Two-thirds of American adults are overweight—more of them women than men—yet fewer than one-quarter are dieting. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control found that women eat over 300 more calories a day than they did in 1971. Fewer than one-third of Americans get regular exercise.

Most Americans are fat and happy. Of course everyone would love to cut their cancer risk by one-third—unless it means skipping that extra scoop of ice cream, or jogging three times a week. Reducing cancer risk isn’t that important. Until you get it.

As Associated Press reporter Maria Cheng noted, there is a reluctance on the part of many doctors to make too much of this study: “Any discussion of weight and breast cancer is considered sensitive because some may misconstrue that as the medical establishment blaming women for their disease.”

No one should be “blamed” for getting a disease, but nor is it a good idea to simply ignore the person’s lifestyle choices that greatly increase their chances of getting that disease. If a person chooses an unhealthy lifestyle (smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, etc.), doctors should not be shy about warning them the risks they are assuming.
Read the rest of this article here.

**Spoiler warning!**

So I saw the latest Twilight movie, New Moon, this weekend.*

I was prepared for the manipulative relationship between the protagonist Bella and her sparkly vampire bf Edward. I was prepared for not-exactly-feminist messages about centering your life around men. I was prepared for seriously awful acting and dialogue (the Academy really needs to institute a “Best Unintentional Comedy” Oscar category — it would be a tight race between New Moon and Terminator Salvation).

However, I was not prepared for the way the movie portrays physical relationship violence, particularly in Native communities. For all the talk of Edward’s abusiveness throughout feminist blogworld, I’ve seen much less written about domestic violence as it relates to the film’s competing love interest, Jacob Black — a 16-year-old Quileute boy who can turn into a werewolf.

At one point in the movie, Bella meets Emily, the fiance of one of Jacob’s fellow werewolf-men. As she turns to put a plate of giant muffins on the table, we see that she has a massive scar on one half of her face:



After breakfast, once Jacob and Bella are alone in the car, Jacob explains that Emily’s soon-to-be husband lost his temper “for a split second,” became a werewolf, and mauled her. (Earlier in the film, he has told Bella that this whole turning-into-a-werewolf-when-you-get-angry thing is actually a genetic trait carried by many men in his community.) He explains that he’s worried that he’s bad for Bella because he doesn’t know if he can control his own anger.



It’s more than a little problematic for New Moon to portray violence as an endemic trait among Native men. Yes, domestic violence is a very real problem in American Indian communities. According to Sacred Circle, Native women are more likely to experience violence than any other U.S. population. A full 64 percent of American Indian women will be physically assaulted in their lifetime. They are also stalked at more than twice the rate of other women. But to imply that this is a result of Native people’s genes rather than related to other issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, or centuries of racism and marginalization, is inexcusable. (See Latoya’s post on Jacob Black for more on Twilight’s treatment of Native communities.)

This theme of uncontrollable tempers and violence is also disturbing in the context of the film’s Edward vs. Jacob set-up. Bella’s options, as New Moon portrays them, are essentially to become a blood-sucking monster by marrying the patronizing, emotionally manipulative Edward or to risk her safety by choosing the patronizing, possibly physically violent Jacob. Oh how I wish for a third option: Emily and Bella bake muffins for each other and find fulfilling lives that are centered on them, not men with fangs. Sadly, I’m guessing that’s not where Eclipse, the next book/movie in the series, is going to go. Maybe I need to start writing feminist fan-fic.

*Some interesting comments were also included with this post: *

SociologicalMe said: I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought Emily was a victim of domestic violence. It seems so rare that anyone actually applies the term to that relationship in the book, and it’s been driving me nuts. You can say what you want about Bella having choices, but Emily clearly didn’t ask to be maimed. I haven’t seen the movie, but in the book there was such a strong and disturbing undercurrent of “so watch what you say to me, little girl” from Jacob when he told Bella about Emily’s injuries. Making domestic violence seem ok is so totally unacceptable…and the implications of the perp being Quileute just make the whole situation worse. These books/movies are so full of fail.

across said: I’d have to say “amen” to this, too. I don’t take these Twilight movies too seriously, and have found myself caught up in the giddy romance of it all but some of the behaviour is just so unhealthy! Bella doesn’t get over Edward, she just moves on to another guy. The minute Jacob isn’t there, she reverts back to staring numbly into space. Her whole world depends on a guy. Breakups are hard, but come on! And yes, I also had issues with the undertones of domestic abuse. The movie seems to imply it was Emily who was standing too close, rather than her fiance, who was the one who made a mistake and lost his temper. The women in this movie are always subjugated by men. But the books were written by a Mormon housewife, so perhaps we need to think about how her own reality as a woman in the 21st century has been translated onto the page.

Mighty Ponygirl replied to across :

Well, yes. And according to Mormonism, modern-day Native Americans are descendants of the Nephites, who were a tribe of Israel who fell into wickedness. God cursed them for their wickedness with dark skin. Native Americans = Evil in Mormon mythology.

You can’t really expect Meyer to neglect that little nugget in her Big Vampy Ode To How Awesome Joseph Smith Was.

Laura said: I agree on almost everything you noted here, about Edward being emotionally abusive and Jacob being possibly physically abusive. Annebella brought up a good point that Meyer’s intention was not that they were actually abusive and meant to hurt their loved ones. It’s just that these are werewolves and Sam was standing too close to Emily. And I don’t believe that all women in this book are subjugated to men. I mean, take Victoria for instance, who’s the number one threat. She doesn’t rely on a man to do anything for her or even help her in killing humans!! Alice and Rosalie are independant, capable females as well. I don’t like the way in which the protagonist is portrayed as a weakling who can’t live for herself, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that all the females in this novel are treated as secondary to males.

Fresh Peaches replied to Laura : But remember that Victoria’s sole purpose in the plot was to avenge the killing of James.

Read more at feminsting.com

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2768044/Psychoaster-is-scariest-ride.html#ixzz0ZQKFpgbp

A NEW rollercoaster billed as “the scariest ride in the UK” is so terrifying thrill-seekers will have to sign a waiver to ride it.

The young and the old are also banned from the white-knuckle experience which will be launched at Alton Towers Resort next year.

Thirteen promises to combine a mix of physical and psychological fear and is being dubbed a “psychoaster”.

The £15million ride will be restricted to 16 to 55-year-olds only and visitors limited to one ride per day “due to concerns about emotional maturity and physical health”, resort bosses said.

Adrenaline junkies will also be required to sign a waiver which assures the resort of their physical and mental health “to avoid any resulting lawsuits”.

Alton Towers’ latest secret weapon comes after the successes of Nemesis, Oblivion and Air and will be based on the discovery of an unearthed ancient burial site in an area of unexplored woodland known as the Dark Forest.

Built on a burial site that is part of the original Alton Abbey, one of the main features will take place inside the unearthed crypt.

Morwenna Angove, Alton Towers’ sales and marketing director, said: “This new ride will be a shocking, never-experienced-before rollercoaster and we’re excited that once again the Alton Towers Resort is able to offer visitors the chance to experience something unavailable in any other part of the world.

“However, just as we take physical health and safety very seriously, Thirteen demands that we also consider our visitors’ emotional health, and as such we’re not afraid of introducing necessary measures to ensure riders are fully prepared and healthy enough to brave Thirteen.”

The new ride took a team of 35 people nine months to build and will be launched in March next year. It has been built on the site of the old Corkscrew rollercoaster.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2768044/Psychoaster-is-scariest-ride.html#ixzz0ZQK6sLPt