Much to my surprise I found out in my nutrition class today that I am grotesque. This startling news was doled out by a bunch of angry women and men. Mostly just the other females in my class. Here's how my nutrition class went.
The final subject in my nutrition class for the semester is energy balance and weight gain. I don't really like my nutrition class, but this topic is one of my least favorites. I think it is the least favorite of most women, but usually for a different reason than my own. I don't like it because I honestly don't care. I am how I am and I think that's ok. I also don't like it because it tends to get women extremely worked up and I try to avoid those situations. Anyway, we calculated our BMI (body mass index) before class and I went into class knowing mine is in the 18 neighborhood.
Today we go into class and everything starts out normally. I'm learning about different types of obesity and different energy balances. Then they start talking about BMI. Here's where the train wreck started. Our professor told us about the different cutoffs that the National Health Board have come up with for various weight classes:
- Unerweight <19
- Healthy Weight 19-25
- Overweight 25-30
- Obese 30-40
- Severely Obese >40
I was a little surprised to see that I am in the underweight category. He explained that the cutoffs were based on mortality rates for each of the BMIs, healthy weights being associated with the lowest mortality. He asked the class why in particular the lowered BMI would be associated with a higher mortality rate. Snide comments came out such as, "People that are that skinny just fall through the cracks in the sidewalk and get trampled on." That was seriously a comment that came from someone in my class. My professor tried to mitigate these comments by saying that low BMI is also associated with diseases that might cause death. For example, someone with cancer, at the time of death has lost a lot of weight and would thus have an extremely low BMI. I was a little upset by all the negative comments about me being too skinny and dieing, but honestly I've always been skinny so I'm used to comments like these.
Then came the real clencher. My professor introduced a study that was done at a university on attractiveness levels of each gender. He presented this to the class to try and make the point of the unrealistic expectations that society has for body shape. Forty men were shown photos of 50 women from the neck down with different body compositions. They tested waist to hip ratio and BMI vs. attractiveness level. Waist to hip ratio didn't seem to matter, but BMI accounted for 73% of the variation in attractiveness level. The highest level in the statistical model was found to be at a BMI of around 18. He then went off on how this was an unrealistic goal. Then comments were shouted out about men only liking grotesque, prepubescent girls that weren't really women at all. Keep in mind that I have a BMI of 18 and was sitting listening to how grotesque I am! I was so mad I didn't even know what to say.
I'm not complaining that I'm skinny. I'm just noting how incredibly rude some people are when they feel attacked. It's not like I was shouting out how all the other women in the room were fat lards that needed to go to the gym and eat right once in a while. I don't think that, but even if I did I wouldn't be shouting it out to the rest of the class. I think my professor could have handled this situation in a much better manner.
4 comments:
Way to go, Miss Mag's. Why do people feel it is OK to comment about someone else's weight (Over or Under) when the same comments made about race, religion or gender would raise a giant ruckus? I know that you are not grotesque in any way shape or form. Just so you know, I too was seen as skinny at your age. Life has a way of evening us out.
I can completely sympathize. I have been asked by strangers if I am anorexic. People seem to think it is a-ok to ask a thin girl "why she is so skinny" when they would never dream of asking an overweight girl "why she is so fat." I have the same BMI as you, and I was also a bit ditressed to find that I am underweight, but oh well. When people make those rude comments, I try to keep good humor about it (which only sometimes works), and think rude comments back at them in my head. Ha ha j/k What I really have to do is just focus intently on how I like myself, and how my husband likes me too, and that is enough.
I have two things here that I need to ask, or need to understand. 1) You must realize that these people that are shouting out these nasty comments are more than likely envious of your body type, as it is "ideal." This is their way of making themselves feel better, if they write your body type off as gross or unhealthy. 2)If you were upset, why didn't you combat these people and tell them your point of view? You don't have an eating disorder, you are naturally thin. Make a point of saying, "I'm skinny, and I'm not gross." Don't let it fester and drive you nuts. Stand up for yourself. Also, please don't blame the professor. It's amazing how little control teachers really have over a classroom and what is said. They try to just let everyone express their opinion, ie, free speech. He was trying to prove a point, and the point obviously got taken way out of context. Not his fault, not his problem. And besides all this, if you are happy and comfortable with your body, that's all that really matters in the end.
Well as for this issue, I guess most of this post was just about blowing off steam. If this had been the first time I had been confronted with this sort of opinion I would have not even cared, but to be honest that was something I had to deal with earlier in life. It's not the first time it came up. I concede the fact that the professor really didn't have control over what the other students said. As to the intent of the people commenting in class I really don't think it matters. One of my roommates had weight issues on the other end of the spectrum as a child. Although she is absolutely beautiful now it's still a touchy subject. She came home that same night after someone had told her that her face looked fat. I told her that it was wrong and whoever told her that didn't know what they were talking about. Her answer to that was, "If a negative thing is said, it doesn't matter whether it's true or false, it's still negative." Yes I know it isn't true. I like how I look, but what was said was still negative and indicative of today's society. I'm just commenting on that societal point of view.
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