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If I can jump in here, this is probably the stupidest thread I've read in a while. 

 

That is all. 

 

OH, and here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/what-housework-has-to-do-with-waistlines/?ref=health

 

Chew on that for a while. (get it? "chew"?) 

 

Seriously. +1'ed you to makeup for whoever downed you.

 

I can't even believe it. Not to say there isn't a meaningful conversation to be had about "fat studies," but daaaaamn this is lame. The absolutism regarding the value of body studies and whether or not it is a sub-discipline or a discipline or a field or an object of focus or blah blah blah blah blah in this thread is excruciating. Let's stop being glib about what other people are doing in earnest. It doesn't become us. If you want to have these conversations, have them in non-internetspeak, please.

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lol do not underestimate how wildly offensive this thread is, buddy.  you guys seriously outdid yourselves this time.

I agree with you that this thread is terrible, but also with twoespressos that youtube comments or, for instance, the reddit jailbait forum would be far worse.

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I agree with you that this thread is terrible, but also with twoespressos that youtube comments or, for instance, the reddit jailbait forum would be far worse.

 

Ah but youtube and reddit don't presume themselves to be populated by graduate students (or would-be ones) with critical thinking skills and wide cultural contexts.  (I'm not mad, just disappointed.)

 

That said, asleepawake is awesome.

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Ah but youtube and reddit don't presume themselves to be populated by graduate students (or would-be ones) with critical thinking skills and wide cultural contexts.  (I'm not mad, just disappointed.)

 

That said, asleepawake is awesome.

Yes, it is disappointing. I agree with you there.

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Regardless of how you stand on this field or the legitimacy thereof, I think the idiom of being able to say nothing if you can say nothing nice has been wildly ignored. Even if I vehemently disagree with anything a colleague says (which is more ubiquitous in academia than probably anywhere else), I try not to say anything if I'm not well-informed about the subject.

 

With that said, what are some texts that may give me further insight into "Fat Studies"?

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the idiom of being able to say nothing if you can say nothing nice

 

I believe this was best expressed by Thumper the rabbit in the movie Bambi. Still, I don't think Thumper meant this to be a rule for policing academic discourse. If I disagree with something, I will say so. It's not a contest over who can be the nicest. I also don't think that challenging a weak premise is "mean." 

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I believe this was best expressed by Thumper the rabbit in the movie Bambi. Still, I don't think Thumper meant this to be a rule for policing academic discourse. If I disagree with something, I will say so. It's not a contest over who can be the nicest. I also don't think that challenging a weak premise is "mean." 

 

But I do believe it is a contest of who can contribute most to the elevation of human existence, and (though it is your choice) if you choose to trudge that route through the belittling of other people, it may be harder for you.

Edited by champagne
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But I do believe it is a contest of who can contribute most to the elevation of human existence, and (though it is your choice) if you choose to trudge that route through the belittling of other people, it may be harder for you.

I stared at this for about ten minutes before I decided it wasn't worth my time.

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I stared at this for about ten minutes before I decided it wasn't worth my time.

 

What are you doing that so occupied your time otherwise?

 

 

Also, since there were three minutes between the quote and post, I'm assuming you have a distorted sense of time and space, or you have a disturbing addiction to hyperbole.

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what in the world would be "disturbing" about hyperbole? I'm assuming you read books. though maybe I shouldn't.

 

Hyperbole is an aspect of language that should be used only in creative contexts, not in academic discourse. Otherwise, it becomes less a vehicle of affective sentiment and more a tool of internet trolls.

 

I'm assuming you're familiar with the type, though maybe I shouldn't.

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Jesus, you all are lucky the wrong people aren't reading this thread, otherwise you'd be reported and you'd be down voted beyond repair, creating a maelstrom of GradCafe reputation loss you could never recover from.

 

On a side note, who cares? We all need a niche...

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Jesus, you all are lucky the wrong people aren't reading this thread, otherwise you'd be reported and you'd be down voted beyond repair, creating a maelstrom of GradCafe reputation loss you could never recover from.

 

On a side note, who cares? We all need a niche...

this is actually better than the average internet debate. godwin's law has not yet been activated, for instance.

 

 

Also also, why are you being a dick toward vegetarians?

 

 

I'm not being a dick towards vegetarians. I'm being a dick towards people who are being dicks towards non-vegetarians.

 

 

 

But I definitely don't gesticulate pointless, seemingly-testosterone-scented comments toward people who are doing something because they feel it is right (sure, it often is an excuse to be political in a very harmless way, but some of the most radical and engaged people I know have also been vegetarians... so it isn't a single kind of person that makes that choice).

 

 

....you just did. I happen to be paleo, and I believe that meat and dairy do indeed have a lot to do with good diet. But I don't go around denigrating people for eating processed carbs. I'm not even gonna say that humans have a natural propensity for eating meat, because some might not - and who am I to tell people how to eat? Especially since paleo is just something that works for me and my body, and I'm not gonna pretend like I have anything but personal experience and a good measure of hubris to recommend it.

 

Also, since when is radicalism and engagement a criterion for weight or health? This is basically the issue in fat studies. Please stop conflating diet and body size with personal characteristics, emotions, social roles, talents, politics, and your mom's chest hair.

 

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How aren't bodies related to politics? What planet do you live on? On a basic level the obesity is related to corporate excess and oil (cheap carbs are thoroughly woven into corporate agriculture as are the bodies that consume them). Obese bodies also undermine the technocratic objectification of bodies by corporate media. I don't know shit about fat studies as a discipline, but these things seem blatantly obvious to me. I also recently saw a book that interrogated fat in relation to shame--that seems like really, really ripe territory to study.

 

Also, I take the snarky joke about my mother's chest hair to be underhandedly trans-, other- and intergender phobic.

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How aren't bodies related to politics? What planet do you live on? On a basic level the obesity is related to corporate excess and oil (cheap carbs are thoroughly woven into corporate agriculture as are the bodies that consume them). Obese bodies also undermine the technocratic objectification of bodies by corporate media. I don't know shit about fat studies as a discipline, but these things seem blatantly obvious to me. I also recently saw a book that interrogated fat in relation to shame--that seems like really, really ripe territory to study.

Also, I take the snarky joke about my mother's chest hair to be underhandedly trans-, other- and intergender phobic.

^ THIS.

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Does no one else find it offensive to discuss our diets on a thread that is discussing obesity? I have little to say about the field of "Fat Studies" as an academic field, and I'm pretty sure that OP just posted this to be offensive and cause 7 pages worth of worthless argument knowing that we would take the idea, get offended by it, get offended by others offensive, there'd be a snarky comment here or there (thanks thestage for playing your part, as always (I'm not even sure if that's a compliment or a dig -- I'll let you be the judge of that)), and it would get way off topic into realms that have little to nothing to do with obesity, the obesity epidemic, the politics of the aforementioned, etc. etc. etc. ETC. 

 

Let me repeat: This thread is stupid. 

 

And I will willingly admit that I have nothing better to do right now because a student is late for her conference, and I'm just waiting for her to show up. So, yes, I could just not read this. But I did. And it was stupid. 

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Does no one else find it offensive to discuss our diets on a thread that is discussing obesity? I have little to say about the field of "Fat Studies" as an academic field, and I'm pretty sure that OP just posted this to be offensive and cause 7 pages worth of worthless argument knowing that we would take the idea, get offended by it, get offended by others offensive, there'd be a snarky comment here or there (thanks thestage for playing your part, as always (I'm not even sure if that's a compliment or a dig -- I'll let you be the judge of that)), and it would get way off topic into realms that have little to nothing to do with obesity, the obesity epidemic, the politics of the aforementioned, etc. etc. etc. ETC. 

 

Let me repeat: This thread is stupid. 

 

And I will willingly admit that I have nothing better to do right now because a student is late for her conference, and I'm just waiting for her to show up. So, yes, I could just not read this. But I did. And it was stupid. 

 

Take it out on the student! She don't respect nothing!

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