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Original poster

"Men and obesity Wheres the help with weight loss"

57 replies

HelenaDove · 12/07/2015 17:41

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/12/men-obesity-weight-loss-help?CMP=twt_gu

I Cant Even. The support for men isnt there because the pressure on men lookswise isnt the same as it is for women.

The article states how hes had to do it all himself. Hes also moaned about how mens articles focus on how to get a six pack in six weeks FFS womens mags have been running articles like "lose 5 pounds in a week" for decades.

Im glad hes achieved the weight loss hes wanted. Speaking as a woman who has lost ten stone i know what its like.

But the situation has arisen in this way because of patriarchy and the pressure women to pass the fuckability test. It is NOT the fault of women. The article says there is more support for women but there is more pressure too.

And the article explains how a FREE weight management programme was created.

Women who go to Slimming World or Weight Watchers have to pay a joining fee and a weekly fee. In a world where women are still paid less than men.

OP posts:
SanityClause · 12/07/2015 21:51

Men can (and do) pay to go to Weight Watchers and Slimming World, and the like. Which are organisations based on screwing as much money out of people as they can, anyway.

This is such a non story from the Guardian.

InnocentWhenYouDream · 12/07/2015 21:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
HelenaDove · 12/07/2015 21:46

Mide 7 When i was a lot bigger i used to get shouted at and abused for it in the street. This does not happen to men on anywhere near the same scale.

Baking is correct. In fact our group awarded the Man of the Year award very recently.

Flora you have pretty much summed up what i meant in a better way than i did.

OP posts:
FloraFox · 12/07/2015 21:22

The weight loss industry is not there to support women but to profit from the pressures on women to try to lose weight (again and again). It is a feminist issue when men complain that women are privileged by aspects of oppression especially where this gets printed in a major newspaper.

BakingCookiesAndShit · 12/07/2015 19:59

GPs can give out vouchers for free membership of things like WW and SW along with local gyms. I know that SW has a special programme for men, and a separate award for them, so I'm failing to see his point.

ChunkyPickle · 12/07/2015 19:51

TBH, good on him - he's doing what we so often say, and getting off his bum to solve an issue for himself and for the male half of the population!

I think it would be better if we were all going in the other direction, with focus on looks and more on health, so I don't think it's good that this is rising in men, no matter what the current status of women.

I will say, I think he's overestimating the help women get - yes, we can pay to go to weight watchers which does play to its demographic (but then it's a commercial enterprise, so it would), but various doctors and midwives I've seen over my life have pretty much all done nothing more than thrust a leaflet at me and earnestly tell me it would be good for my health to lose weight (sometimes helpfully listening to what I've said, and telling me to move more and eat less)

Mide7 · 12/07/2015 19:42

Helena why is this a feminist issue?

I haven't been on this board a long time but in the time I've been here the main thing I've learned as a male is, I can be all for equal rights for women but there are going to be things I don't understand because of my male privilege. Therefore the opposite is true as well isnt it? as a female how do you know the pressure that mean face in modern society?

I'm not saying at all that it's as well established as body image pressure that women face but it's certainly increasing. The numbers of men with eating disorders is up, the number of men taking steroids is huge. look at male movie actors, the cover of men's health or gq magazine. They are mostly incredibly muscular men, almost certainly on muscle building drugs, dehydrated, using good lighting and still prob using photo shop.

There was a thread on here recently about domestic violence being a gendered crime because of the overwhelming numbers of women who experience I compared to men and whole don't know how true the figures are in that article it strikes me more as something that effects men. ( not as clear cut as the DV figures but according to that article men are still more likely to be fat and less likely to receive help.) if that's the case why shouldn't be requesting more help?