School Popularity Affects Girls Weight, NY Times
I'll let the more experienced cover the article as a whole. But I just wanted to pick out this bit:
And as part of other anti-obesity measures, school officials should consider implementing programs to help girls build social skills, they added.
.......
*faint*
Ugh. There's so much in this one little quote, I just can't think of how to address it all.
There's the fact that apparently a girl's position on the social ladder only begins to matter to adults the moment she starts showing a little chub. No mention of the social ostracization, including the emotional harm—all the way up to and including depression and suicide—and the physical harm involved (ask my friend Mike what he faced as an unpopular child in school).
There's the fact that, for goodness' sake, these are children! My husband was a very chubby child, but he grew up to be 5'9, 120lbs, and plateaued at 140 when he was weightlifting. I was a chubby little girl, and grew up to be 5'8" and 125lbs at the highest before I got on my current medication.
There's the fact that you can't just swoop in and "teach" a girl "social skills." The hierarchy that exists in elementary, middle and even high school is far, far more complicated than adults give them credit for. Girls who are perfectly "skilled" socially are still ostracized. Even if a girl is a late bloomer in the social skills department, her position on the social ladder may be cemented enough that it doesn't help her any. And popularity can be based on absolutely random shit sometimes that has not a thing to do with whether you have social skills.
There's the fact that maybe the girl is perfectly happy with the friends she has, and doesn't particularly want to be friends with the girls she perceives as "popular." I knew I wasn't high on the popularity list in high school (and I was beyond skinny, by the way), but I had no delusions that I would lead any better a life if I was. I had amazing friends and I wouldn't have traded them for all the prep cred in the world.
And finally, to state the fucking obvious, there's the fact that maybe, just maybe, these children are unpopular BECAUSE they are fat.
*head.* *desk.*
Update: Just wanted to add a slightly different perspective: Could it be that, besides popular girls being selected in part for their body type, they also feel such intense pressure to remain thin that they'll do anything to keep that status? As usual, it's a double-edged sword here.
