Not Every Olympian Is Jacked: Fat and Athleticism Aren't Mutually Exclusive [Weighty Issues]

When the Olympics turns the spotlight on athletes, audiences see some competitors who have far-from-average physiques. But. Just as not all lean and/or visibly muscular people are athletes, not all athletes are lean and/or visibly muscular.

As previously discussed, an Australian paper mocked the body of (three-time gold medalist!) swimmer Leisel Jones — and was the target of intense backlash. Fellow swimmer Melanie Schlanger expressed her deep embarassment for the Aussie media, and tweeted: "U can't judge fitness from looks anyway and how about we don't criticize at all." In a column for the Vancouver Sun, Christie Blatchford writes:

First, much as the temptation at these events is always to long for the sentimental result, Jones would not be swimming to gold on behalf of all the wounded fat little children of the world or those who once were. That's because she ain't fat: She weighs about 150 pounds, or about what the average woman in the U.K. and the U.S. weighs.

Secondly, calling someone fat isn't criticism, not in any meaningful sense. It's small and unnecessary, period. You want to criticize a world-class athlete, talk about her sport, her technique or her training - not her makeup (synchronized swimming excepted, of course).

Thirdly, the appearance insult (ask any woman on television what sort of mail she gets compared with her male colleagues) is the insult of first and last resort with women.

But the incident is indicative of our culture's persistent fatphobia. When we see fat, we don't see a person. We don't see potential, possibilities, options. We only see fat. And what we think it means: Lazy. Inactive. Unhealthy. Decoupling fat and health is a struggle.

In a post that went up yesterday on Feministe, blogger Zuzu declares:

I am fat. I'm not as fat as I was when I started writing for Feministe, but I'm fatter than I was this time last year (yay, pre-menopause! That was a fun birthday present). So, still fat.

I am also an athlete.

Zuzu points out that the strongest women in America — weightlifters Sarah Robles and Holley Mangold — don't get sponsorships like other (thin, lean) female athletes. Media coverage almost always mentions their weight and/or body type, before noting how much they can lift. It's as though their size renders all other accomplishments moot.

Why do we insist on believing we can look at someone and know what their health and fitness levels are? Because we live in a society that fetishizes thinness, inundates us with images of svelte female bodies and brainwashes us into believing that thin is The Best Way To Be. Models and celebrities are rewarded for thinness with magazine covers and muti-million-dollar ad campaigns; it doesn't matter if they smoke or have an eating disorder or have truly odious personalities. Thinness trumps all, tricking us into equating it with health and worth, just as fatness trumps all, conning us into believing its presence is a sign of ill health and unworthiness.

Zuzu knows just how hard it is to uncouple and detangle weight and athleticism, because she's had to do it to herself:

A few weeks ago, I met with a Chi Running coach who's an ultramarathoner. It's hard not to feel lazy next to someone who can and will run 50 to 100 miles at a stretch. I made some comment about not being very fit, and she said sternly, "You're fit. You just did 9 miles."

I am an athlete. [Feministe]
NO RESPECT! Athletes, advocates defend ‘fat' Olympic-champion swimmer Leisel Jones [NYDN]
Fat Leisel? Try Fast Leisel [Vancouver Sun]

Earlier: Australian Paper Incites Backlash After Shittily Suggesting that Swimmer Leisel Jones Is Fat

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More Cheery Millennial News: 18-29-Year-Olds Aren’t Even Close to Fledging [Generation Y]

A casual perusal of our finest, financially destitute journalistic publications will most likely yield some pretty dismal information about the economy and how god-awful it is. The economy is so bad, we are told, that it is going out of its way to destroy an entire generation's hopes and dreams — millennials, as it turns out, are the economy's most bruised and battered victims and, according to a new national survey of 1,029 people ages 18-29, many millennials have already had their poor, fragile spirits crushed under the economy's bootheel.

The data collected from the survey comes as the latest wave of research in a burgeoning field of study, the new stage of development politely called "emerging adulthood" (although I think we all know enough frozen banana stand managers and struggling magicians to know what this stage is really called). People already mired in or preparing to enter their 20s are feeling a lot of pressure to become financially independent, even though that remains an elusive goal. A little more than half of the respondents said they feel anxious pretty much all the time, while 65 percent said that their lives are "full of uncertainty." 82 percent did, however, put a more positive spin on all this uncertainty, believing that it opened up more possibilities for the future.

Respondents also reported a lingering reliance on their parents' bank accounts — though 38 percent said they were financially fledged, 16 percent reported frequent financial support from their parents, while 31 percent reported receiving support "occasionally." Many of the respondents are starting to put less value on a college education, with 66 percent saying that it's possible to get a good job without dabbling in higher education.

It's a pretty popular trope in recession scribblings to bemoan the lack of initiative that millennials seem to exhibit. Bret Stephens, the Wall Street Journal's cantankerous cephalopod of a columnist, recently excoriated Gen Y's latest graduating class on its inability to name U.S. presidents to his satisfaction, and in the New York Times "The Go-Nowhere Generation" lamented a sedentary, aimless generation of hopeless homebodies eternally shuffling zombie-like through their parents' basements in footsie pajamas. Maybe millennials really are the worst group of people to ever be born, but they're still in the thick of establishing themselves — we should probably wait to evaluate the ascending generation until the older one dies off. Like the dinosaurs, who are also dead and in no position to criticize anyone for not being as cold-blooded and interesting-looking as they were.

Many ‘emerging adults' 18-29 are not there yet [USA Today]

Image via Artem Efimov/Shutterstock.

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'Black Women Who Look Like Me Aren't Lesbians' Politician Apologizes for Making Idiotic Generalization [Apologies]

Florida's now-infamous lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, has apologized after suggesting last week that women who look the way she does, i.e. a conventionally attractive black woman who wears blazers and earrings, don't engage in lesbian relationships. More than a week after the ensuing internet cyclone of outrage, during which some commenters fairly criticized Carroll for equating sexuality with appearance while others unfairly criticized her for being less attractive than some of their own lesbian acquaintances, Carroll has deemed it necessary to rehabilitate her political persona. So, like a good repentant public figure, she wrote an apology to the Nadine Smith, the head of Equity Florida, a civil rights group that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Floridians. In her letter, Carroll she explained how wrong it was to hurt other people with words.

It is wrong and inexcusable to make a comment that hurts people, and that was not my intention. As a Christian, my faith guides me to love and respect all people. The false charges that have been lodged against me are no excuse for what I have said that may have been hurtful to members of your organization and to other Floridians. Please know that I am committed to treating every person with the utmost courtesy, respect and dignity and I hope you will accept my heartfelt apology.

Smith graciously accepted Carroll's apology and now, hopefully, the world can keep turning for a little while until it's time for Florida to again fill its monthly quota of strange/upsetting/fantastical news.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll apologizes for anti-gay remark [Miami-Herald]

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