Before Sunrise asks:
I was at GAP Kids the other day, buying an early birthday present for my 9 year-old niece. As I was browsing through the clothes, I noticed that there was a “plus-size” section. {…}
When I was growing up there was no such thing. Children who were overweight just bought clothes that were meant for older children. I can’t help but ask myself – does this sort of thing indirectly encourage children to stay fat?
I actually had a conversation tangentially related to this with a coworker recently. My wife and I have had such conversations on multiple occasions. All three of us refuse to buy more clothes or nicer clothes that fit because we are dissatisfied with our weights.
Our thinking goes along the same lines as B-Sun’s. If being heavy (or heavier than you would prefer) becomes too comfortable, it removes incentive to lose the weight. I know a lot of women that hold on to their thinner clothes simply as an incentive to lose weight. I think that there is something to all this, though maybe for women the promise that you’ll buy a fantabulous new warddrobe may be a better enticement.
In regards to childhood obesity, though, I’m less sure. Fat kids still face some pretty harsh consequences for their flab. It strikes me as very unlikely that that’s changed in the last decade or so. Unfortunately, since nothing can really top the social and health consequences inherent with obesity, I’m really not sure what else can be done.
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4 Responses to Weight GAPs
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Buying clothes for older children might not be a good solution because the arms and legs of the clothes are too long. The ideal solution is to design clothes and seats on which fat people sit. In Santiago de Chile, the new seats are smaller than on the old buses, which doesn’t make any sense. Chileans are getiing taller, more muscluar and fatter, yet the busseats (and the airplane seats)get smaller. I know that airplanespace is very expensive, but common, lets be realistic here.
Also, girls 14 and above buy their clothes in the young woman section and use bras and thongs and tangas for their ripe butts, which indicates that they are not children anymore. In Argentina, you have usually a female child section, a young womansection and a kady section.
In Santiago de Chile, the new seats are smaller than on the old buses, which doesn’t make any sense. Chileans are getiing taller, more muscluar and fatter, yet the busseats (and the airplane seats)get smaller.
That’s one of the things that drives me crazy about commuting on the Long Island Railroad. The seats on the electric cars purchased in the past few years are noticeably smaller than on the older fleet from the 1970’s, even though people have gotten bigger. It makes for sheer misery, especially because for some strange reason large men seem to enjoy sitting next to me.
When I start ripping busting out of my pants, I know I need to go back to the gym. This latest time has caused me to get off the cycle completely, and in the past two months, I’ve lost 13.5 kgs (30 lbs.) of fat, and gained 4.5kgs (10 lbs.) of muscle… and I am still going. If I let myself by larger pants, I would be looking at having a heart attack in 15 years, and not being able to run around with my son in a few, or coach his football (soccer) team in a few after that.
The seat thing is very onnoxious. Two average people barely fit in the seats. If the other person is a lttle bit overweight or just tall he will invading the space of the other person. Usually, one leg just dangles in the hallway. (The old buses sucked a lot, but at least the seats, although also rather small, weren’t desogned exclusevely to be used by thin women.