A quote from from "a description of the grant":
It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic.... In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.So it's also a study of why straight men are fat!
Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat? It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future. If different subgroups of people have this problem in drastically different proportions, there's something to learn, is there not?
Or do you think you already know? What is your seat-of-the-pants folk wisdom on the subject — that those who want to be sexually appealing to males must deal with the way males sexuality is visually fixated?
We've been focusing on gay rights so much in recent years that we may tend to lump lesbians and gay men together. Once the legal rights are established — and Americans get used to that — the differences may become more apparent. These 2 groups may be more different from each other — in some respects — than they are from heterosexual males and females.
But maybe it will be politically incorrect to talk about that. If "lesbians are fat" is the beginning of this new conversation, I'm not picturing it going well at all. Let's see how you handle this in the comments. I'm predicting disaster. Prove me wrong!
AND: For those of you in the comments who are saying we already know why people are fat, they're eating too much — you'd better not be the same commenters who wrote the 218 comments pushing me back on my 2-months-ago post "Why are you fat?" Because that would be annoying.
Posts
160 comments:
But straight men ARE fat.
It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future.
It never had to be, you know.
Who fucked that up?
disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic
Quite the use of the passive voice there. Makes it sound like there's some kind of fatness virus going around, and lesbians are genetically susceptible.
Seems like a surgical mask would help prevent this epidemic--provide that the mask is worn during lunch and dinner time.
Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat?
Yes.
It is obvious how & why people get fat. We don't need "studies" to tell us why.
Why is fat bad?
You should spend a day perusing the NoLose website. Those ladies will set you straight.
that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future.
Actually, when Medicare and Social Security go insolvent, no, no it won't.
Women are very stressful to pursue. The common thread between straight men and lesbians is that they both are attracted to women. Therefore, it is the pursuit of women that creates stress, which causes one to eat more food and gain weight.
We are constantly told that the budget has not 'fat' to trim. It is always granny over the cliff.
Trim the fat!
"What is your seat-of-the-pants folk wisdom on the subject"
Fat (and unattractive) women are more likely to become lesbians.
This academic-written article describes a social issue in a primarily in-universe style.
We've known for some time that lesbians aren't really gay!
And, yes, Althouse, I already know why people get fat. That "seat of the pants wisdom" has been around a lot longer than you and your prized intellect. Maybe you lost the seat of your pants and your ass is hanging out?
Studies, my fat ass! Fat ass studies are make work projects for women who should be making babies and raising a family.
Gay males are more prone to eating disorders, mainly because gay males are attracted to thin men, which is why they have a lower obesity rate.
So what I gather from this grant is that all communicable diseases and cancer have been cured and no further funding of them is needed.
Huzzah!
Once the legal rights are established — and Americans get used to that — the differences may become more apparent. These 2 groups may be more different from each other — in some respects — than they are from heterosexual males and females.
One of the main reasons for my opposition to SSM at least for the near-term.
Will judge-made law work for all groups, or will bad cases make bad law?
That's why, at this point, I now oppose same-sex divorce.
The facts at hand suggest the possibility that ingesting semen prevents weight gain.
Since women tend to be much more loyal than men, once you get a woman, you give up trying.
Since men are more likely to stray, even after you get one, you work to maintain your appeal.
It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future. If different subgroups of people have this problem in drastically different proportions, there's something to learn, is there not?
The birth of children causes a huge drain on SSI, Medicare/Medicaid/Obamacare.
If there were no more people being born, then the cost curve of these programs will eventually bend to zero! New life is after all a major concern to us all now that medical care has been de facto socialized. Thats awesome, we should stop having children now in order to save these programs.
Different subgroups of people tend to have more children than others, there is something to learn, isn't there? They should not be allowed to breed with reckless abandon, saddling the government with more dependents.
I've often noticed that fat lesbians wear plaid. I think this should be studied.
Somewhere along the line we are going to discover that lesbians partake heavily of soda in quantities that should be banned.
For their own good.
By those who know best.
If different subgroups of people have this problem in drastically different proportions, there's something to learn, is there not?
Does it behoove the federal government to know why?
Oh yes, since we've chosen the disaster of socializing medicine AND behavior under the guise of "affordable healthcare."
It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future. If different subgroups of people have this problem in drastically different proportions, there's something to learn, is there not?
The declining birthrate lends to an underfunded situation for all our social programs.
If there were more people being born, then the cost curve of these programs will eventually bend tolower with more people paying into the system! New life is after all a major concern to us all now that medical care has been de facto socialized. We should promote having more children now in order to save these programs.
Different subgroups of people tend to have less children than others, there is something to learn, isn't there? They should be required to breed with reckless abandon, producing the government more taxpayers to support the socialized programs.
The dilemma for straight women is that to prevent babies, one is pushed to take hormonal birth control, which has numerous side effects, which includes water retention and weight gain. Lesbians have no need for these terrible pills, so do not have a pharmaceutical/politician/sexual freedom excuse for the weight gain.
We've been focusing on gay rights so much in recent years ...
What a load of bullshit is that statement!
What in the fuck rights are gays missing?
What we've been focusing on is a bunch of spoiled brats playing out the victimhood scam that Althouse played out in her youth. She can't let go of the nostalgia.
It sure as hell has nothing to do with rights.
I myself was "disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic" when I was in college.
But then I learned not to allow the offensive linemen to trap me in the interior line.
Problem solved!
My seat of the pants answer is that men like to engage in more recreational sporting activities than women--testosterone vs estrogen. If you have a heterosexual couple, the woman probably is more active than she would have been on her own and the man is probably less active. If you have a gay couple, you probably have two men who like recreational sporting activities so they are both doing them. If you have two women, they are more apt to be interested in doing more sedentary activities and cut out the sporting activites to make time for what they like to do. Obesity is more about what you do than what you eat, IMO.
Pardon my anger. Hormonal birth control makes my eyelids bleed and I hate it. I'm jealous of lesbians for not having men force anti-baby pills in their systems.
Just checking my copy of the Constitution for the part where it authorizes the feds to spend our money on research into why fat lesbians eat too much.
I'll get to you when I find it.
carrie: "Obesity is more about what you do than what you eat, IMO."
Arrrrgh.....too...many....joke... ..possibilities... ..must... ..not... take.... the ....bait.....
What happens when your poster girl is Rosie O'Donnell.
Writ Small said...
Since women tend to be much more loyal than men, once you get a woman, you give up trying.
Really?
Homosexual relationships, male or female, tend to be a lot more tenuous than heterosexual ones.
Straight men and lesbians compete for the sexual attention of women. Women care more about status, money, personality, etc., than they do looks. Thus, the pressure to be fit is diminished.
Gay men and straight women compete for the sexual attention of men. Men care about looks.
There. Now pay me $1.5 million.
Gay men and straight women compete for the sexual attention of men. Men care about looks.
You win!
The check is in the mail!
Prove me wrong!
"Don't you oppress me."
Good thing we've cut all the fat out of the budget.
Apparently Lesbians and straight men like to fork the same things.
Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat?
Yup. At least on the public dollar.
If it's going to save so much damned money, I'd think that the HMOs and States could come up with $1.5M.
Federal funding for that is pork, not Deeply Necessary Science.
(No god-damn enumerated power.)
Why people get fat? Who cares?
Follow Nanny Bloomberg's advice: eat less.
I've often noticed that fat lesbians wear plaid.
That's because it goes well with unshorn legs, wallet chains, and mullets.
AEH said...
The dilemma for...
The definition for dilemma:
Imagine that you are laying in a big bed with a beautiful naked young woman on one side and a gay manon the other.
Who are you going to turn your back on?
Homosexual relationships, male or female, tend to be a lot more tenuous than heterosexual ones.
There is a world of difference between the relationships of gay men and those of lesbian women. Lesbians are from Venus and gay men are from Uranus.
(I had to...I just had to.)
If only the lezzies looked and acted the way they do on men's porn sites, it would be a better world!
Let's fight for the "rights" of lezzies to make it a better world!
Pardon my anger. Hormonal birth control makes my eyelids bleed and I hate it. I'm jealous of lesbians for not having men force anti-baby pills in their systems.
That gun we're holding to your head while we shove the pills down your throat? Good thing gun control is coming and you won't have to deal with it anymore.
My seat of the pants answer is that because obesity will cost the federal government zillions of dollars because of a couple terrible federal programs we need more terrible federal programs to study the problem and some other terrible federal programs to fix the problem. When those fail, we need a commission to determine why it failed, then we need to ignore those recommendations and just put the Feds in charge of health care via single payer. Once the Feds have complete control they can fix the problem with a couple terrible federal programs.
It's the spending, stupid! It's the waste. It's the irony, that the government is supposedly suffering from sequester armageddon, but they have money to piddle away on a worthless, stupid, idiotic study.
It has nothing to do with gay or lesbian politics - but you could discuss why the government insists on this identity-group politics. Obama's title was community organizer, what that really means is grievance group peddler, so I guess this is just par for the course.
Imagine if you could stop all this spending on absolutely useless stuff - would we have a balanced budget? Could we 'afford' to keep the White House open for tours?
What might this money be better spent on? That's why this 'right wing' site posted the article.
Oh, it is going to cost us alright. A lot. Observe. In every aisle of every big box store waddle the fatties. The airports are full of them walking at ultra slow speeds stopping to check every food vendor and snack shop. Watch them at bus stops. 75% of gay women are fatties versus 50% of straights. Wow. Big deal.
Every one of these fat shits is going to want to be bailed out health-wise. Watch and see. Disgusting.
Read the book Why We Get Fat
9 dollars on Amazon. There I just saved 1.5 million.
Well, I've only known two skinny lesbians in all my life and all the rest were porkers so it's good to know my casual observation is now supported by hard science.
Dr. Althouse: It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future.
Only if we continue to accept the asinine hypothesis that the taxpayer should be on the hook for everyone's healthcare.
You do have the right to healthcare. As much as you can afford.
Rose wrote:
Imagine if you could stop all this spending on absolutely useless stuff - would we have a balanced budget? Could we 'afford' to keep the White House open for tours?
What might this money be better spent on? That's why this 'right wing' site posted the article.
agreed. That's what budgeting is all about. What is more important to spend your money on. Washington tours or a study on why we get fat. Maybe we can spend it on both, but then maybe not spend it on the study of fish and Democracy. Or maybe we can spend it on THAT study and not this study.
In the real world everyday people do this kind of decision making all the time. If I buy the xbox maybe I can't pay my bill this month. Since money isn't an infinite resource. And those that spend money like it is an infinite resource often wind up calling the David Ramsey show and he tells them what idiots they are and how they have to start spending more wisely.
The prez should appoint Dave Ramsey to one of his czar posts. Get some fiscal sanity in the white house.
It's obvious why lesbians get fat. They don't do dick.
Isn't it obvious why lesbians get fat? They don't do dick.
Michael wrote: 75% of gay women are fatties versus 50% of straights.
Maybe cunnilingus makes you fat. We should have a study on that.
I'll volunteer for that study.
Why should government study everything? The "test" should not be "can we find something worthy about this" but "is *not* doing this going to be a disaster."
Why are gay women fat and gay men thin? Because gay women aren't trying to attract men and gay men *are*.
Duh!
Now give me a million dollars.
must deal with the way males sexuality is visually fixated?
I would imagine that the differences in how men and women generally relate the the physical is the main reason.
One time I was listening to Dr. Laura, and she got a call from a woman, who complained that her girlfriend was wanting her to compliment her physical appearance more, but that the caller did not want to do that because "their relationship was about more than that." (Dr. Laura is totally cool with the gays, BTW - who would have thought?) Dr. L immediately asked her if she was still somewhat uncomfortable with being gay, and the caller admitted that she was. Dr. L then explained to her that many gay women try to work out their discomfort with their sexuality by trying to make it about something higher or bigger than a physical relationship. She then coached the caller into repeating over and over "You look great, babe," which she was to use the next time she saw the girlfriend.
It was incredibly weird, but also sort of cute.
OTOH, if they find out that direct exposure to sperm helps keep one thin, then that will be met with cries of being mean to gay women, just like the study that showed mood-lifting affects of the chemicals in sperm.
The people that made that claim got denounced for it.
And really, how many of us pointed out that any version of "national health care" would mean an excuse for government intrusion into all parts of our lives, particularly what we eat and freely do to our bodies. Still, the way politics are, truly unhealthful activities such as promiscuity of all sorts, will be sacrosanct.
Jay wrote:
Gay males are more prone to eating disorders, mainly because gay males are attracted to thin men, which is why they have a lower obesity rate.
I think it also has something to do with their high protein diet.
Speaking of healthcare, a picture of the regs "so far."
Might as well be a picture of the USA gravesite.
Straight men and lesbians compete for the sexual attention of women. Women care more about status, money, personality, etc., than they do looks. Thus, the pressure to be fit is diminished.
Gay men and straight women compete for the sexual attention of men. Men care about looks.
Agree with the major thesis, but not the minor one. Problem for me is that the lesbians I have known have not cared much about status and wealth in their partners. Maybe it is about personality. But, it seems more that heavier lesbians hand with heavier ones, and thin ones hang with thin ones.
The interesting thing here to me is that lesbians seem to tend to earn somewhat less than average for their education level, etc., while gay males earn a bit more. But that would seem to be contrary to the idea of women being attracted by wealth and power, while males are more attracted to beauty. Gay males have wealth and beauty (or, at least thinness), while lesbians have less of both. Something like that.
Another thing interesting here is that Ann attracts a fair number of gay males commenting on her blog, but we really don't see any lesbians commenting as lesbians on a regular basis here. Rather, somewhat the opposite tend to comment here on the distaff side - straight married women.
I guess you don't have to be too fit to play softball.
I'm going to assume that obese lesbians don't do a whole lot of scissoring.
I have to wonder if Althouse is just trying to wind us up. Really is it the goverments job to tell how fat we should be?
Really? I am not a little work bee who lives her life for the good for the colony, nor should I be.
"What is your seat-of-the-pants folk wisdom on the subject"
"Fat (and unattractive) women are more likely to become lesbians."
I see, maybe fat unattractive women are women who have stopped looking for love in all the wrong places.
I was in line at a book store recently, standing next to two, what I am sure are lesbians. They were shorter, fairly heavyset.
And they were buying auto racing and mechanical magazines. Since few lesbians are like the ones in porn movies, I thought these ladies (shemales?) were kind of cool. They like cars!
I have to wonder if Althouse is just trying to wind us up. Really is it the goverments job to tell how fat we should be?
Really? I am not a little work bee who lives her life for the good for the colony, nor should I be.
dreams....I thought the same thing. Perhaps with bad luck attracting a guy, they decided to just get together with like people.
What happened to the Bear movement?
* * *
...that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future.
While I understand the logic of this projection, I'm always confronted with the black suspicion that what our social planners want best of all is a way for vibrant, healthy, old people to turn into corpses with no expenses in between.
If those vibrant oldies can manage to keel over right into a coffin, so much the better.
Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat?
Yes.
Next question?
New study finds lesbians most likely to wear sensible shoes.
And Indigo Girls records.
Well, there are all kinds of lesbians.
Some aggressively cultivate a look that is the opposite of more conventional ideals of female attractiveness. In doing so they are being deliberately provocative. "Fat" is often part of the provocation.
So why do persons or groups then get outraged when their provocations provoke a response?
Because they are seeking an opportunity to be outraged, it seems to me.
(And I oppose endless, repetitive studies of why people get fat. It's just another subsidy for activities of marginal utility. We can't afford to fund things of marginal utility.)
If there is a just reason to research such differences, then it should be explored. We should care about the health of everyone, instead of making nasty assumptions.
Otherwise, it is pretty sad that women only maintain a healthy weight to please men. That shouldn't be the main reasoning for females. I understand there are evolutionary aspects involved, such a the waist/hip ratio are signs of health and fertility, but most women do it for looks not health.
I blame in no particular order:
a. Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz and his cheap food policy.
b. The food pyramid. Carbs make you fat, don't you know.
c. Senator George McGovern and his anti-fat jihad.
Look at pictures of high schoolers pre-1975. Do you see as many fatties as we have today?
which came first?
@ Althouse
"AND: For those of you in the comments who are saying we already know why people are fat, they're eating too much — you'd better not be the same commenters who wrote the 218 comments pushing me back on my 2-months-ago post "Why are you fat?" Because that would be annoying."
.... because people are getting fat because they are not eating ... enough?
The question has already been fairly answered above....What's really needed is a study to determine why gay males are so frequently represented in movies and sitcoms and lesbians so infrequently. Also it does seem to me that lesbians, when they do appear in non porn movies, differ radically from the lesbians one encounters in life. Is there anyone on earth who has encountered a lez couple who look and act like Julianne Moore and Annette Bening in that movie......Perhaps there's a huge substrata of lesbians that are invisible because they're not fat and butch. In which case this study is guilty of stereotypical thinking akin to a study showing why Irish are drunks and Italians are crooks.
For $1.5 million/year I am willing to study the intersection of extremely attractive svelte lesbians and chili-cheese dogs with duck gravy fries. And in any combination thereof.
Hey I'm easy.
The headline wants to call attention to wasteful spending and it does so in the exact same way that Howard Stern, and a lot of the other low-brow media do: LESBIANS, LESBIANS, LESBIANS. This is how you get the attention of the low information voter. And also attention from roving concerned liberals who presume that conservatives will take any opportunity to be mean to lesbians and gays. Wrong, by the way. Right wing news site wants your attention. Hello, now they've got it. Spending is (lesbians) out of control. Lesbians.
Obesity is a problem but (1) is this study really worth $1.5 mill, (2) how useful is it to study obesity based on sexuality, (3) if it's "useful" and valued at $1.5 million, is it not fair game to speculate about why lesbians are weightier than heterosexual women and won't some of the conclusions be a bit hurtful from the lesbian perspective? Should we not talk about it in case someone gets the vapors? Oh, dear!
X,
Butz.
Some people are fat because they love life. They embrace the human love of food with open arms and refuse to live a pinched mean existence of sharing a half a sandwich and half a beer.
Some of us live in a robust, curvy, sexy Fellini movie enjoying pasta and wine and love.
Some of us live in a parched, dry and empty boring Swedish cult film with some dude who thinks he is death trying to get us to play chess.
You buy your ticket and you make your choice.
"Is there anyone on earth who has encountered a lez couple who look and act like Julianne Moore and Annette Bening in that movie?"
Yes.
Also, doesn't it seem like the underlying non-ostensible point of this study, at least as it is described in the article anyway, is to justify and immunize lesbian weightiness from criticism? Is that worth $1.5million? (I say "no.")
Rush Limbaugh just asked this question:
"What are lesbians eating that 75 percent of them are obese?"
If lesbians are fat because they don't have to impress men, then why are so many straight women fat?
I think there are not enough lesbians out there to conclude anything other than that they are lesbians. Maybe once upon a time most lesbians were fat, while most straight women weren't. That was probably attributatable to their being inconoclast (don't forget, most feminists were fat too). Hell, maybe fat women tend to become lesbians. Becasue they're fat.
Renee: "Otherwise, it is pretty sad that women only maintain a healthy weight to please men. That shouldn't be the main reasoning for females."
How do you know what the "main" reason is? Many females want to maintain "healthy" weight because of the opinion of other females, and not because they want to have sex with females. Heterosexual females want other hetero females to see them as attractive. It's part of the general competitive nature of humans.
And the women who work to retain their attractiveness to men? They understand what the benefits are. These benefits may not be the most fundamentally important things in life, but they are important nevertheless.
In any event this is another first world problem. Not long ago, even in this country, very few people were fat. They worked too hard and had too little food to be fat.
I know why my husband has become fat. Well, not fat-fat, just an impressive, perfectly round gut. It's huge, but he brags that his waist size hasn't gone up. That's probably because he wears his pants below the gut. He eats huge portions, and since retiring from the military he refuses to exercise at all. It's pretty simple.
The last time I tried to drag him on a walk he whined the entire way. I think twenty years of forced PT has made him allergic to exercise. Unfortunately, he has a heart-attack gut (as my mom calls it) and he travels to much for me to put him on a long term diet.
Here's a question, have you ever told your spouse they're fat? Even if it is for health reasons? I just can't hurt his feelings like that although I do suggest that he exercises when he's on the road. He just blows me off.
"Many females want to maintain "healthy" weight because of the opinion of other females, and not because they want to have sex with females. Heterosexual females want other hetero females to see them as attractive. It's part of the general competitive nature of humans."
No It's because as a young woman I didn't want to be 'the fat one' when I was with other women and a man views us comparatively. I don't care how a woman views me, I only care how a man compares me to the woman I'm standing next too.
BTW I'm so glad I'm married, and I don't have to worry about that anymore. That's why women can be less mean and cruel once we are married with children.
Lesbians and straight men share a preference for trim. Which paradoxically makes them fat. Necessitating a study by a pair of docs.
Another Garage baiting post already Ann?
Ugly, Ugly.
Leave poor fatty alone.
"Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat? It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future."
Totally the wrong question. The correct question is why does it cost "the public" anything if one is fat, skinny or whatever. Only because our government, specifically the federal government, is so far beyond its proper scope and the powers loaned to it by us through our constitution has made individual health expenditures "public". Freedom and Liberty cannot exist with a government so intrusive that it cares what you weigh.
It's obviously a big health problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future.
This can be solved without studying why people get fat.
But maybe it will be politically incorrect to talk about that. If "lesbians are fat" is the beginning of this new conversation, I'm not picturing it going well at all. Let's see how you handle this in the comments. I'm predicting disaster. Prove me wrong!
No.
because fat people need love too.
There are NO "gay rights" beyond those possessed by all citizens. Anything else is an allotment of "unequal protection of the law".
Not enough exercise.
Those gals need to get up and MOVE!
An unusual preponderance of of good cooks in the gay and lesbian community?
Pussy is fattening?
They're doing it wrong?
"Because that would be annoying."
And nothing on blogs is ever supposed to be, you know, annoying.
"Freedom and Liberty cannot exist with a government so intrusive that it cares what you weigh."
Truth.
Sounds like the headline writer is trying to point out one of the myriad things that are, apparently, too vital to cut for the sake of the country.
Do you oppose funding studies of why people get fat?
Pretty much, yes.
Especially if it targets one specific group without demonstrating that the specific group is far more likely to be fat than others.
Women are very stressful to pursue. The common thread between straight men and lesbians is that they both are attracted to women. Therefore, it is the pursuit of women that creates stress, which causes one to eat more food and gain weight.
I found the opposite. When I was with my first fiancee, it was nothing but stress, 24/7, and I dropped down to 200 pounds without a ton of effort.
I'm married, my wife is awesome, and I'm tubby. My fault alone, however.
The reason they are fat and possibly the reason they are lesbians is because they have done and eaten exactly what and how much they have wanted to eat and have had sex with anyone they wanted to have sex with. Whenever they wanted. We did not discover the existence of carbohydrates in the last forty years. We did, however, encourage doing whatever you wanted, any time or place you wanted and invented the notion that if you were prevented from having what you wanted and when you wanted it you were a victim of meanness.
You can't just go around saying why people get fat. You have to start your sentence out with "studies show...", so first we have to get some studies.
I never call anyone an idiot, I always say: "Studies show you are an idiot." That's devastating, because when you say that, people assume there really are such studies.
It's science! GAHH!
Grab a torch and a pitchfork, it must be cast out!
Apparently straight men and Lesbian women share a single characteristic: They both have wives meeting their needs sexually and for companionship at home , thus eliminating the need to attract a female person into their life.
Think that through. It is a praise of women. God said that He had created every thing well...but then He suddenly realized that He had forgotten the biggest need, so He created woman.
The government might actually be able to do something about the lesbian obesity epidemic, with more funding for local softball and golf leagues.
A woman who is married to a man, can be fat too!
Study: Women Do Less Housework, Gain Weight
"Researchers from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in Columbia who examined the diaries found most women were physically active at home in the 1960s — devoting an average of nearly 26 hours a week cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry. But by 2010, women spent about half that time — just over 13 hours per week — on household chores. Over the same period, sedentary activities at home — such as watching TV — and work increased dramatically."
I'm sitting here reviewing the lesbians I've known and I've seen and they're not disproportionally fat. But regular people are presently disproportionally fat compared to what regular people should be, in my opinion, and what they used to be by what I can tell from photographs.
Did I ever tell you about the Detour? Man, that was a truly great bar. My brother's favorite, and he's a born-again type Christian, the re-dunking and everything. You could have dinner there, that was our reason for going the first time, but on the other side, open to all, women could be seen exchanging t-shirts right across the pool table, and some were big, yes, but not disproportionally fat, to present day disproportions.
I miss the Detour, which as it happens used to be a few blocks from where I live now, and now that you've got me thinking of it, there must be a replacement or something similar around here somewhere. The gals gotta have a place to go, and they'll undoubtedly have food too. Plain regular spaghetti and hamburger type food. That's my new project. Find out where the lesbians are hanging out and drop in there to see for myself.
Find out where the lesbians are hanging out and drop in there to see for myself.
Just look to see where the Cocteau Twins are playing.
There's too much pork in this "obesity epidemic" industry. Fat people die early and don't charge up health care costs, unless they're fat and healthy, in which case huzzah! Why is it society's problem if they're packing a few extra pounds? Bacon.
I once had sex with a lesbian. She wasn't fat. She was kind of hot and she was kinky, looking to live out a fantasy that dares not speak its name on the Isle of Lesbos.
Yale Medical School has discovered that fat is morally correct, but tends to lead to GBLT lifestyles.
Speaking of bacon, I haven't had lunch yet. My husband and I are trying to do the caveman thing. (I hesitate to say paleo or primal because I understand there are deathly important differences.) So... bacon!
Sam Kinison: "I Guess if you're gay you'd probably lose a lot of weight folks. Because who would want to eat after you've had a dick in your mouth all day!"
Or to phrase it differently, since Lesbians are fat maybe we should charge lesbians more for healthcare since the argument is that we need to pay more for fat peoples health problems, therefore they should pay more.
Lesbians should pay more.
Hatboy is fat. And gay.
Ann’s premise (for argument purposes?) is government obesity spending is warranted because of the costs transferred to the Public as a result of this “condition.”
Do the obese create increased Public costs? I’m not sure we know this as a fact. We need to know the net cost of all public spending for the obese and non-obese including the lifetime costs associated with social security, retirement pay, nursing homes, the “diseases” of old age, present value of estate taxes, etc).
If, as an example, the obese have a tendency to die catastrophically in middle age from massive heart attack we may assume low Public costs. There may be an advantage from a Public cost perspective to allow the obese to die young rather than pay out social security, retirement, or the health costs of old age. We therefore need to know the costs of dying catastrophically at middle age versus slowly at old age. It is inappropriate to view obesity’s costs from a narrow health perspective -if Public costs are important then all costs must be considered.
And if this type of cold calculation makes people uncomfortable- it should – because that is the slippery slope we are on when intervention is justified using “a problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future”.
So for you legal minds out there- given Public costs are intimately a function of age, genetics and lifestyle choices- is there any restraint on government intervention once we accept the premise of Anne’s argument?
We have limited resources and must allocate those resources wisely. The negative reaction to the Lesbian obesity study is in part due to bias against subject of the study and in part due to the perception of a lack of wisdom in the decision to make the grant.
For an example closer to home, in 2012 the NIH extended a grant of $1,270,384.00 to UW-Madison for this critical project:
Meditation
That's 1.2 million that didn't go into breast cancer research. Of that 1.2 million dollars, approximately 500k was borrowed money. Meditate on that.
Ann’s premise (for argument purposes?) is government obesity spending is warranted because of the costs transferred to the Public as a result of this “condition.”
Do the obese create increased Public costs? I’m not sure we know this as a fact. We need to know the net cost of all public spending for the obese and non-obese including the lifetime costs associated with social security, retirement pay, nursing homes, the “diseases” of old age, present value of estate taxes, etc).
If, as an example, the obese have a tendency to die catastrophically in middle age from massive heart attack we may assume low Public costs. There may be an advantage from a Public cost perspective to allow the obese to die young rather than pay out social security, retirement, or the health costs of old age. We therefore need to know the costs of dying catastrophically at middle age versus slowly at old age. It is inappropriate to view obesity’s costs from a narrow health perspective -if Public costs are important then all costs must be considered.
And if this type of cold calculation makes people uncomfortable- it should – because that is the slippery slope we are on when intervention is justified using “a problem that is going to cost the public billions/trillions of dollars in the future”.
So for you legal minds out there- given Public costs are intimately a function of age, genetics and lifestyle choices- is there any restraint on government intervention once we accept the premise of Anne’s argument?
Pat there is an easier way to eliminate the "public cost" of obesity.
That is, eliminate the "public cost" part. The more that we socialize the costs of medical care, the less interest there is on the part of individuals to take care of themselves, and thereby requiring public regulation to substitute for private responsibility.
It is the absolute worst argument that I can imagine; that because obesity costs the public, there needs to be public regulation concerning obesity.
We'd have less obesity, I suspect, if people knew that they could not pass off the costs of that obesity on others.
And the added benefit is that all of health care would be less costly if we followed that model much more.
It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic.... In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.
Hypothesis: Getting some dick once in a while is good for your health.
I happened to be reading CafeMom.com the other day, which occasionally pops up on Google searches when this dad is looking for kid advice, and happened to stop by the "In the Bedroom" forum for shits and grins.
It was remarkable to me how many straight women-- and reasonably good looking and slender ones to judge by their profile pictures-- seem to have a curiosity or fantasy about getting with another woman.
It doesn't strike me as the kind of place men pose as women, which was my first suspicion. Most of it is inane girly chatter about kids and cooking and clothes and entertainment.
Perhaps there is a very large number of women who do want a man for the security and social approval, but would prefer a woman for the bedroom jollies. Those who can get the man with their good looks and proportionate weight do so, but thereafter find it harder to get involved in the world of carpet munching that their fatter and uglier sisters fall into by default. Just a guess...
Due to the lesbian subterfuge, all of you are missing the government's larger point: gay males are superior to straight guys. How to pour lesbians into the awesome gay man mold? No clue. But $1.5M is a good start, we're told.
There are some fabulous-looking lesbians out there. I had a friend who seemed to date every one of them.
As for why a segment of the female-chromosomed community ends up with the same BMI as the males whose socio-sexual behavior they're emulating...I don't know and I'm not sure I care to spend federal money on it.
What is your seat-of-the-pants folk wisdom on the subject?
Only what I've observed: "butch" lesbians are often obese, "fems" not so much. In any event, good luck finding a group of lesbians who look anything like the gals on The L Word.
Jim wrote:
Look at pictures of high schoolers pre-1975. Do you see as many fatties as we have today?
Saturday morning I listened to the Peoples Pharmacy on WUNC. Their guests were Jonny Bowden, PhD and Stephen Sinatra, MD who were promoting their book The Great Cholesterol Myth. One point Dr. Sinatra made was what he believes is a bogus claim about polyunsaturated fats (i.e. they help prevent heart disease). He noted that the current epidemic of obesity dates from the mid-70s when saturated fats were being expunged from our diet in favor of polyunsaturated fats.
It is obvious how & why people get fat.
The real question is "why do people get hungry when they don't need to eat". "Lack of willpower" isn't the real answer. People who eat less appear to be less hungry in the first place. They aren't resisting temptation -- they just aren't being tempted in the first place.
That aside, it doesn't seem like a valid use of government money to me.
Consider Chaz Bono, the de-sexualized thing formerly known as Chastity Bono. With the buzz-cut and rotund profile he/she/it resembles nothing so much as one of the gun-tottin' red state denizens so loathed by the liberal cognoscenti -- and she's the offspring of rail-thin Cher and her scrawny erstwhile (an deceased) husband Sonny Bono. Something other than genetics are at work here.
Is lesbian fat somehow different than other fat?
The point is priorities. We are spending China's money. This isn't a priority.
Somehow, anything that interest groups can find beneficial are now to be included on the list for which OUR money pays the bill. Fat lesbians (sic) studies should be so far down the list as to be omitted from consideration. Yet... no White House tours 'cause SEQUESTER.
@ Bob Ellison
"There's too much pork in this "obesity epidemic" industry. Fat people die early and don't charge up health care costs, unless they're fat and healthy, in which case huzzah! Why is it society's problem if they're packing a few extra pounds? Bacon."
Now **that** is a healthcare plan I can support!
Bacon!
You eat too much it makes you happy.
You die early, but happy.
Dying early means less overall healthcare costs to society.
Eat bacon! It's bad for you, good for you, good for society, something like that. Maybe.
Waiter!
I'll take a two pork roll, egg & cheese with salt, pepper and ketchup.
Make that three. I'm going to save society.
Ffiona Apple is no lesbo bit said she became anorexic after being raped. I wonder if getting real fat is a way to prevent rape. Either way you no longer look like a target. There might be many reasons. Each person might be individual. Some might just not enjoy sex so they turn to pigging out.
I work with about a dozen dykes. They are all thin, pretty and lipstick lesbians. 10 out of 12 of them have kids too. They are all Phd's or have MPH's. The younger don't have kids yet but they want them. 1/2 of them are Jewish too-what is that all about?
They all live in Jamaica Plain, Somerville, Brighton, Allson or Cambridge, natch.
The gays I work with are all jews, except me. They live in the South End, Back Bay, Beacon Hill or Cambridge. One cums all the way from fab Marblehead. All have Phd's except me....and they are all thin, even the ones in their 50's.
Arguments of whether the study is an appropriate use of tax dollars or not, I think it salient to point out that the actual point of the study is NOT to find out why people get fat, but to develop a pseudo-scientific explanation of why it is all the fault of conservatives and/or non-liberal white males, or how this is another example of how women are better than men.
That is the point of pretty much any human social investigation these days.
have you ever told your spouse they're fat? Even if it is for health reasons?
Has there ever been a person who is fat who didn't know it? Why tell them something they already know?
Titus,
If you want to see the fat lesbians in the greater Boston metropolitan area, try riding the orange line out towards Oak Grove sometime.
Poverty + Lesbianism = Obese Butch
Affluence + Lesbianism = Thin Lipstick
It's simple math.
Mom Jeans, I would turn into a pumpkin if I had to ride the Orange Line to Oak Grove.
My maximum willingness to go outside my confines is Somerville but only to the border of Davis Square.
I did ride the Blue Line to Wonderland once though and is was far from wonderful. The fucking "stimulus package" awarded Revere with a fucking bridge to the beach from the T in the likeness of the Zakim Bridge. So now the trash can walk above the road in order to get to Revere Beach and secure their needles.
When they are cutting tuition assistance for uniformed military, then every other penny needs to be examined, including idiotic studies on weight vs. sexual orientation.
When they are cutting tuition assistance for uniformed military, then every other penny needs to be examined, including idiotic studies on weight vs. sexual orientation.
@ Titus
Here in Lowell, it desires the effects of gentrification it has on Somerville. Well yeah, the stereotypes of lesbians who are less affluent tend to be like straight people who are less affluent as well.
People, outside of Massachusetts, are sadden I don't have potty mouth like yours.
Somerville. Bean-body women with great big hair. Deli counter guy shouting "Onetugo! Onetugo!" On the way home I parsed that to "Honest to God!"
Q. How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A. That's not funny.
Chuck said...
Q. How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A. None. Everybody knows lesbians don't screw.
Quaestor said...
Consider Chaz Bono, the de-sexualized thing formerly known as Chastity Bono. With the buzz-cut and rotund profile he/she/it resembles nothing so much as one of the gun-tottin' red state denizens so loathed by the liberal cognoscenti --
Oh! So that's who that is.
I thought Jackie Gleason was still alive and decided to dye his hair.
Lowell, Dear God Rene. I think I went there once and broke out in hives. Bless you my child. At least you didn't say you lived in Lawrence.
Someone sucked my hog in the sauna at the Lowell YMCA though and he was kind of hot but truly rough trade.
I have traveled to Lynn the city of Sin too and got blown at Swampscott/Lynn Beach Esplanade as the waves engulfed my Prada Boots. It was hot. I also did it at Frans in Lynn in the lou. I held a pool cue as I was getting blown. Did you also know Rene that a former McDonalds in Lynn has been turned into a gay bar? I parked my car there in the parking lot and someone came out of the bar and blew me while my rare clumber was in the backseat. It sits right across from Walmart. How low class is that?
And I did it at Revere Beach multiple times, right next to the State Trooper barracks. Even with a state trooper who had a large baton-he was a major bottom.
Actually, I went to the Lawrence YMCA too and got blown by some third world central american.....in the locker room-it was fine.
I do enjoy slumming every now and then. I appreciate seeing how the takers and lower class live. It's depressing, yet fascinating.
Bob, Somerville, formerly Slummerville has turned into one of the most expensive hoods in the Boston area.
It has turned completely yuppy, baby carriage, expensive housing and fab new restaurants.
And it is the second most congested city in the U.S. More peeps per square mile than almost anywhere.
It used to be a shithole, now it is fab.
tits.
I will say this with charity, but I find it quite stressing that you're calling the working lower class as 'depressing' when you're hooking up with strangers in random places around the area? It's not even a moral issue, it's a health and safety issue. Take care... please.
Sorry, Ann. Occam's razor: simpler explanations are, other things being equal, generally better than more complex ones.
Fat people are fat because they eat too much.
I've really never gotten over the loss of Vivian Vance...
My favorite situation is the oft repeated segue that gets Ricky and Fred out of the picture long enough for Lucy and Ethel to get really deep in shit. That's accomplished by Ricky saying to Fred "C'mon Fred, why don' you join me 'n the boys at the club. We're rehearsing a great new show!" to which Fred sez, "Gee Rick, that would be swell, let's go!"
Maybe if we stigmatized fat like we've stigmatized smoking we might get somewhere.
Maybe if the federal government stopped giving out erroneous dietary advice we might get somewhere.
Alternatively, in a generation or two, fat children will become so fat they will be incapable of procreation and fat people will become extinct. It's called an evolutionary bottleneck.
Cheers
I blame it on illegal immigration, women working, feminism, and the pyramid food guidelines.
Illegal immigration changes the cost of running McDonalds and other fast food restaurants, which seem to be popping up all over the place. The wages for the professionals at McDonalds in no way comes close to generating enough tax income to pay back federal and state services, causing more two parent workers. The service sector is exploding in the US, and in particular fast food restaurants. Additionally, Dad isn't taking care of the yard on the weekends anymore.
Women working means they aren't making dinners anymore. They have to work because we have too many McDonalds workers popping out an average of 3 kids. In CA, for instance, there is a school tax burden for 39 School kid years of roughly $400,000.
Feminism means women who do stay at home are less likely to make dinners. It's easier to use money to buy dinner.
The food chain emphasizes carbohydrates, which convert quickly to fat, push up insulin levels, and makes you hungry pretty soon. In addition, a recent Chinese study points a finger at carbohydrates increasing a bacteria in the gut that they posit increases obesity.
Some construction workers digging at a site uncovered the bones of a previously undiscovered species of lesbian dinosaurs. They've named it lickalotapus.
If Chris Christie is a liar for saying he doesn't know why he's fat (Ann's point in the older post), what does that make this institute getting 1.5 million of our tax money? If it's so obvious to a layman what causes obesity and what to do about, it should be doubly obvious to health professionals. But they find a great hook for their grant proposal, which basically says, if you don't give us the money, you're anti-gay.
I think Christie, many lesbians and others choose to be fat because our animal instinct tells us the bigger we can make ourselves the more powerful and intimidating we can be. If you like to "throw your weight around," the more weight the better!
People are fat cuz they're not Asians or don't live near Asians.
Or because they eat too much.
Krumhorn said...
"...previously undiscovered species of lesbian dinosaurs."
Big fat skeleton?
Paleontologists believe the intact skeleton could shed light on the bizarre fetishes of this pervert dinosaur.
they had to reverse the cause and effect because if they didn't the answer would be too obvious even for the feds.
The research money is just welfare for the well educated. Otherwise, there'd be far fewer jobs for Sociology PHDs.
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