#in fact a lot of disabled people are fat & vice versa

[pa-pa-plasma]

look, if your kneejerk reaction to "being obese can cause health problems" is "so you're suggesting we abuse fat people" I think you need to go to therapy. simply acknowledging a health issue that disproportionately effects people who are fat is not abuse. no one is suggesting forcing you to go on a starvation diet. we are saying you deserve to know what you will possibly need to deal with in the future, health-wise. that shouldn't be hidden from you, or anyone with any condition that can cause other issues, & if being told possible health issues is a trigger, then you need help to get to the point where you are capable of viewing your health objectively instead of through the lens that everyone is making fun of you.

[writingwithcolor]

Iam wanting to write a story about a girl who has asthma, a learning disability and is considered by society to be less than average. She is also a little over weight. When she has been given immortality other immortals shun her and want her dead. To escape from this she goes to a martial arts temple in China. She is also an American. I was wondering how I could incorporate both cultures in my story?

Overweight Chinese American girl with asthma & learning disability, martial arts, & China

Disclaimer: I’ve written this response assuming that the main character herself is Chinese or Chinese-American. 

Some stuff I’d like to discuss point-by-point:

Being an Asthmatic

Asthmatics don’t exactly have the best representation in media, so I’m worried about a non-Asthmatic writing a story where the main conflict is centered around the MC’s method of coping with ableism.

Especially considering how we’re portrayed as stereotypical nerds/geeks for not being absolute athletes (haha maybe because pushing ourselves that far will literally result in an asthma attack-)

I have a feeling that in addition to the point where Chinese people are already stereotyped as nerds, having her be asthmatic as well does mean you’ll have to be more careful in how you present her. We already have the whole “model minority, East Asian = nerd” thing going for us.

Being “overweight”

America’s definition of “overweight” looks different for all kinds of people! 

Someone who’s statistically considered “overweight” by American standards might pass as being “average” (in American standards once again) and vice-versa! The existence of the word actually insinuates the existence of an ideal weight-- pretty fatphobic.

If you mean to say that she’s fat, chubby, and/or plump, then do so. Don’t dance around the term just because it’s deemed ‘undesirable’ by our Eurocentric beauty standards. 

(Additionally, being chubby is associated with the nerd trope as well. More to watch out when developing her character.)

Mod Rune mentions the specific way you’ve phrased how as a result of her being overweight and asthmatic, she’s “considered by society to be less than average” and she’s shunned/wanted dead specifically for these two reasons.

Being disabled =/= incompetency or being less than an abled person. Once again, an OwnVoices situation would make sense; However I would still worry about infantilizing Asthmatic/chubby people this way.

The plot… oof.

I’m worried that your method of combating the already-delicate conflict (that she’s looking for a way to cope with her feelings of inadequacy induced by ableism/fatphobia), is pretty insulting. You specifically word her trip to China as an “escape” which I feel could have a much better reason-- your excuse as is sounds to lead into a story of “refinding myself at the home of my birth culture” or something like that- especially with the fact that she’ll be doing this at a martial arts temple. A very cultural aspect of China.

Martial Arts?

That being said; Even though a Chinese martial artist does feel rather stereotypical, it does help with asthma (source: me and Taekwondo)

Specifically, according to this study from NCBI on the correlation between asthmatic children and Taichichuan, results have shown that “12 weeks of Tai-Chi-Chuan could improve the pulmonary function, decrease airway inflammation, and improve quality of life in children with mild asthma”.

However Northern Shaolin, Hung Ga, Wing Chun, and other Chinese forms of martial arts could work as well! Please do research on the specific techniques and differentiate between them. Appropriating Chinese martial arts on top of the fact that it’s already rather tropey- very bad.

A different plot?

Perhaps don’t send her off to China to quote, "escape from how other [immortals shun her and want her dead]". 

I think a better motivation for this change in landscape would be “She wanted to train to get stronger and improve her health with how it was negatively impacted because of her asthma.” 

The thing with a lot of disabled people is that-- we don’t want to have to “keep up” with abled people. We don’t want to need to take all these extra measures just to be able to function ‘normally’ (or at least the one defined by society). I feel that the motives in your original plot panders to that idea that she must get stronger or else she’ll never be accepted by the other immortals. A Chinese-American asthmatic myself, I’d much rather see her self-worth measured through her own growth as an individual than how well she ‘fits in’ with non-asthmatics.

Marika mentions that people also often do martial arts for culturally-relevant exercise-- so this could also be a way for her to reconnect with her birth culture.

Sophia also mentions that being overweight has little on one’s skills as a martial artist; So it shouldn’t be used as an argument as to why someone shouldn’t be taking on a certain expertise. (Seconded, as someone who did kendo: some of the better kendoka were overweight and had more precision than I did --Jess)

Incorporating TCK Culture:

Look for stuff written by actual Chinese-American third-culture kids!

Every little part of life- from the stories parents tell their kids before bed to the kind of food we eat daily- is 100% influenced by both our caregivers and the community we live in. For me personally, we’d have hotpot dinners with other Asian families during the Lunar New Year and I’d typically be sent to Chinese school on Sundays as well. 

Mods Jess and Lesya touch up on some TCK elements in this ask as well! (Wanting to Learn More About Culture Because of Chinese Name) However your MC celebrates her cultures will also depend on how assimilated into America her family is.

Like I said earlier: look for materials that Chinese-American TCKs and immigrants have written! There’s no better way to learn about certain customs than getting them from the actual source.

My ending thoughts!

These are honestly traits that I’d love to see more, as an asthmatic Chinese-American myself who has done martial arts in the past, haha.

Be extra careful when a ton of your character’s traits are found in East Asian (Chinese) caricatures! Be sure to flesh her out as a three-dimensional character as this description that you’ve given us (regarding her conflict) makes me go >.>-- I don’t like it as is.

Give her motivations for herself that aren’t purely to conform to others (per the submissive Asian girl trope). Having a bullied Asian girl does feel like it plays into this, so please don’t have her measure her worth as an individual based off of the standards set by abled people!

Do tons of research on Chinese martial arts! Marika mentions huge points below that I want you to consider when giving her a specific speciality-- just saying “a martial arts temple” doesn’t cut it. 

(As always, any reader feedback/additions would be appreciated!)

~ Mod Emme

These are my thoughts as someone who has practiced various styles of Chinese martial arts. 

While the quality of the instructor and the student’s efforts are crucial, I think you need to be clear on the following:

The style of martial arts your character will be doing

Their physical limitations

The type of learning disability they have. 

Different fighting styles suit the limitations of different body types in different ways

A person who is overweight may find styles with explosive movements that put weight on vulnerable joints like the knees to be painful. Styles that favor stable stances may be more feasible than those that emphasize movements with lots of air time, crouching and jumping.

A person who is inflexible will need a style that encourages them to keep limber to avoid getting hurt.

A person with diminished lung capacity will need a style that safely challenges their endurance.

Different learning disabilities might make certain styles more or less difficult to learn

ADHD may favor fast fighting styles with complex move sets and a wide variety of weapons.

Issues associated with memory retention may make styles that emphasize sparring easier than those that focus on memorizing forms

Make no mistake, the culture of a style will be as much of a consideration for your character as the Chinese and American cultural influences. Do your research, and inquire with practitioners as to what styles would work well for your characters. 

The tumblr blog How to Fight Write would likely be a good resource on the physical logistics of different styles. 

- Marika

[fatphobiabusters]

What gets me about a lot of fatphobes is that they'll talk about weight in the same shitty way they talk about disability, and some will even go as far as to call someone's weight a disability, then they'll mock fat people for being unhealthy and "not being abled" (regardless if they are or aren't)...

And the minute you say this is ableist, they turn around and go "Uh but weight isn't a disability so it's not ableism sweetie!"

I'm sorry but there is literally no way to paint a lack of ability or being unhealthy as a bad thing or a moral failing without being ableist. Like. The fact is, a lot of what people say about weight hurts disabled people too and vice versa, and there is no way to account for that unless you consider ableism.

You cannot treat someone as lesser than you for reasons like "you can't even walk normally" or "but you're going to die young" or "but you're so unhealthy" or "your breathe so abnormally" or whatever else people say about fat people and then act like that isn't ableist. There is just no other explanation for it.

A lot of fatphobia is also ableism, and fatphobes are more often than not ableist. It doesn't matter that weight is not a disability. You're still hurting disabled people with the way you degrade people for their health.

And frankly, I'm fed up with it.

- Mod Bella

[dpdr-dreams]

What's weed connection with dpdr?

Weed strains when ‘abused’/ taken in excess can result in a type of panic attack which forces the body into a dissociative state, with depersonalised and derealised symptoms, although trauma still must be present for this to occur for the body to fall back onto this preconditioned protective state. “ case series of 6 patients who developed persistent depersonalization disorder in adolescence after consuming cannabis. In 2 of these cases, the illness course was severely disabling.“  “someone living with panic attacks is less likely to respond to the experience with relaxation, and many instead respond with a panic attack or rush of anxiety.“

but the truth is thc and other receptor binders in various strains (which each ratio will vary between different strains, so that must be taken into account when looking at both triggers and treatment) can help regulate this already off balance from trauma induced depression or anxiety like symptoms!! so when used medically and with regulation, a thought out plan in response to the already developed state your endocannabinoid system seems to be in rather than just symptoms (which is why trauma history and understanding how your brain is developed is key to most treatments) is essential to getting the right help. 

what natural and/ therefore synthetic (weed) do: “cannabinoids function like a “dimmer switch” for presynaptic neurons, limiting the amount of neurotransmitter (e.g., dopamine) that gets released, which in turn affects how messages are sent, received, and processed by the cell.”

and in fact the human body actually “produces its own “endogenous” cannabinoids (chemicals otherwise unique to the cannabis plant). These cannabinoids—whether formed in your brain or inhaled via smoking—fit neatly into a series of specialized receptors located throughout the human body, with their greatest concentration in the hippocampus (which regulates memory), the cerebral cortex (cognition), the cerebellum (motor coordination), the basal ganglia (movement), the hypothalamus (appetite), and the amygdala (emotions).”

but because weed can hold high amounts of THC- the chemical that affects the access and managing of these important brain areas naturally- when someone lets too much into their system at once, THC consequently “overwhelms the EC system, quickly attaching to cannabinoid receptors throughout the brain and body. This interferes with the ability of “natural cannabinoids” to do their job of fine-tuning communication between neurons, which can throw the entire system off balance.” and when accompanied by an anxiety or panic attack the body goes into ‘shock’, and with it being in the current unbalanced state, it causes your body to use the defense mechanism DPDR (triggered from being a past coping mechanism in likely subtler forms in childhood), but as it occurs in this state the way the body copes can be to keep the body at a regulation at this level. also depending on how much or how you took the weed it can be stored in fat cells which can be released over a period of time even after stopping (which can reduce withdrawal effects making it practically unharmful physically to stop taking which is great but can make symptoms maybe last longer as it’s responding to a gradual reduction). but this also means is the attack of anxiety is more linked to thc dose it will subside with time, however, if taken by someone with a prior history of panic and anxiety (or other mood) disorders it will become a case of treating the source of that illness than the thc dose. 

Cannabis for Restoring Balance

Cannabinoids from cannabis have the ability to bind to cannabinoid receptors and restore balance too. in people suffering from chronic pain, -which effects emotional, sleep, cognitive and sensory health- THC is not only an analgesic, it also blocks the pain from stimulating the cannabinoid receptors that are triggering the increased heart rate, blood pressure, mood effects and sleep deprivation in the brain, as the EC system is so integrated with our whole well being. which also explains why mental disorders despite being primary psychological illnesses have physical side effect symptoms and vice-versa for physical health.

Cannabis has been shown to offer health benefits in treating a number of these overlapping mental/physical conditions associated with homeostatic imbalance, including:

Arthritis

Lupus

Depression

Fibromyalgia

Appetite disorders

Diabetes

Crohn’s Disease

Researchers are also looking at the effects of cannabis on schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that may be due to an unbalanced dopamine and other neurochemical cycles in the brain. which as dopamine receptors have a cannabinoid receptor as a part of that neuron we know weed can be a huge part of that regulation and treatment.

But as i said before at the start cannabinoids can also be key to regulating what our bodies may lack as the result from the EC systems now developmental issues related to abuse/ trauma and born mental health issues. weed is not something to be written off as a scary thing that can induce such a terrifying illness as dpdr, as it can also treat it. regulation and medical control of a prescription plan is what modern medicine needs to look into as controlling our EC system is key to regulating even the most complex of health issues, something only weed can teach us to treat from. “clinical data fully support the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the etiopathogenesis of several mental diseases in terms of cannabinoid receptors and endocannabinoid levels, present in mood disorders (anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and suicidality) as well as psychosis. human studies seem to suggest that pharmacological modulation of this system might represent a novel approach for treatment. (schizophrenia)” source:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26408164

in summary, over-stimulation of the EC system (from taking too much of a very thc dominant weed strain) causes imbalance, which in trauma sufferers can cause a panicked state triggering a prior childhood coping mechanism into a more severe form (DPDR). But this relationship between THC and the out of balance EC is also known now to be of amazing help in the regulation used for treatment against a lot of the physical changes in the brain and symptoms of dpdr.

thanks anon for the ask i enjoyed writing on this topic, especially as im not from the large group of people who suffer from the THC induced dissociative disorders,  i found it really useful to understand how it occurs for other people and the surprising new treatments. sorry if its a bit long and all over the place/repetitive as being a severe dpdr sufferer myself it maybe is not written very well/coherently but i hope that it still answers your question abit !  so thanks again anon and wishing you well!  

[fatphobiabusters]

Stats 101- On Being Fat and Healthy

Mod Siarl has been talking a lot lately about statistics and the fact that correlation does not equal causation, and how they have yet to see a study that controlled for other possible reasons that fat people experience health problems.

Some people still seem confused, so I thought I’d give a quick Statistics 101 lesson on correlation to help. 

First, it helps to know why people do statistics. Statistics is part of the empirical approach to acquiring knowledge, in which knowledge is “based on making observations of individuals or objects of interest” (Pyrczak, 2014, p. 3). Statistics are one important part of making observations to gain knowledge and gives us an opportunity to look at phenomena in our society that we might want to study further. Sociologists use statistics to decide whether or not there is discrimination based on certain traits, like race or gender, and psychologists use statistics to study whether a certain drug has a positive effect on treating some kind of mental illness. Other groups obviously use statistics as well, for similar reasons. 

There are different kinds of statistics. Descriptive statistics summarize data, by looking at things like the mean, median, mode, or range of something. One might use it to explain how often something happens (frequency), how much variation exists within a population, etc. It’s about just reporting simple observations. 

Inferential statistics tell us how much confidence we can have when generalizing from a sample to a population (a population is all the members of a group one wishes to study, while a sample is a subset of a population that the researcher actually studies, because no one can really get data from an entire population). This is done by calculating a confidence interval, that allows us to say, “We are x% confident that the population mean falls within this range of numbers.” This way, no one is saying that something is 100% true, and the chance that the researchers could be wrong is taken into account. Usually, the percentage used is 95% or 99%.

The statistics we are interested in here is correlational statistics, a subgroup of descriptive statistics. The purpose of this type of statistics is to describe the relationship between two or more variables. To quote Fred Pyrczak, “Correlation refers to the extent to which two variables are related across a group of participants” (2014, p. 57). In other words, it shows whether or not two or more variables are related to one another. It shows that when one variable changes, another changes too. 

In a direct or positive relationship, those who score high on one variable tend to score high on the other, and those who score low on one variable tend to score low on the other. In an inverse or negative relationship, those who score high on one variable score low on the other and vice versa.

For example, someone with a high level of depression might have a lower self-esteem. That’s an inverse relationship. Someone with a high GPA might have better test scores. That’s a direct relationship. 

How strongly correlated something is can be measured by a statistic called the Pearson r, where r ranges from -1.00 to 1.00. The closer the r is to 0, the weaker the relationship. The closer the r is to -1.00 or 1.00, the stronger the relationship. If the r is negative, the relationship is inverse, and if the r is positive, the relationship is direct. Finding the Pearson r is an easy way to figure out whether or not something is correlated. 

So, correlation implies a relationship between two variables. Correlation does not, however, imply that changes to one variable causes the other variable to change, or explain why they change. That’s what is meant by “correlation does not equal causation.”

There are two kinds of relationships that can be explained by correlation. A causal relationship is one in which the change in one variable causes the other to change. In order to study a causal relationship, a controlled experiment or study is needed. In this kind of study, possible factors that may be causing something are taken into account, to test if the two correlated variables would still effect each other if this other variable was not an issue. 

For example, the more education and income one has, the less likely one is to have children. Would income have an effect on the likelihood of having kids if education was not a factor? One can do a study or test to see if, amongst different people of different incomes, the likelihood of having kids changes even if they all have the same amount of education. This is how one controls for education. As it happens, when education is controlled for, people of higher incomes still are less likely to have kids. When income is controlled for, people of higher education are still less likely to have kids. Both of these variables affect the likelihood of having kids. This is causal; having a high education and higher income causes people to have fewer kids (or at least, it accounts for a percentage of the cause; we can actually determine how much of a percent that is. Obviously, other factors like gender and family values also cause people to have a certain number of kids.)

There’s another possible relationship, however, known as a spurious relationship. A spurious relationship is one in which two variables are related to each other because a third, unknown variable effects them both; the two variables have no effect on one another. 

Take, for example, ice cream. Ice cream sales are directly related to the number of drownings. In other words, as ice cream sales go up, the number of drownings also go up. Does this mean eating ice cream causes people to drown? No! But you know what else changes around the time these variables do? The weather. In summer, it’s hot, so people buy more ice cream and swim more in order to cool down. This leads to increased drownings because more people are getting in the water, and an increase in ice cream sales because more people are buying ice cream and are doing so more often. Drowning doesn’t cause someone to buy ice cream, and buying ice cream doesn’t cause someone to drown. There’s a third, unseen variable - weather - that causes both of these variables to change. 

The only way to tell if something is causal or spurious is to control for outside variables. If one doesn’t eliminate the possibility that a third variable plays a role in the relationship of two variables, one can’t tell for sure if the two variables affect each other or not. 

So, when Mod Sairl said they hadn’t seen a study that said being fat causes health problems control for other possible reasons, they were saying we have no proof that the relationship between weight and health issues is causal instead of spurious.

There are other reasons fat people might be more likely to be unhealthy. Sairl already outlined most of these. 

Fat people don’t go to the doctor as often as thin people, and are treated for health problems in their far later stages. This is because of medical fatphobia, and the fear, pain, and dread that many fat people face when going to the doctor. (See here,  here and here. Also. consider going here before looking at that last link.)

Adding to that last point, doctors also take fat people’s health complaints less seriously, which means they are less likely to be treated for those problems. 

Fat people also tend to be people who are poor and/or facing high levels of oppression and /or trauma, all of which cause stress and various health issues. (See here, here, and here.) 

Because of the bullying fat people face, many develop depression and other mental illnesses that make it harder for them to take care of their health or feel like their health matters. (See: Hating On Fat People Just Makes Them Fatter.) If they feel unimportant and are struggling with simple tasks because of mental illness, staying healthy will not really be a concern.

There are other reasons why fat people might be more unhealthy than thin people as well. And when studies don’t control for these issues, they run the risk of being wrong about the relationship between size and health. If these factors are taken into account, it’s possible that the relationship between weight and health is either really weak, or is spurious. In other words, it’s possible that all this drama over being as thin as possible and forcing diet culture on fat people in order to “make them healthy” is over nothing. We already know many fat people can be healthy, and if size isn’t the direct cause of one’s health issues, treating one’s size won’t do anything to make them healthier or benefit other people who may be unhealthy in the future. Tackling fatphobia, poverty, oppression, and other issues might do a lot more to make people healthy than demanding people lose weight. But we can’t know for sure if no one ever studies how these factors affect the relationship between weight and health. 

So now that we’ve had this stats 101 class, I want to make one last important point:

Yes, everyone should get an opportunity to be as healthy as possible, and yes, being healthy is a good thing. I am totally pro free universal health care for a reason. But unhealthy people are not bad people, are not lesser people, and are not unworthy of equal treatment. To discriminate against people on the basis of health is not okay. Unhealthy people are still valuable. Even if someone is unhealthy by choice, they should be allowed to make that choice for themselves and not be discriminated against for doing so. 

To quote one of my favorite posts ever, “Linking someone’s health to their moral goodness or worth is inherently ableist. If someone is fat and unhealthy they are still a human being worthy of love and respect. If someone is fat and disabled they are still a human being worthy of love and respect. If someone is fat and eats nothing but junk food and never exercises THEY ARE STILL A HUMAN BEING WORTHY OF LOVE AND RESPECT. ...  TTHE HEALTH STATUS OF OTHER PEOPLE IS NONE OF YOUR GODDAMN BUSINESS ANYWAY. Right to privacy in personal medical concerns is like, one of those inherent human right things that we have all these laws protecting to the point that it’s a crime to share someone’s private medical information without their consent.”   

And, on that note, I recommend reading this. 

Too Long, Didn’t Read: Read the bolded parts and you’ll get what you need to get out of this post. 

-Mod Bella 

Reference:

Pyrczak, F. (2014). Making sense of statistics: A conceptual overview (6th ed.). Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Pub.