Ditto: Standing In The Way Of Control

Beth Ditto, lead singer of the band Gossip, is in the news again, this time taking on the belief that thin=healthy and fat=not healthy.

“I’m not an unhealthy person and… one of the most tiring parts of being fat and being proud of it is… you do a lot of proving yourself all the time.”

She added: “It’s really interesting to me that people will look at a thin person and go, ‘That’s a healthy person’. I want to go: ‘Come, open my refrigerator and look, and then let’s talk about what you think is so bad.’ To be thin and to stay really thin… some people literally do coke all the time. Some people smoke cigarettes instead of eating. That’s crazy. But that’s OK, because you look healthier.”

It’s also right after her second clothing collection had fatshionistas talkin‘ on Twitter. So, whether you know Beth’s music or not, here’s Beth singing her song Standing In The Way Of Control. The second clip shows her dancing on stage in a hot pink minidress, but the lyrics are clearer in the first one :)

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Posted

September 27, 2010

Clothing, fluff, health, Music, News

Living 400lbs

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Comments

12 responses to “Ditto: Standing In The Way Of Control”

Erin S.

September 27, 2010

In your first paragraph you said : “this time taking on the belief that fat=healthy and thin=not healthy” — is this what you meant to write, or did accidentally transpose the words fat and thin?

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  September 27, 2010
  
  Thanks. Yes, I’d made a mistake, it’s corrected now.
  
  Reply
Erin S.

September 27, 2010

ahhh, I accidentally started reading the comments… my eyes, my wonderful wonderful eyes… I fear I may have poked them out to escape the horror

Anyway, other than the comments being about what one would expect and some problematical language/word choice on the part of the writer, I liked Ditto’s challenge to check her fridge and tell her what is so unhealthy. Course, when you’re fat even healthy things will get called unhealthy — we’ve probably all had a doctor telling us not to eat carrots because there is too much sugar in them for instance. And I know I’ve frequently gotten chewed out by health nut acquaintances or family because I routinely consume such unhealthy objects as fresh fruit and fruit juices. And horror of horrors, I buy whole milk! Course, most of that ends up in the bellies of assorted felines heh.

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  September 27, 2010
  
  we’ve probably all had a doctor telling us not to eat carrots because there is too much sugar in them for instance. And I know I’ve frequently gotten chewed out by health nut acquaintances or family because I routinely consume such unhealthy objects as fresh fruit and fruit juices.
  
  My dad insists that corn is fattening because “it’s what they feed cows”. I don’t think eating just one food is ever healthy, and, y’know, I’m not a cow…?
  
  Reply
CTJen

September 27, 2010

Wow. She’s amazing!

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wriggles

September 27, 2010

To be thin and to stay really thin… some people literally do coke all the time. Some people smoke cigarettes instead of eating.

And if when they crash that bash, they become fat, they think they know everything about fatness in five minutes and start informing us as to how being fat is like being a drug addict and food is an addiction.

Spare us from the know-it-all five minute fattiez!!!

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  September 27, 2010
  
  Yes. One thing I’ve learned is that each person can speak to their own experience, but experiences in fat (and thin) vary widely.
  
  Reply
Bronwyn

September 27, 2010

Sadly if some people checked Beth’s fridge they’d probably just assume she was on a diet and got fat because she was eating junk all the time. -_-

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Erin S.

September 28, 2010

Or they’d assume that she had a second secret fridge where she kept all the “unhealthy bad” foods that fat people just gorge themselves on 24/7.

You really can’t win. If you’re fat and don’t diet and stay fat, you’re a lazy glutton, and if you’re fat and do diet and stay fat, you’re a liar. I know I know, choir, preaching to… le sigh.

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Sarah

September 30, 2010

Most people who are skinny aren’t healthy at all. If everyone had to do some of the tests to determine how healthy you are most people, both skinny and fat wouldn’t pass them (and trust me I had to do a bunch of them in my exercise physiology class in college and they are ridiculously hard). Skinny definitely doesn’t mean healthy because girls that have anorexia or bulemia are skinny and they definitely aren’t healthy, they are actually ruining the insides of their bodies. Unfortunately the image of being skinny has become the image of health when in reality its just the fantasy of people who are making celebrities icons.

Reply
1. Living 400lbs
  
  September 30, 2010
  
  I don’t know that *most* people who are skinny aren’t healthy. If they have healthy habits and their body is naturally thin, then that may be the right size for them.
  
  Or were you thinking Beth Ditto’s reference to “skinny” means “underweight”? (Again, some people are naturally underweight, but not all.)
  
  Reply
  1. closetpuritan
    
    October 7, 2010
    
    I’m thinking based on “most people, skinny and fat, wouldn’t pass these tests”, she meant most skinny people aren’t healthy because most people in general aren’t healthy? (At least if passing those tests is how you define “healthy”.)
    
    I’m not familiar with those tests, but I would say that most people, skinny or fat, probably don’t eat and exercise the way the CDC, etc. want us to.
    
    Reply