No. This is NOT parody. This is very serious.
Me at 22 years old. I weighed 130 pounds soaked and wet. I wasn't anorexic, on drugs, or had AIDS. My body was realistic, for ME.
In the quest to eliminate fat prejudice we are now stigmatizing those of us who are skinny and creating an association of disease or abnormality with being a lightweight. Follow me below the orange ether to allow me to explain.
This story is going around the internet. The story is about a bright Yale history major named Frances Chan. She's a slight built young woman who was ordered by Yale University to gain weight or risk expulsion from the university. She was told by a school nurse that she was in mortal danger because of her light weight. Here's the story in her own words:
In the past three weeks alone, I have spent ten hours at Yale Health, our student health center. Since December, I have had weekly weigh-ins and urine tests, three blood tests, appointments with a mental health counselor and a nutritionist, and even an EKG done to test my heart. My heart was fine -- as it always has been -- and so was the rest of my body. So what was the problem?
The medical professionals think I have an eating disorder -- but they won't look past the number on the scale, to see the person right in front in them.
I visited the cancer hospital on September 17, 2013, worrying about a lump in my breast. It turned out to be benign, but I received an email in November from the medical director about "a concern resulting from your recent visit." My stomach lurched. Was the lump malignant after all?
I met with a clinician on December 4 and was told that the "concern" was my low weight and that I would meet with her for weekly weigh-ins. These appointments were not optional. The clinician threatened to put me on medical leave if I did not comply: "If it were up to the administration, school would already be out for you. I'm just trying to help."
I've always been small. I've been 5'2'' and 90 pounds since high school, but it has never led to any illnesses related to low weight or malnutrition. My mom was the same; my whole family is skinny. We all enjoy Mom's fabulous cooking, which included Taiwanese beef noodle soup, tricolor pasta, strawberry cheesecake, and cream puffs, none of which make the Weight Watchers shortlist. I just don't gain weight easily.
Yet the clinicians at Yale Health think there's more to it. Every week, I try to convince my clinician that I am healthy but skinny. Over the past several months, however, I've realized the futility of arguing with her.
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Like Frances I grew up small and skinny. I was always the skinniest kid in class --- including the girls. I didn't weigh over 100 pounds until I was 17. I didn't make it above 125 until I was twenty. I weighed less than 150 until I was thirty-seven. I have such a small frame that I had to tighten my belt as far as it would go to keep thirty inch waist pants on my waistline. If I wanted something that actually fit me, I had to go to the boys department and find a pair of shorts. Once you get into your thirties asking a department store salesclerk to "see your boys shorts" can come off pretty creepy.
Today, I am a "normal" weight, even my metabolism caught up with my outsized eating habits, and I now wear a 32 inch waist pair of pants now that I weigh in at 170 pounds.
But also like Frances, skinny runs in my family on my father's side. But genes be damned, there were plenty of people who insisted that something must be wrong with me. Setting aside the size expectations that males have in our society, people accused me of doing drugs (usually crack), or being diseased (usually AIDS since I am gay). The thought that I came by my slight frame naturally never occurred to most people.
But these days it isn't just slight built guys like who take the harassment. In the zeal to end marketing campaigns built on images of thin women, many have complained about "unrealistic bodies." Unrealistic?
My body, and Chan's bodies are perfectly realistic for us. There is nothing inherently unhealthy or unnatural about being skinny. Some of us are just built that way. It has nothing to do with diet, or drugs, or disease. I grew up in New Orleans where, due to the rich and very delicious cuisine, and my mother's Italian cooking, I developed a voracious appetite.
While I think it is good to be concerned about anorexia or the politics of body image, I think it is time to stop the harangues about "unrealistic bodies" and for both lightweight and heavyweight people stop it with the weight policing.
We've come a long way on ending fat prejudice. Does anyone think Yale would have had the nerve to threaten a heavyset young woman with expulsion if she didn't lose weight? What we shouldn't do, but it looks like we are headed that way, is to replace fat prejudice with skinny prejudice.