Before you start to read this, take a look at your feet. Note your shoes and, if you are barefoot, take a look at your toes. Done? Good, then let’s begin.
This morning I found a news item reporting that a clinic in Beverley Hills is offering cosmetic surgery on feet. One of the reasons one might elect to have this surgery is to enable the wearing of high heeled shoes, especially with regularity. It makes me wonder if this surgery is REALLY necessary. What health benefits does it give? Why would anyone want to have this procedure, what would the motivation be?
The justification given by the clinic is that high heels are part of life for women in the professional world. It takes the stance that women are forced into wearing high heels by sociological norms, thus by providing surgery to make the wearing of these shoes more comfortable, the clinic has solved a problem.
Well excuse me if I refuse to stand up and applaud. What happened to the promotion of foot health? I have no issue with high heels in general, if people (and yes, some men love them too) like to wear them, that is their choice. But to infer that women “have to” wear them is at best insulting. It means that this surgical procedure becomes part of the machine that feeds this insidious cycle. Women are forced by society into high heels, they suffer painful feet, they undergo surgery to relieve this pain, high heels become easier to wear and thus they are fully accepted by society.
Am I the only one who can see where this cycle can be broken? I doubt it. How about we start to break down the view that women have to wear heels? Could we as a society accept a professional woman in comfortable, low heeled or flat shoes? Isn’t it high time we all became a lot less judgemental and a bit more accepting?
So, back to your feet. Take a good look at them. They have carried you all of your life. Please treat them with love and respect.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Sharon Mevsimler
This weekend just gone, the fattest woman in Britain, Sharon Mevsimler, died of a heart attack aged 40. She had been large for some time and had been receiving medical attention including bariatric surgery.
Why did she have a heart attack? Was this simply that her body could no longer support the weight? Were her arteries so clogged as a result of eating too much? Or was it the gastric bypass operation? And what do the comments from the public tell us about the attitude society has towards obesity and how does that link with Sharon’s treatment?
Firstly, let’s look at a few of the facts. Sharon weighed between 40 and 45 stone (560 to 630 pounds). She had been receiving care at Broomfield Hospital, funded by the NHS. The hospital will not state what treatment she had been receiving, due to patient confidentiality. Sharon had been told by doctors to lose weight or risk an early death in August 2007. In 2008, she had had a gastric bypass operation and had subsequently lost weight.
Then things become a little less clear. In February of this year she was at a care home in Springfield, Essex. According to a report on “This is Total Essex” dated July 22nd, she had been rumoured to have had a gastric band fitted. As stated before, there is no definitive statement around what treatment she did receive.
The facts become more tragic. Sharon was not overweight in her 20’s but started over eating while suffering from post natal depression. She felt that the NHS had not provided her with adequate treatment, despite the operations and hospital care. Sadly her family are said to have smuggled in food for her.
How can anyone feel they’re not receiving adequate treatment when so much money and time had been invested in them? Surely this is a pointless waste of resources? This certainly seems to have been the theme for the majority of comments posted on various new sites about Sharon. They make sobering reading:
“no sympathy”
“good riddance”
“big fat waste of space”
“you people make me sick”
And the popular misconception;
“obese people put themselves in that position through intense greed”
At a time when we are in a recession and health services are being cut in order to help reduce the national debt, it seems us Brits are reverting back to a Stone Age mentality. We want to conserve precious and scarce resources and appear happy to push one who appears to be a drain on these out to die. Pack animals will do this. Ancient societies did this, and we learn about them in school and are taught that we are more civilised than animals and ancient societies in the modern age. It would appear not.
A perusal of the NHS website about obesity reveals the focus of the NHS’s approach to treating obesity - diet and exercise. It’s a strong focus. If that fails, it will put you on drugs. If that fails, it will operate on you. It is all about restricting the food intake, ensuring that calories are burned off. I don’t dispute this will lead to weight loss, and I agree that a better diet and more exercise is something just about all of us could benefit from, regardless of size. What the NHS fails to address is the cause of the overeating. There is a mention of the psychological effects of being obese, but often these are the very things which lead to overeating in the first place. I would be very interested to know what treatment Sharon Mevsimler received for her post natal depression. It would appear it is here that the NHS failed her.
When it became obvious she was gaining weight, who asked her why she was over eating? Who pointed out that there might be a link between her depression and the over consumption of food? Or was she just encouraged to “diet and exercise”, thereby adding another instruction onto her. As we have seen from the selection of comments above, condemnation for the overweight and obese is rife. At a time she needed understanding, society condemned her, and the NHS put her on a diet. The message was clear “there is something wrong with you and you need to do something about it and until you do, we are going to condemn you”.
I support fat acceptance. I feel we should be focussing more on health than on weight. I can’t deny, however, than Sharon Mevsimler’s weight was a significant health problem. I can well imagine her heart attack was caused either by clogged arteries or the operation, probably a combination of both and then some extra factors. I’m not a doctor, I’m a writer. I just wish that we could be a bit more compassionate and understanding about the root causes of over eating, rather than condemning the fat person once the damage is done.
Among the mob mentality comments there were some glimpses of humanity, of compassion, of that which sets us apart from animals and ancient civilisations;
“those of you who were mean should hang your heads in shame”
“poor woman”
“rest in peace”
“attacking a bereaved family … reveals a catastrophic absence of compassion”
“I hope you’re in a better place”
And a salient point it would do us all good to absorb, regardless of our weight:
“you could die of a heart attack tomorrow, plenty of otherwise healthy people do”
The only bad news about these comments? They were all rated as bad, given the thumbs down. Today, I am not in the slightest bit proud to be British. I am disgusted by and ashamed of the backward, pack like mentality of some of my compatriots.
Sharon Mevsimler, I hope you have finally found the peace you were misguidedly looking for within food. To the rest of us still living here, I hope we find the compassion one day for people who turn to food for comfort, and in doing so help them put down the knife and fork and find happiness while still living.
Why did she have a heart attack? Was this simply that her body could no longer support the weight? Were her arteries so clogged as a result of eating too much? Or was it the gastric bypass operation? And what do the comments from the public tell us about the attitude society has towards obesity and how does that link with Sharon’s treatment?
Firstly, let’s look at a few of the facts. Sharon weighed between 40 and 45 stone (560 to 630 pounds). She had been receiving care at Broomfield Hospital, funded by the NHS. The hospital will not state what treatment she had been receiving, due to patient confidentiality. Sharon had been told by doctors to lose weight or risk an early death in August 2007. In 2008, she had had a gastric bypass operation and had subsequently lost weight.
Then things become a little less clear. In February of this year she was at a care home in Springfield, Essex. According to a report on “This is Total Essex” dated July 22nd, she had been rumoured to have had a gastric band fitted. As stated before, there is no definitive statement around what treatment she did receive.
The facts become more tragic. Sharon was not overweight in her 20’s but started over eating while suffering from post natal depression. She felt that the NHS had not provided her with adequate treatment, despite the operations and hospital care. Sadly her family are said to have smuggled in food for her.
How can anyone feel they’re not receiving adequate treatment when so much money and time had been invested in them? Surely this is a pointless waste of resources? This certainly seems to have been the theme for the majority of comments posted on various new sites about Sharon. They make sobering reading:
“no sympathy”
“good riddance”
“big fat waste of space”
“you people make me sick”
And the popular misconception;
“obese people put themselves in that position through intense greed”
At a time when we are in a recession and health services are being cut in order to help reduce the national debt, it seems us Brits are reverting back to a Stone Age mentality. We want to conserve precious and scarce resources and appear happy to push one who appears to be a drain on these out to die. Pack animals will do this. Ancient societies did this, and we learn about them in school and are taught that we are more civilised than animals and ancient societies in the modern age. It would appear not.
A perusal of the NHS website about obesity reveals the focus of the NHS’s approach to treating obesity - diet and exercise. It’s a strong focus. If that fails, it will put you on drugs. If that fails, it will operate on you. It is all about restricting the food intake, ensuring that calories are burned off. I don’t dispute this will lead to weight loss, and I agree that a better diet and more exercise is something just about all of us could benefit from, regardless of size. What the NHS fails to address is the cause of the overeating. There is a mention of the psychological effects of being obese, but often these are the very things which lead to overeating in the first place. I would be very interested to know what treatment Sharon Mevsimler received for her post natal depression. It would appear it is here that the NHS failed her.
When it became obvious she was gaining weight, who asked her why she was over eating? Who pointed out that there might be a link between her depression and the over consumption of food? Or was she just encouraged to “diet and exercise”, thereby adding another instruction onto her. As we have seen from the selection of comments above, condemnation for the overweight and obese is rife. At a time she needed understanding, society condemned her, and the NHS put her on a diet. The message was clear “there is something wrong with you and you need to do something about it and until you do, we are going to condemn you”.
I support fat acceptance. I feel we should be focussing more on health than on weight. I can’t deny, however, than Sharon Mevsimler’s weight was a significant health problem. I can well imagine her heart attack was caused either by clogged arteries or the operation, probably a combination of both and then some extra factors. I’m not a doctor, I’m a writer. I just wish that we could be a bit more compassionate and understanding about the root causes of over eating, rather than condemning the fat person once the damage is done.
Among the mob mentality comments there were some glimpses of humanity, of compassion, of that which sets us apart from animals and ancient civilisations;
“those of you who were mean should hang your heads in shame”
“poor woman”
“rest in peace”
“attacking a bereaved family … reveals a catastrophic absence of compassion”
“I hope you’re in a better place”
And a salient point it would do us all good to absorb, regardless of our weight:
“you could die of a heart attack tomorrow, plenty of otherwise healthy people do”
The only bad news about these comments? They were all rated as bad, given the thumbs down. Today, I am not in the slightest bit proud to be British. I am disgusted by and ashamed of the backward, pack like mentality of some of my compatriots.
Sharon Mevsimler, I hope you have finally found the peace you were misguidedly looking for within food. To the rest of us still living here, I hope we find the compassion one day for people who turn to food for comfort, and in doing so help them put down the knife and fork and find happiness while still living.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Thoughts for the day
Two quick ones:
When you tell someone your new idea, and they say "wow, I could NEVER do that" they are probably right, but that doesn't mean that you can't.
In respose to my school teacher who asked me where we would be if we all did what we wanted all the time, my reply is "probably very happy".
When you tell someone your new idea, and they say "wow, I could NEVER do that" they are probably right, but that doesn't mean that you can't.
In respose to my school teacher who asked me where we would be if we all did what we wanted all the time, my reply is "probably very happy".
Friday, 18 June 2010
Death of a Career
I hate my job. I get no pleasure at all from it. I am not prepared to spend the rest of my life doing it. I am going to do something different.
This is the start.
When and where did I decide to start? Easy - here and now, the only place you can ever start anything.
What did I decide to start? I don't know, but I am compelled to write and I'm starting now. I remember being very small, at school, and one of my teachers said to me, in response to something I'd said to her, some of the most stinging words of my life:
"We can't do whatever we want all the time"
It started me off on a route of getting the grades, getting the experience, getting the degree, getting the job, then getting another job, getting training, getting another job, getting the certificate to say I'd learnt the training, getting ... always getting.
I've decided to get one more thing - get lost. Oh, and in response to what my teacher said, way back in the 70's ..... Bollox. I am living my life by one great Spinal Tap quote:
"have a good time all the time"
I don't like the idea of work-life balance. I don't actually like black and white, either/or, all-or-nothing thinking, and the whole work life balance idea fits into that. It implies you are EITHER at work OR you are having a life. I'd prefer to spend ALL of my time living, thank you very much. Work-life balance implies you are not living while you are at work, and I think that is a crying shame. If you're reading this and you really do enjoy your job, no matter what that job is, if you can put your hand on your heart and say you do really enjoy what you do and the majority of your days at work are good ones then congratulations, you're there. However, I feel the life force being sucked out of me the minute I enter the gulag .. sorry, I mean business park (now there's an ironic oxymoron!) where I work. I literally feel it drain right out of me. I feel it coming back as I depart from work. I cannot spend the rest of my life like this.
I am not a lazy person. I don't spend my free time lounging in bed or on the sofa (well, not ALL of it). I do voluntary work, I cycle, I knit, I sew, I have a scrapbook, I read, I write, I help others to feel better about themselves, I look after 4 gorgeous guinea pigs, I keep my home vaguely tidy, I grow food, I experiment with cooking, but most of all I choose to be happy each day (which, believe me, if you're a lazy person can be tricky).
I would like to find some way to tie up the enjoyable parts of my life into something or things which can support me financially. I'm not looking to get rich, only for what I need. Oh, and enough to keep those 4 gorgeous guinea pigs in fresh veggies! I don't think this is an unreasonable thing to want. I don't know how it's going to look yet, but I have spent a while in analysis paralysis and I decided today that I have had far too much to think, so I am now going to do.
the plan so far:
Read "Screw Work Let's Play" by John Williams (review will likely follow in coming weeks)
Look into "Free Range Humans"
Blog here
Write
Write some more
Meet people who think like I do - quickly and randomly.
Does it seem vague? GOOD! I am sick and tired of well thought out, signed off plans. That's my past ... and it didn't work. Sorry teachers, sorry parents ... the steady job and career you wanted for me is something I just don't want. I never really did, it just took me a while to find the confidence to say that out loud. Goodbye career, it was swell, but the swelling's gone down.
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