 — for DECADES!
Guess what? My fasting glucose level on my last blood work was 102. I am now most likely going to be classified as “pre-diabetic” or “borderline” diabetic. So convenient, especially since I’m also listed as an “obese” patient — even though I’ve never sought any kind of treatment, diets, or nutritional information for my obesity…
Never mind that for the last 40+ years my glucose has ALWAYS been between 85 and 95; for both fasting and non-fasting blood work! This is the first time -EVER- I’ve had a blood glucose level of more than 100, (and who knows why, I don’t) and now that’s considered ABnormal.
Let’s all sit back and watch the New and Improved statistics prove how diabetes is on the rise heading toward epidemic proportions! (I’ll get the non-salted, no-butter popcorn!)
From my understanding, it’s not proper to make a classification with just a single glucose check. It’s just like you shouldn’t be prescribed pills for hypertension if you’ve had one bad blood pressure check after a series of perfectly good ones. One time as a kid I tested so like 30 and my mother had a freakout, but then I got tested again and it was around 70/80 and nothing came of it.
And popcorn without salt, in my opinion, might as well be Styrofoam peanuts.
Yes, so far I have not been “diagnosed” pre-diabetic or borderline…. so far.
I have another blood work up to do in 6 weeks. You can bet your butt that the glucose level is going to be the first number the doctor looks at.
And it doesn’t matter what the doctor SAYS to me, what matters is what she puts down as medical diagnosis / code for the blood work script.
If she puts down the code for “pre-diabetic” screening, be assured that is going into some computer somewhere and being counted as my diagnosis…. Just like “Obesity” is every time it’s listed somewhere on a script for ANY test – even if it has absolutely nothing to do with obesity or my weight.
I mean, where do you think those outrageous crazy stats come from?
BTW, my latest cholesterol level was 154, with a PERFECT good-to-bad ratio as well!!
I just looove seeing the look on their faces when I ask what my cholesterol level was;
the eyebrows shooting up and the jaw dropping is just ………..priceless. [smile]
@ Lana, you say that the damage done by emotional abuse goes away, but weight-related diseases don’t. Sorry. Have you ever heard of post-traumatic stress disorder? Let me tell you. It gets better. I can be managed, but it never, ever goes away. And yes, people are bullied and abused severely enough for PTSD to result. Sorry, but that is not whatsoever an acceptable trade-off.
Are you aware that negative stress and abuse can cause physical changes in the brain, or that excessive stress hormone levels are capable of causing allegedly weight-related diseases.
Emotional problems go away? Haha! No, really, that makes me laugh. I hope you don’t really believe that.
Dear Lana,
You clearly have no interest in anything anyone else has to say. But from an autistic fatty and someone who’s had friends kill themselves over “bullying”: go fuck yourself. You’re a sanctimonious, delusional twat who clearly has no idea what harm “bullying” can do.
Dear Kala,
Don’t even start in on me about my “tone”. I have a real fucking problem with insensitive fuckheads like this bitch who think “they’re just words”. They’re not always and I’ve lost two friends because of it, so it’s a sore fucking subject, k?
Thanks for this, Joanna. I experienced verbal weight- and appearance-related bullying at home for years, well into adulthood, and at 43 I’m still dealing with the emotional fallout – i.e. chronic anxiety and periods of depression. Meds and counselling have helped, but the feeling of being, very basically, unacceptable, is deep down there, and a lot of the fat-related stuff around today triggers it all too easily. And I’m an in-betweenie (I’ve ranged from a UK 14-18) who grew up in a world where many people didn’t see me as fat, so I haven’t experienced a fraction of the public hate that some people have. Were I a teenager today at the size I was then, or larger, I’d have a whole society backing up the bully. There is no way I think that what was said to me was ‘helpful’ to my health or well-being in any way.
About this generally: if kids are being bullied, it’s the fault of the bullies and they’re the ones who need dealing with. That bit is so important I think I’ll say it a bit louder: IT’S THE FAULT OF THE BULLIES. I have no time for victim-blaming, at all.
Does anyone else think it’s possible that some of our recent visitors are Fat Bastard in disguise?
I don’t think so. He has a really particular way of writing that shines through anything he tries to do, and I don’t see it here.
could be one of his sidekicks, though…
I thought Shannon thought that most of his sidekicks, were just him. Looking at his site, made me think that he’s just a sort of unstable and unreasonable person. Most of the comments and conversations he seems to have, appear to be with himself.
Also agreed. I don’t think Fat Bastard has any friends, except the ones from the many profiles he creates.
Peace,
Shannon
Agreed.
Peace,
Shannon