Long runs and fat acceptance as civil rights

I’m just going to turn this into a complaining-about-the-weather blog, ok? It was 2 degrees (yes, Fahrenheit) this morning. The general consensus is that no one should leave their house and we should all have the day off so we can sit under a blanket and drink hot drinks. (However, it could be worse. In my parents’ neck of the woods it was -11F.)

On the flip side, I couldn’t really complain much about doing my 5 mile run on the boring treadmill when the alternative was to do it outside! I finished it in 1:08, though that was 5 miles on the treadmill– or 5.7 on my thingumbobber. Yeah, I don’t know which is right; I sure do like the thingumbobber though. I took 3 short walking breaks, mostly to drink water– I never can manage to drink while running without either inhaling it or spilling it everywhere. But overall it felt super solid. 5 miles today means I need to do a 3 miler sometime this weekend. Tomorrow it’s supposed to snow/ice. Maybe Sunday…

One good thing about my treadmill run was that I got to see Marianne Kirby on The Nightly Show (click to watch on Comedy Central), where she sat on a panel discussion about fat acceptance as a civil rights issue. The other panelists were Morgan Spurlock (of Supersize Me fame) and the comedians Shannon Devido (who uses a wheelchair) and Lavell Crawford (who is also fat). The discussion was framed in a fat-negative way by the host, but the commentary was good. One thing I didn’t really care for is that they pushed the “fat as disability” angle. Being fat in itself is not a disability. Being fat can contribute to mobility and ability issues that may require accommodation, and we should provide that to everyone who needs it, even if the issues are related to or a result of being fat. And I think the panelists all agreed on that, despite jokes about “eating themselves into diabetes” and lots of comments that fat people can be ‘fixed’ through diet, exercise or surgery. (Trust me, the irony of watching this while my fat butt put 5 miles on the treadmill did not escape me. Obviously I need to just put down the rice krispie treats.)

Edited to add: I read some fantastic discussion over at Shakesville and Melissa McEwan summarized it with this zinger: “It is not the responsibility of marginalized people to change themselves to accommodate bigots. That fat people are routinely admonished to do so should be what depresses you, Larry Wilmore. It sure as shit depresses me.”

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