MeMe Roth - Food hater?

[Hard H2O]

MeMe Roth

Anti-Obesity Activist MeMe Roth Compares Eating To Rape

"The defence has been made in the case of sex criminals that there is pleasure on the part of the victim. The same is true with what we're doing with food. We may abuse our bodies with food, but it's incredibly pleasurable. From a food marketer's point of view, when your quote unquote victim is so willing and enjoying of the process, who's fighting back?"

Anyone who thinks eating is like being raped probably has some serious food issues. Although Roth swears she's never been anorexic, or even been on a diet, her relationship to food and body image is clearly a pretty diseased one. She talks about being ashamed of her "fat" mother when she was in kindergarten, as though this shame were normal and appropriate. She also insists that Wood meet her "after lunch" at one p.m. When Wood asks what she actually ate for lunch, this exchange ensues:

She squirms visibly. "You're taking me where I don't want to go ... What works for me doesn't work for a lot of people."

Well, you've said that, I insist, so taking that into account: lunch? Roth hesitates. "I discovered when I was in college that I work best when I get a workout in and eat after that. Sometimes I'll delay when I eat until I get a workout in. But I don't let a whole day go by without running four miles."

OK, I go on, but supposing you couldn't work out until four o'clock in the afternoon - would you not eat until after that?

"I might."

I look at my watch. It's 3.30pm. Alarm bells start to ring in my head. How about today, I ask. Have you eaten at all today?

Roth is a little quiet.

"No," she says.

There is a pause.

"But I feel great!"

[CKatCook]

Serious food and body issues going on there. When I worked in the theater one way we could tell the anorexic ballerias from the non anorexic ones was the size of hands are always out of proportion to the rest of their body. Considering the picture in the article, yes...she has problems. Sure there are problems with obesity, but there are other ways to go about it helping the issue.

I also take very big issue with the notion in the quote that rape victims enjoyed the crime...but this is a food board and I will leave it at that.

Yep, I would have to cook up the most decadant meal I could muster and sit myself down and enjoy every bite...with slurping!

[prasantrin]

When I ask Roth what her greatest fear is, she replies: "That my children will become sick, because this culture refuses to foster healthy children.

I have a strong feeling that her kids are already sick, but not in the way she fears. I hope her kids get some kind of support before she really f***s them up (at 10 and 7, they've got to get that help pretty quickly).

[emilyr]

I also take very big issue with the notion in the quote that rape victims enjoyed the crime...but this is a food board and I will leave it at that.

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I'm not agreeing with her in any sort of way, but I think she meant that the rapIST enjoys it. Unfortunately, in her analogy "eaters" are both the rapist and the victim.

[butterscotch]

I also take very big issue with the notion in the quote that rape victims enjoyed the crime...but this is a food board and I will leave it at that.

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I'm not agreeing with her in any sort of way, but I think she meant that the rapIST enjoys it.

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the quote is that there "is pleasure on the part of the victim". Her analogy is that the eaters are (it would seem) taking pleasure in something that hurts them. and so we shouldn;t be fooled by this enjiyment of food- t's just as masochistic urge- the body playing tricks on us. it's pretty screwed up . but she's right in that rape victims sometime report physical signs of arousal - i have seen this documented- and that it is used against them by the perp.

i glanced at the linked article and she states the rapist here in terms of the food analogy would be the business of food.

and we are the ones saying "c'mon baby you know you like it" , aren't we?

Edited May 30, 2009 by butterscotch (log)

[emilyr]

I also take very big issue with the notion in the quote that rape victims enjoyed the crime...but this is a food board and I will leave it at that.

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I'm not agreeing with her in any sort of way, but I think she meant that the rapIST enjoys it.

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the quote is that there "is pleasure on the part of the victim". Her analogy is that the eaters are (it would seem) taking pleasure in something that hurts them. and so we shouldn;t be fooled by this enjiyment of food- t's just as masochistic urge- the body playing tricks on us. it's pretty screwed up . but she's right in that rape victims sometime report physical signs of arousal - i have seen this documented- and that it is used against them by the perp.

i glanced at the linked article and she states the rapist here in terms of the food analogy would be the business of food.

and we are the ones saying "c'mon baby you know you like it" , aren't we?

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Yeah. I just re-read that. Ew. This woman creeps me out.

[Lilija]

She sounds like a self-hater, a woman-hater, and a human hater, as well. I cannot believe that anyone would invoke sexual assault as some form of comparison to ANYTHING. Sick.

[Lady T]

Nope. Not having it. If this woman can't stand to put "joy" and "food" together in the same sentence in a positive way, I'm not letting her arguments anywhere near me.

I'm not going to follow anywhere she thinks she's leading. And as long as my physician keeps telling me that my blood pressure, cholesterol/lipids, and sugar count stay well within norms AND I can sustain the berserk schedule of the working vocal musician in the Chicago metro area AND fulfill a standard-issue office schedule, I'm not buying her spiel.

And I agree with the opinion above: I hope her kids get some comfort and guidance before they get completely internally warped, to the detriment of their health (both physical and psychological).

[feedmec00kies]

As much vitrol as I'd like to spew at her for that quote (I did major in Women's Studies after all), it seems from the article that she is in serious need of psychiatric help. It's very clear that she has an eating disorder, even if she won't admit it, and justifies her behavior to herself (and not so much to others, as she would like to believe) with these outrageous statements. I'd wager that the eating disorder is only a symptom of larger issues.

In other words, just ignore her, and hope that she gets the help she needs. This isn't a food issue. She's just a woman with a mental disorder who just happens to have gotten public attention from it. I know the effect that mental illness can have on a family, and I just hope for her family's sake that this doesn't continue.

[PopsicleToze]

This woman has serious issues and should have asked herself that age-old question before she made such stupid statements:

Before giving away a piece of your mind, ask yourself, “Can I afford it?”

She couldn't afford it!