Dear Deborah Coddington: Just shut up, period.

8th June 2009

Dear Deborah Coddington: Just shut up, period.

posted in Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia, ED-NOS, Fat Bias, Race Issues |

I had planned on diving in to my inbox with gusto and not emerging until I was at least below 500 emails, but then I read via Big Fat Deal the latest weight-loss insanity to come from new Zealand. New Zealand Herald columnist Deborah Coddington — who is apparently not only prejudiced against Asian people, but also fat people — argues that we should publicly shame “over-fat” people because if Jewish prisoners in Nazi death camps can get thin, then fat folk have simply no excuse. Yes, really. I can’t make this kind of degree of offensive ridiculousness up.

Coddington doesn’t herself explicitly make the emaciated Holocaust victim/modern day fat person analogy; she chooses instead to hide behind the words of two others who’ve pointed it out in the past, both of whom were roundly condemned for it. But she does agree that each are “correct” in their assertions and goes on to use the fact that Jewish people (and gypsies and gay people) were starved, overworked and subjected to inhumane and brutally cruel conditions to the point of death in perhaps the largest and most evil act of genocide the world has ever seen as some sort of inane justification for the public shaming and blaming of fat people. She writes:

Look what we do to smokers. We treat them like lepers, forcing them out into the street, away from bars and restaurants. Two decades ago it was acceptable to smoke on planes, in offices and pubs. Now everywhere is proudly a smokefree environment… If it’s acceptable to shame and sin tax anyone addicted to nicotine and alcohol, why not do the same to those addicted to food?

Over-fat people eat too much for numerous reasons. They’re unhappy, unloved, lazy, don’t care, love food, are weak-willed, can’t cook properly, but they’re not obese for cultural reasons, or because they’re big-boned, have hormone problems, or other “it’s not my fault” excuses. Thankfully, we all come in different sizes – large, petite, slim, solid – but basically obesity is caused by eating too much food… But molly-coddling won’t help. Tough love works with treating other addictions – we should use it on food addictions.

Let’s set aside for a moment the appalling abhorrence of Coddington’s commentary to the ancestors of those who died in the camps and indeed to all of humanity itself, as well as the fact that obesity is not an eating disorder and that not all fat people have disordered relationships with food, are a drain in national resources or lead miserable, wretched lives. There is a fundamental difference between vices like alcoholism and cigarette addiction and “food addictions” like bulimia and binge eating disorder: YOU DO NOT NEED ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES TO LIVE. The emotional overeater or binge eater is tempted with relapse at every meal and every snack, making recovery a potentially lifelong battle simply to maintain. These people do not deserve to be made into more of social pariahs than they already are and subjected to further humiliation and abuse; they deserve our empathy, kindness, understanding and support in overcoming their emotional problems and in leading happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

While I’m sure Deborah Coddington hopes in the black, shriveled up organ she calls a heart that anyone with a BMI above 25 would just go on and die already, public shame and ridicule of fat people and the increasing adulation of a skeletal thinness aesthetic are exactly among the chief reasons why people develop “food addictions” and why eating disorders are on the rise. Monique pretty much sums up my thoughts on the whole matter:

Yes, people in concentration camps were thin. Because they were being starved and worked TO DEATH. That is not hyperbole. THEY FUCKING DIED.

And of course it is possible for we fat people to be thin if we starve ourselves to the point of malnutrition and death. This of course runs counter to every biological imperative, every shred of human decency, and every iota of self-preservation we might have. Because, uh, we are not prisoners of the fucking Nazis. And yet according to Coddington, this self-starvation is desirable because she finds fat people in need of “tough love.”

Oh my god, fuck you, lady.

Make that a second fuck you, Deborah Coddington. During my eating disorder, I read somewhere that the Jewish prisoners in the ghettos ate, on average, 800 calories a day. That number instantly became my maximum daily caloric limit, progressively dropping lower and lower until it finally became nothing, nada. Deborah Coddington would have been proud: I lost the weight. In the course of one year, my BMI plummeted from the morbidly “obese” range of the BMI scale to the lower- to mid-range of “normal weight”; I went from a U.S. size 26 to a size 4. I also developed a heart condition, became dangerously depressed, twice attempted suicide, lost some of my hair, destroyed my metabolism, was fired from my job, alienated friends and family, racked up thousands of dollars in medical bills and debt and overall, forfeited three years of my life I can never reclaim. Deborah Coddington’s call for a “tough love” approach to fat people is no less than a call for the social cleansing of them.

Folks, personal blogs are open game for any wingnut extremist to post uneducated and bigoted ramblings, but we shouldn’t tolerate this sort of patent discrimination in a mainstream newspaper that supposedly practices ethical journalism. I urge you to make your voices heard: Send a letter to the editor of the New Zealand Herald here; contact APN News & Media, publisher of the New Zealand Herald, here; post a comment to the article here (registration required); or spread word of the outrage on your own blog and/or on messageboards and social media sites.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Binge Eating Disorder, Bulimia, ED-NOS, Fat Bias, Race Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On June 8th, 2009, Court said:

Holy shit.

That’s all.

Ugh.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 6:35 pm

2 On June 8th, 2009, La di Da said:

Bullies are disgusting. Especially ones who think the Nazis had a good idea.

Rio Iriri had a good post on this last year too, she called it the “Godwin Diet”: http://rioiriri.blogspot.com/2008/01/big-buts-part-six-godwin-diet.html

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

3 On June 8th, 2009, Bree said:

I mentioned it in my newest thread on my blog.

Also, isn’t Ms. Coddington too old to be a playground bully?

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

4 On June 8th, 2009, BigLiberty said:

Make that a second fuck you, Deborah Coddington.

Thirded. Gah.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 7:36 pm

5 On June 8th, 2009, Melissa said:

That’s sick and fucked up.

I’m just ugghhh,

Okay going to complain.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

6 On June 8th, 2009, DaniFae said:

I’d like to add another “fuck you.”

I’d also like to say that woman obviously has no clue what she’s talking about or what she’s trying to say. She contradicts herself constantly. I had two levels of outrage the whole time I was reading the article, one was to what she was saying, the other was at what a horrible writer she is.

I don’t get HOW someone can link that people lost weight in concentration camps to voluntary weight loss, also, how exactly is this a good comparison? “You too can be thin if you live your life in some of the worst conditions known to man kind!” What the fuck is wrong with people?

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 8:33 pm

7 On June 8th, 2009, Lillian said:

As someone who tried to diet and exercise down to an ‘acceptable weight”, I understand the effort it takes. Sure, I could starve myself the rest of my life and exercise 3 or more hours a day. Still I still might not be thin enough.

I wasted too many years hating myself for being fat when I didn’t want to starve and exercise off the ten to twenty pounds in my mind that made me unacceptable. I believed myself to be huge and therefore unworthy of love because I didn’t want to make that effort.

Fortunately, I did learn that I was lovable and beautiful at my natural size. I only wished that I learned it sooner.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

8 On June 8th, 2009, Danielle said:

“YOU DO NOT NEED ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES TO LIVE”

Thank you. People seem to forget you can’t just “put down the fork”, because you have to pick it up again at some point.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

9 On June 8th, 2009, Meems said:

As someone whose family was cut in half by the Holocaust, I’ve already commented on how offensive I find any insinuation that concentration camp calorie intake is even remotely acceptable as a form of weight loss.

What I would like to comment on here is the fact that smoking is an ACTION, while being fat is a STATE OF BEING. It’s not just that one can stop smoking but cannot completely stop eating, but also that being fat is part of who someone is to a far greater degree than smoking is.

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 10:36 pm

10 On June 8th, 2009, Teresa said:

Another thing to note about the smokers argument… just because people can’t smoke in bars does not mean that there are no more smokers. It just means they go out into the street to smoke. So, she doesn’t even use good examples to illustrate her point.

Grrr. I fourth (or whatever number! a resounding ‘Fuck you’!

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 11:00 pm

11 On June 8th, 2009, Kristie said:

I’d forgotten the bit about “food addiction.” That’s priceless. If I’m addicted to food, I’m also addicted to air, water, and shelter. I find it bitterly humorous that we want to pathologize as addiction every single habit we have or pleasure we enjoy, but people who have genuine addiction issues are ignored, excused, stigmatized, and told to just get it together.

I once lost 50 lbs. through not dieting, but lots of exercise. 6 days a week I was at the gym for an hour or two. It was great, the whole world loved me. Thing was, I was never thin–I was just less fat. And then I plateaued. And then I got a desk job/travel job and couldn’t get to the gym. And as the years went on, I realized I couldn’t devote 6 days a week to the gym unless I was job-free (in which case I couldn’t have afforded it.)

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

12 On June 8th, 2009, Alyssa (The 39 year-old) said:

I sent my letter. I was fairly polite in it. But here, I want to say to her FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!!! How many family members did YOU lose in the Holocaust, Asshole?!?!
You reap what you sow, and she’s in for a big fucking dose of karmic whoop-ass.

BTW, second-hand smoke kills. There’s no such thing as second-hand fat. My fat won’t harm or kill you. But your cigarette smoke just might hurt someone else!

posted on June 8th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

13 On June 9th, 2009, Jackie said:

I love the “Oh we treat smokers like lepers, they suffer horribly. How dare you consider the suffering of fat people, when we treat smokers so bad?” I’m sorry, but your right, you don’t need to smoke to live. Also, we’re not going around puffing out Cancer laden smoke, in people’s faces. We’re not spreading Cancer, they are.

As far as the “Well people in Nazi camps were thin” claim, it was outrageous the first time I heard it, not because I was offended being Jewish, but because it’s such a ridiculous comparison altogether. It reminds me of when I heard that a fashion model said after seeing a starving child in Africa, “You know like, I wish I were that thin, but without all the flies and stuff.”

One of the reasons I’m pro-pot, is as far as I know, it doesn’t cause cancer. Also, from the rock shows I’ve been to, I can tell you pot smoke actually smells kind of nice. Where as cigarette smoke smells nasty.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 3:01 am

14 On June 9th, 2009, Cynicalfatty said:

My grandmother spent over sixty years of her life battling a severe eating disorder because of what she went through in Auschwitz. She was the bravest person I’ve ever known, and how fucking dare people use her pain to shame people they don’t approve of.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 7:07 am

15 On June 9th, 2009, Rapunzel said:

Since everything I would’ve ranted about has already been said, I’m simply adding my own “Fuck you” to the list. Grrr…..

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 7:10 am

16 On June 9th, 2009, Caitlin said:

One of the reasons I’m pro-pot, is as far as I know, it doesn’t cause cancer.

I’m pretty sure I read that a joint is about 4 times as carcinogenic as a cigarette and regular pot-smoking is a risk factor for oral cancer. Since I can’t remember where I read it, obviously take that with a pinch of salt, but I would find it very very hard to believe that pot isn’t carcinogenic.

(I hardly need to add, but for the sake of completeness, obviously if you’re smoking weed mixed with tobacco you have all the cancer risk of tobacco PLUS whatever weed adds to the mix.)

I’m ignoring Deborah Coddington because I cannot deal with any more evil today.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 9:10 am

17 On June 9th, 2009, Rachel said:

I don’t get HOW someone can link that people lost weight in concentration camps to voluntary weight loss, also, how exactly is this a good comparison?

Right. If weight loss were as easy as controlling one’s environment and food intake, then why do people like her have to resort to using Jewish Holocaust death camps to “prove” their points. I mean, how much more ridiculously extreme can you get?

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 9:47 am

18 On June 9th, 2009, Desdemona said:

Jesus H. Christ on a bike; I seriously don’t know where to start. This made me think of a book I saw in the gift shop at the Imperial War Museum in London; it was called something like “The Ration Cookbook,” and its premise was that during WWII, British people ate a diet that was lower in processed foods and calories and enjoyed improved health as a result.

At first I thought it had to be some kind of tasteless (literally) joke; I mean, people ate fewer calories and grew their own radishes because THERE WAS NO FOOD, not because they wanted to get into skinny jeans. My mother grew up in England during the war, and I’m here to tell you that her memories of nights spent in bomb shelters and the constant, grinding hunger of a child who literally never had enough to eat are not exactly rosy. And guess what? She has never had any use for diet and weight-loss culture, because when you’ve had to go hungry (and not because you’re exercising your “will-power” to “resist temptation”), the idea of starving on purpose is incomprehensibly stupid.

This conflation of dieting to satisfy fucked-up cultural notions of body image with involuntary, sometimes lethal, food deprivation is not merely ignorant, but cruelly disrespectful of people who have suffered starvation through no will of their own. I’d say it makes me want to throw up, but that would make Ms. Coddington and her ilk happy.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am

19 On June 9th, 2009, newlyveg said:

*head-desk* This is beyond reprehensible. I’ve posted a link to your blog on my Twitter page. I’m tempeted to hashtag it #Coddingtonthatbitch.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am

20 On June 9th, 2009, Penny said:

That is so wrong on so many levels. It’s not “tough love”, it’s murderously abusive towards fat people and an insult to the victims of the Nazi concentration camps, whether or not they survived the experience.

I rarely swear, but this time I’m going to add my voice to the chorus of “FUCK YOU!” because sometimes it just has to be said. >:(

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am

21 On June 9th, 2009, Peepers said:

Hi. I’m a lurker. I wanted to comment on the smoker analogy. First, the notion that tough-lovin’ shame-flinging derision is effective in treating addictions is an unfortunately common misconception. This was one of the first things I learned when I quit smoking about 5 months ago. One of my first hurdles was learning how to cope with people like Coddington because, ironically, nothing stoked my desperation for a cigarette more than having to deal with one of these sanctimonious twits. She’s dead wrong. Actually even reading excerpts of Coddington’s article triggers me lo these many months later. It’s just that effing annoying. Here’s the other thing. Quitting smoking makes most people fat. Happened to me. I’m 2o Lbs hea for my effort and I’m cool with it. She’s apparently not, though. She’s convinced I need some of that “tough love” that’s — you know — gonna make me wanna smoke (or slap).

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

22 On June 9th, 2009, Entangled said:

Yes, extreme circumstances like starvation and forced labor can make people temporarily thin, even extremely so. Well, that or they will drop dead of exhaustion, disease, and starvation like millions of people actually did when under those conditions.

Sticking with the ridiculous idea of harping on those who lost not quite enough weight to die, I have a number of older relatives who survived that and suffice it to say (superficial as it is), they did not stay that thin once they were no longer war prisoners being literally worked to death.

Once I get over my horror at the holocaust comparison, the smoking analogies crack me up, though. Funny, considering that the weight gain that is causing this mass hysteria over death fatz is about 15 lbs per person. Guess how much is, on average, gained when people quit smoking?

Pick your poison. There’s someone out there hating on everything – the human desire to feel superior to others for arbitrary reasons is pathetic and yet everywhere.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

23 On June 9th, 2009, Meowser said:

I think there should be a Godwin’s law subset prohibiting anyone from referring to the Holocaust in relation to giving dieting advice to fatties. I mean, seriously…if you don’t know that there were people in the camps who died of malnutrition before they ever got thin, please do me a favor and never, ever type or say the words “concentration camp” ever again.

Also, re the “treating smokers like lepers” thing…I don’t know about NZ, but in the US, we have plenty of smoking restrictions and taxes, and how many Americans still smoke? Hint: NOT ZERO. In terms of population percentage who are regular smokers, it’s decreased a lot, but since we have had lots of population growth in the last half century, we still have the same number of smokers we had in 1959. Short of wiping tobacco off the face of the earth entirely, some people are still going to smoke. And the number of former fat people is vanishingly rare compared to the number of ex-smokers.

(Anyway, I always thought the point of public smoking bans was to protect the people who don’t smoke, not to make all the smokers quit. Because nobody in the government actually wants that — cigarettes are a HUGE revenue base.)

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 12:42 pm

24 On June 9th, 2009, Carolyn said:

“I don’t mind if people are overweight. I don’t judge their personality by their size. . .”

and yet she says

“Over-fat people eat too much for numerous reasons. They’re unhappy, unloved, lazy, don’t care, love food, are weak-willed, can’t cook properly. . .”

Seriously? I think this woman is suffering from a mental illness and severe denial.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

25 On June 9th, 2009, D said:

She is such a complete disgrace to all human beings, and I have nothing else to say because I am shocked by her hatred and idiocy.

posted on June 9th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

26 On June 10th, 2009, QoT said:

OH GOD DEBORAH CODDINGTON. I apologise on behalf of my country.

posted on June 10th, 2009 at 6:21 am

27 On June 11th, 2009, Emerald said:

This made me think of a book I saw in the gift shop at the Imperial War Museum in London; it was called something like “The Ration Cookbook,” and its premise was that during WWII, British people ate a diet that was lower in processed foods and calories and enjoyed improved health as a result.

Desdemona, I have something very similar: it’s called ‘We’ll Eat Again’ (ha!). I got it for my mother as a nostalgia thing, because she grew up during those years, but she never cooked any of the recipes in it. When I looked at them, I found out why. Carrot sandwiches, anyone? At least the Ministry of Food adviser who wrote it admits she didn’t realize at the time just how hard people were finding it. I know lots of people in that generation who were heartily glad to see the back of rationing. My mother herself got sanctimonious in later years about how ‘good for everyone’ rationing was, but she can’t have liked it much because she had a very sweet tooth. Unless that was actually an after-effect of rationing, the old forbidden-fruit thing; I don’t know.

One of my uncles died in a Japanese POW camp, but even without that, I’d find this comment sickening. Sadly, anonymous commenters on obesity-related stories seem to use this one fairly regularly, and I believe I’ve already seen it in that context a couple of times in the last few weeks. So ‘fuck you’ to all of them, actually.

And, on smoking, the ban here in the UK hasn’t, I think, actually made many people give up. It’s made them grumble a lot and be very creative in finding ways round it. Honestly, I’ve never smoked, don’t like being round smoke, and working in a hospital, and am perhaps more aware than most of the health dangers. But, I honestly wouldn’t mind if pubs had a separate room for the smokers (as many used to) as long as they don’t do it round me. I just don’t think hectoring and shaming people works to make them stop doing anything.

posted on June 11th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

28 On June 12th, 2009, Sage said:

I couldn’t help but go and tell them what I thought. Although I tried to stay civil, I… well, frankly, I utterly failed.

I believe at one point I said “fuck you and the malnourished, brain-dead horse you rode in on, you psychotic hag”, even. I don’t generally use that word very often, but dammit, hag is the most fitting word.

I vote we tie this bitch to a cart and make her drag it and the belgian work horse that would normally be attached to it from one town to another, over and over, until she drops like a fucking rock. See how much she approves of her idea then.

posted on June 12th, 2009 at 10:44 am

29 On June 17th, 2009, ricki said:

Carolyn beat me to it, but seriously, what kind of screwed up logic brings a person to say, “Fat people overeat because they feel unloved and rejected” and then decide that part of the “cure” is to hate on them and reject them?

Logic FAIL.

posted on June 17th, 2009 at 1:22 pm