KidLit Forum

Mottos:
“What other group that’s discriminated against is asked to change?”
“I am strong some days and weak on others”
Eating = “Need. Gratification. Pleasure. Fulfillment. ”
Ideas to be taken into account (that can eventually generate future discussions):
- Not only that she is fat physically but she is using food vocabulary in describing different aspects of life (food vocabulary is used subconsciously). Cam uses food vocabulary not only to make a list of the food she is eating, but otherwise, too:
e.g. “(…) she acts too enthusiastically for my taste”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to lift my fork at dinner”. “The food here doesn’t weigh much.”
“Was the rowing hard for you?” “It was a piece of cake.”
“The place is strictly sirloin.”
“She’s always the one who tries to egg me on to do things.”
- Parents’ fault for overweight teenagers:
1. They are too busy to cook at home, so they take their children to diners and restaurants
2. Don’t control their children’s diet: they eat healthy food (“broiled salmon…with a baked potato and steamed spinach…and no bread basket”) while Cam chooses junk food (“bacon avocado Swiss cheeseburger, medium-rare, sweet potato fries…salad with blue cheese dressing and a cherry Coke”)
3. They keep fit by doing physical exercises with a private trainer but don’t involve their daughter: “(…)both… are slim – and work out every day of the week with a bulked-up trainer who is…too obsessed with hydration”
4. Instead of taking their daughter to a nutritionist (they took her to a psychologist) they send her away to a fat camp: “Maybe my parents look better than I remember because they’ve been on vacation – from me.”
5. They send her letters in which they tell her that they are fine and that they are having fun

Reasons for teenagers for getting fat:
1. Society and consumerism - “It’s just that now with fast food and more women working so that fewer meals are served at home, weight issues are greater than ever and more and more people have to relearn the way to eat to stay slim and healthy.”
2. Family issues: Jesse was depressed after he mother left the family, Faith got fat after her brother tried to kill himself
3. Paradox: teenagers “have gym five days a week in school”, still they get fat
4. Low self-esteem, low motivation: “I’m guided by my stomach more than my brain.”
5. Discriminated by society: “We punish ourselves for being fat. Our families punish us for being fat. Friends punish us for being fat. Strangers punish us for being fat, either by dissing us with clichéd remarks or simply pretending we don’t exist.”

_________________
Monika Bandi

JUST FOR FUN:

LAUGHTER IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

SLIMTIME

_________________
Monika Bandi