Stealing a line from my high school friend, Jeremy, who posted this video gem on Facebook today, along with this status update:
“We’ve officially jumped the shark as a society.”
Click here to watch the video (ABC news won’t let me embed it into the page) and read the full article.
Does anyone else think this is just plain nuts? Seriously? Using a feeding tube to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time? Wowza.
I’ve been a wee bit negative here lately (and here and here and maybe here as well). But after seeing this video, I’m feeling grateful for a sense of self that I developed in a Mormon environment that taught me to believe that I have divine origins. I know–a bold claim, some might say. But I grew up singing “I Am a Child of God” and really feeling like I was a child of God–that God really did know me and love me and care about me as an individual. That sense of self has enabled me to mostly avoid this kind of manic obsessing over my body, trying to change it, wishing it were different than it is.
I’m not saying Mormons have cornered the market on this teaching; I’m sure plenty of other religions similarly promote positive messages (and non-religious organizations as well). I’m just saying that I learned this beautiful truth in a Mormon family and by attending Mormon church services every week.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
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Amen. There is a bit of distortion going on since TV only reports the most extreme stories to attract viewers, but, yeah, it’s not just bad reporting. It’s too bad we can’t buy common sense futures, because it’s becoming the most rare of all items on the planet.
This absolutely breaks my heart! I wish so badly that women would stop harming themselves for these warped ideals. I grew up watching my mother obsess over her weight and punish herself constantly for not measuring up. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t say something about needing to lose weight. She’s 65 now and my hubs and I recently moved in with her. She berates her body ALL day. Literally. I pointed out to her that her body cannot heal and function properly until she gives it encouragement and love. Her grandchildren are around her all the time and she cannot speak ill of her body because they know that they come from her body and resemble her. I’ve struggled with accepting myself as I am for my entire life because of this. It’s got to end people!
I know that feeding tubes are easy to criticize because you can actually take pictures of people using them, but feeding tubes actually strikes me as less extreme than taking methamphetamines (i.e., most prescription diet pills). I realize that people view this “feeding tubes” thing as extreme, and so they’re anxious to stigmatize it, but I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Sometimes, it seems to me that the primary obstacle to sympathy and tolerance is the drive to tear down others for their own good. Kind of like when they use to torture insane people in order to beat the demons out of them.