Woman as a messy variable

A few weeks ago I attended to my first and hopefully last module on quantitative research methods and I realized how useless are the measurement levels protocols to understand a society that is blurring the constrictions of binarism. 

Today I was looking for some inspiration to write an assignment and I found this fantastic video where some feminist psychologist talk about research methods. Its worth watching the full video, but I will highlight how Cannie Stark uses the idea of a messy variable. Back then women were not even considered relevant subjects to any study, today when I ask about considering the possibility of using an interval for measuring the gender identification (or any other non binary measurement) the fear of dealing with messy variables rises again. The variable measurement level for gender is supposed to be nominal, and if you want to consider something beyond male and female you are encouraged to use the label "others". 



via psychsfeministvoices

Like it or not, the world now is full of messy variables, and the messy variables will increase in the following years. That being said, what happen when researchers give zero fucks about the social context of data? happens that "Others" became the solution for every new messy variable. 

In 1993, Liz Stanley and Sue Wise listed seven key principles of doing qualitative research based upon feminist models of knowing. This principles are interesting to take under consideration precisely because they help you think about the context and deal with the issues of perspective, positionality, bias and reflexivity. 

Here the list they made: 

1) The researcher/research relationship should not be a hierarchical relationship
2) Emotion should be seen as valuable aspects of the research process
3) The conceptualizations of "objectivity" and "subjectivity" as binaries or dichotomies must not occur in research 
4) The researcher's intellectual autobiography must be taken under consideration when viewing their conclusions 
5) The researcher must consider the existence and management of different "realities" or versions held by the researchers and the researched
6) The researcher must be aware of issues surrounding authority and power in research
7) The researcher must recognize that there is an authority and power in the written representation of research 

Fat phobic people: Go and eat my belly rolls

from the movie ZUCKERBABY- Eisi Gulp, Marianne Sagerbrecht, 1985

Over a week ago I submitted an essay for the english module that I'm doing to be able to actually write my thesis. I had two options for my essay: education (my husband recommended me not to choose this topic because he know what I think about education institutions and also knew that the person who was about to grade my paper was a professor, bad idea) and child obesity. In the end I choose child obesity, because all the reading material that was given to us during the semester was kind of fat phobic, so I wanted to point out there's a whole body positive line of though that it's worth to read, to support and to share, for the sake of all. Not just the kids. 

During the tutorial meeting with my professor, she told me that it was quite brave to take such an uncontroversial topic, as if everyone though that indeed "Families need to make sure that their children always eat healthy food and do not become overweight", which was actually the title of the given topic. 

I was quite shock about her reaction, specially because in the UK I see every day beautiful and different bodies wearing gorgeous clothes, walking with confident and self-respect.  Of course now I know that not because of the government (nor the schools or universities) efforts to show diversity or educate on diversity. So here I am now sharing with all of you my paper and some body positive pictures, cheers to the curves! 

Beth Ditto - The Gossip  #stopgordofobia

I DON'T WANT TO REPEAT THE FAT PHOBIC TITLE AGAIN 

The increase in childhood obesity has become a clear indicator for the need of educating future generations for a healthy living, and families need to play an essential role during this educational process. It is in family environments where children start developing their food culture and alimentation habits. Moreover, it is the family's responsibility to provide the best alimentation for their children and to encourage them to embrace and enjoy healthier dynamics. 

However, childhood obesity is a delicate issue, particularly in cultures that value thinness, which has led to a rise of the thinspiration culture - blogs and pages dedicated to fawn on anorexia and bulimia nervosa-. Due to an increase in fat phobic attitudes, overweight children are at serious risk of developing deadly diseases such as eating disorders in adolescence. Parents not only have to share healthy alimentation habits, but also need to ensure that their children feel confident about their bodies and to enforce their understanding of the beauty of difference.  The best way to address the problem of childhood obesity, far from stigmatizing the fat body, is to encourage diversity in every possible way. It is dangerous to point out only overweight children, as a substantial number of thin infants have precisely the same nutrition problems: if efforts were focused on lessening the junk food consumption, the results would still remain positive, without the fat population feeling attacked, and therefore preventing a prolongation of pernicious fat phobic attitudes.

The values of a convenient healthy living begin in family environments; therefore, food culture can be a fantastic way to explore healthy options, for example in the vegetarian and vegan culture. For families to cook together provides a splendid educational opportunity, as it also helps children in developing their taste and curiosity for different flavours. Other enjoyable opportunities to reconcile kids and vegetables are to create an orchard or kitchen garden at home, or to search for recipes from other cultures on the Internet. Asian food and Indian food have a large number of vegetarian dishes, far more appealing than a bowl of steamed broccoli, and if children have been growing the vegetables themselves, they will feel proud and accomplished while eating healthy food.

Summing up, families need to make sure that their children always eat healthy food and do become proud of their bodies, instead of developing fat phobic attitudes that can, later on, become deadly eating disorders. Nevertheless, if parents cook at home and are creative enough to connect their children with a healthy food culture, it will be easy for their kids to feel the curiosity and to start caring about what they eat.

RAE from My Mad Fad Diary <3