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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Anthropology, Woking-style

I happened to be wandering through Woking town centre when I came across a group of welfare heffers grazing peacefully at a food court. No men were visible. There were a number of infants strapped into various kinds of pushchairs distributed through the herd, and a number of hatchet-faced crones (who I took to be mothers and grandmothers of herd members) circling the group. I was shocked at my own revulsion, but it was nevertheless real. I'm decidedly overweight, but couldn't help but reflect that many of these girls -- still teenagers -- were absolutely huge.

How does this happen? Eleven years of compulsory edukashun has left most of them pretty thick, for sure, but they must be at least vaguely aware of the connection between food and obesity (even if they don't seem aware of the connection between sex and pregnancy). I wonder if the Green Party should make more of an effort to target this group: they are consuming far more than their share of the world's resources and they are causing problems for the overcrowded world of the future by continually having children that they rely on the rest of the world to support.

In the future, everyone will be famous to fifteen people.
[posted with ecto]

3 comments:

GreatSheElephant said...

That one is fairly simple - fruit and vegetables are relatively expensive, compared to processed foods.

Cynthia said...

Also, obesity is not about ignorance - of course everyone knows the connection between calories and bodyweight. It's more about a sense of lack, emptiness, or neurochemical imbalance. If knowledge = change, we'd all be better off, but unfortunately it doesn't always translate. Most people with food issues have experienced abuse, neglect, shortage of food, or lack of meaning in their lives. They're trying to get something out of the food that ideally would be met by connections with others, or by a sense of accomplishing worthwhile goals. Also, if your life is crappy, and chocolate bars or pizza make you feel good for 5 minutes, why wouldn't you reach for the food?

Cynthia said...

Also, obesity is not about ignorance - of course everyone knows the connection between calories and bodyweight. It's more about a sense of lack, emptiness, or neurochemical imbalance. If knowledge = change, we'd all be better off, but unfortunately it doesn't always translate. Most people with food issues have experienced abuse, neglect, shortage of food, or lack of meaning in their lives. They're trying to get something out of the food that ideally would be met by connections with others, or by a sense of accomplishing worthwhile goals. Also, if your life is crappy, and chocolate bars or pizza make you feel good for 5 minutes, why wouldn't you reach for the food?

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