Slightly changing gears, but still on-topic, some of you know of my continuing quest for an end to the social prejudice against fat people. But my reasons are not just anchored in the passion for social justice. I happen to like fat people! And I think our society expends no energy at all contemplating the beauty of the fat human form.
Which leads me to the question...“What is the ideal human weight in context X?”
My Google Fu failed me in my search for the answer to the question. I’m going to have to get in touch with a library.
There is no end of speculation and bald-faced assertion, usually in connection with the fat-bashing climate.
It got me to thinking, does “in context X” nullify the question? Humans have gotten taller since our wild days before the dawn of civilization. Humans with different lifestyle preferences and work fitness needs may not operate at the same ideal weight—not even within their own groups. And a growing body of medical literature suggests that obesity itself is not unhealthy in much of the population.
Maybe there is no ideal weight. Maybe all we can say is that extreme low and extreme high weights are not ideal except in very special circumstances, and intermediate weights are ideal on a case-by-case, time-sensitive basis. What is the deviation from ideality in a Parisian auteur who likes cream puffs so much that she becomes one? What is the flaw in the form of a Silicon Valley haqueur (sorry) whose belly fills his lap at the office?
There are lean bodies, with no loose fat and little to moderate musculature. There are muscular bodies, taut and dense with anywhere from very little to quite a bit of fat. There are fat bodies, squishy and jiggly with varying amounts of muscle mass underneath. Societal norms notwithstanding, and popular beliefs notwithstanding, why is any one instance of just one of these groups an ideal for us all? Is there a default idea, from which people may only idealistically depart if they have special circumstances? And what are the true advantages and disadvantages of fat and muscle in terms of human health, lifespan, and quality of life?
Really, if you don’t need or want to run a marathon, in what way is it ideal to keep a marathon-capable body?
Maybe in the wild we would have to possess a certain level of fitness to survive. Maybe simply in a broken economy we would have to possess that. But, unless we were forced into those circumstances extremely suddenly (and in that case society shall have collapsed and we should better worry about getting shot or raped), we could adapt to them with relatively little time. Even very fat people can attain rigorous levels of physical fitness quickly. Just look at the horrible things those people on the weight loss television programs do. Among these so-called “heart attacks waiting to happen,” none collapse dead when pressed into labor.
Perhaps the ideal human body weight is best answered by the most obvious twin questions: How much physical activity do you want to be able to comfortably do, and how much food do you want to be able to eat?
I would very much enjoy seeing the waist circumference readings of Viking war armor or ancient Egyptian slave garb, but realistically I’m going to go with the above as my answer.
None of this touches on the appreciation of the fat body, but in many ways it is a prerequisite—one of several—necessary for people in general to cleanse their prejudices against fat in order to be able to appreciate its various forms of appeal on the human body.
