Lizziep. I totally hear you.

I think making the class mandatory only for obese student does very much send a moral message "we can't trust you to voluntarily access this wonderful benefit."

In college and graduate school I would have taken advantage of free or cheap access to health services and fitness opportunities. In fact, I did. As an undergraduate I was in the (free) pool at least once a week. In graduate school, I paid for the reduced-rate gym membership - and used it regularly - even though I had to use the gym during unpopular times or I would be harassed by the "hard-bodies." I faced not just stares and giggles, and overheard nasty comments, but nasty confrontations and openly hostil verbal attacks "Why are you here, you're just going to go get a burger after you're done."

And THAT'S why I oppose this mandatory class - I'm afraid that it's an open invitation and even endorsement of blame and ridicule aimed at the obese students. College was nearly as bad as high school, and I don't for a minute believe that students aren't getting harassed and ridiculed by their peers for having to take that class. Making it voluntary, and offering the class for free would be wonderful - but making it a requirement for graduation DOES put an additional stigma (it does not remove it) on obesity.

As for the "you have to start somewhere" regarding all of the health crises that college-students can face - it still doesn't make sense to attack obesity "first." Alcohol, illegal substance abuse, date rape, promiscuous unprotected sex, and even smoking are more immediate threats to health and safety. Yes, obesity is associated with many health risks, but if you study obesity-related deaths and health problems, you find that obesity is a time-bomb that generally doesn't explode until late middle age or later (especially for women).

Many of the other issues (substance abuse, STD's...) have much more immediate consequences. So why are they addressing the "bomb" that will go off in 30 years, and not the one that could explode any minute?

simply because obesity can't be hidden.

Exactly. And not a valid rationale. Being able to identify (profile) a problem by apearance alone, is the worst kind of stereotyping and discrimination.

It's not acceptable to say "we can tell by looking at you, that you have a problem - that you ARE a problem."

If they'd decided that only obese men had to take the class (because obesity affects men earlier) or if they had different BMI criteria for men and women - there would be an uproar of discrimination.

And yet, BMI risks are significantly different for men and women, so if this is science-based at all (and not moral/social) then why is the same BMI cut-off being used for men and women?

In seems to me....in my lifetime...we have gone from...

don't smoke... to

don't smoke and don't do drugs...to

no smoking, drugs or sex....to

no smoking, drugs, sex...and now eating campaigns...

Are we slow learners or what!?

EZ, I don't know how old you are, but maybe it's 'cause you were a guy...my grandma (85) and my mom were both told growing up that they had to be thin to get a man. This wasn't a PSA (public service announcement) type thing, and it wasn't my family's dysfunction -- it was the message of the day. Donna Reed, Jackie O, Marilyn Monroe...they were skinny and so was everyone else (or so it seemed).

We had a friend from church choir who was very large and she had to make her own clothes or send away for them from the Sears Catalog and some other places. I remember the one year that my mother had a hard time shopping for me, not because I was overweight, but because I hadn't hit puberty, so I was technically a "giant child" because I couldn't wear women's pants or shirts. We tried everything...she took me from store to store, and finally she asked in a panic our overweight friend to help and they both made and altered clothes for me that year.

Sorry, went off topic, but "don't eat so much, you won't get/keep a man" has been a message to women for several hundred years.

When I was in college, safe sex, not no sex was the message. I remember our RA visiting every room and offering condoms or candy to those that wanted either or both.

I think there is nothing wrong with promoting health but skinny doesn't mean health. Of course with as stressful as a place as college can be, the last thing people tend to think about is their health.

Right. The problem is, this class looks great on the President's report, and health is the #1 issue in everyone's mind the last few years when this program was instituted...think about the kudos this guy got....

Problem: Our state has a higher rate of obesity than the national average (I'm making this up)
Solution: We've made up this great program
Result: Crunch some end-of-semester numbers that show that some segment of the class lost weight, show some valuable feedback from the evaluations, etc. Get some pictures in the paper, some video on the six o'clock news about how Moo U is trimming the fat. priceless PR.

There are certainly other issues plaguing the student body - unplanned pregnancy or STD, for example. The problem is, you can't profile that...can't walk up to a promiscuously clad girl and say, "You look as though you may have slept with the whole basketball team, you need to take our safe sex class!" Even if her name is written on the bathroom wall, you can't do it.

In a way, obesity is a 24/7 billboard for food addiction (again, with my caveat that I understand that obesity does occur for other reasons, and likewise, food addiction occurs without obesity). There are some other addictive behaviors that have obvious physical identifiers - "meth mouth", the drawn face of the heroin addict, the red eye of the pot head, the gaunt face and odors associated with bulimia, the tracks of IV use and SI cutting... but even all of those require a much more sophisticated eye to identify.

I don't think it's really a matter of the "sophisticated eye." Because even when it's blatantly obvious, it's often not as socially acceptable to address those problems. We're supposed to pretend we don't see those problems, at least until we KNOW they are causing severe legal, financial, relationship... problems. When it comes to fat though, we don't need evidence that the weight IS causing problems, we're justified because there MIGHT be problems. While it's still considered "rude" it's more acceptable to notice and comment on weight, often much more so than drug abuse and sex addiction.

If you're a fat person, you don't have to have any apparent health problems to face criticism and even brutally nasty behavior - but if you're promiscuous or an illegal substance user, people keep their mouth shut until an "intervention" is necessary (that is until there's proof that the person is not just dysfunctional, but actually destructive to self or others).

It's more "ok" to say "you're fat, you need to lose weight," than to say "you're a skank, you need to stop sleeping with so many men."

You could actually catch a girl "in the act" of having sex with the entire basketball team during the basketball game - on the court - without a condom - and it would be less acceptable to confront her about the risky behavior than it would to "tsk" at an overweight woman take a single bite of a donut.

Exageration? Yes, but unfortunately more truth than not, in my experience.

There's a chance I'd pay good money to witness that conversation.


Anyhow, My college experience was similar to nelie's weight loss/gain-wise. Freshman/sophomore years I lost 38 lbs. Junior/senior years between the reverse culture shock/depression, harder classes, and my shiny new binge eating disorder I gained it all back plus 30 additional pounds. *Note- I was exercising regularly, even with a trainer and still gaining weight due to my binge eating.

My point? You can't make people lose weight, even if you make them exercise. I've never minded exercise. I loved high school weight training (despite being the only fatty in the bunch). Like so many here, I'm not bothered by the idea of a college PE class or even it being mandatory or determined by a placement test. But I do have a problem with having to take a fat class. And you know that's exactly what everyone calls the class. I'm very open about my weight and my diet (it's not like people didn't notice I'm fat), but having to take a class because I'm fat stigmatizes it so badly. Should I wear a scarlet F as well?