LET THEM EAT CAKE
By Andy Malekoff © 2007
I recently learned that some schools have banned parents from bringing cupcakes into school for their children’s birthdays in an effort to decrease childhood obesity. Some parents agree and some object. Those who agree are encouraged by reports that the children don’t miss the sweet treats when they are replaced with healthy snacks and fun activities. Those who object to substitute foods and activities see an end to an age old childhood ritual.
What’s the big deal anyway? Cupcakes can be replaced with healthy snacks like rice cakes. I tried to stick a candle into a rice cake and the rice cake split in half. I tried it again and the candle wouldn’t hold. So I bought a container of low fat Jell-O, scooped it out and put it on top of the rice cake. I stuck the candle into the Jell-O and it stayed, although it did jiggle.
Some think that fun activities are good alternatives to cupcakes. I would steer clear of pin the tail on the donkey and bashing a piñata with stick, particularly if the piñata is an animal figure. I think pin the tail on the eggplant might work. Just think how things might have turned out for Michael Vick if he pinned the tail on an eggplant when he was a child.
I am in favor of anything that will help children to grow up healthy, physically and emotionally; anything that will help them to fit in socially and gain a real sense of belonging. Some call this latest movement to reduce childhood obesity “culinary correctness.” It is fun to joke around about this, just as it was fun when Ronald Reagan declared ketchup a vegetable some years ago when he and his budget director David Stockman took on school lunches during Reagan’s budget cutting days in the early 1980’s.
If depriving kids a couple trays of cupcakes each year will really help to keep them fit and trim I am all for it. And, of course I know that this is just one part of a grander plan for improving kids’ healthy development and an easy target to poke fun at. The reality, according to national studies is that between 5-25 percent of children and teenagers in the United States are obese and, according to some reports, on the increase.
According to experts, obesity is easier to prevent than to treat. Prevention focuses in large part on parent education that includes encouraging proper nutrition, selection of low-fat snacks, good exercise/activity habits, and monitoring of television viewing.
Specialists at the Mayo Clinic advise parents to, “Keep in mind that many overweight children grow into their extra pounds as they get taller. Realize, too, that an intense focus on your child's eating habits and weight can easily backfire, leading a child to overeat even more, or possibly making him or her more prone to developing an eating disorder.”
In the final analysis and if I had to take a stand, I say give the kids an extra lap or two during gym class on birthdays. And, let them eat cake.
This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
HEADLINE HATCHET JOB
Headline Hatchet Job
By Andy Malekoff © 2007
Early in December, 2007 there were several news stories about a man with a long history of mental illness who took hostages in Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in New Hampshire. A headline on the front pages of the New York Post read: LOONY SEIZES HOSTAGES IN HILLARY’S OFFICE. For two consecutive days the New York Daily News printed headlines that read: WACKO BOMBS AT HILL’S OFFICE and NUT’S LIFE FROM HELL.
By now you know that the headlines were referring to an individual with a known history of serious mental illness. Had there been no such history then the derisive terms “loony,” “wacko,” and “nut” would have been a way of highlighting the lunacy of a desperate criminal act versus employing insulting stereotypes to label an individual with a mental illness. Although these headlines are about one man’s criminal act, the effect of the language in the headlines is to discredit all individuals with mental illness.
So, you may be wondering, what is the big deal? Or, you may be thinking that you are reading another tired diatribe promoting political correctness. After all, the man did do something undeniably crazy. Nevertheless, although juicy headlines sell newspapers, there is collateral damage when stigmatizing language about individuals with mental illness is used. The headline writers cannot hide behind the crime. Language that appears in the headlines of popular newspapers does influence people’s perceptions, attitudes and behavior. In this case they promote an undesirable stereotype and reinforce discrimination. The headline writers who write such headlines are the equivalent of schoolyard bullies except, in this case, the schoolyard is the entire New York metropolitan area and beyond, and the headline writers are more sinister and have more sway than the typical schoolyard bully.
Stigma experts Bruce Link and Jo C. Phelan from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, offer insights on how stigma evolves. First, human differences are labeled and assigned undesirable characteristics that lead to negative stereotypes. Labeled persons are then put in distinct categories in order to separate “us” from “them.” Finally, labeled persons lose status, and experience discrimination that leads to unequal outcomes.
Many individuals suffering with mental illnesses - children, teenagers and adults alike - have long histories of being at the butt end of cruel and stigmatizing taunts and jokes. Most people with physical illnesses, on the other hand, are beneficiaries of widespread understanding, sympathy and support. This is the reality despite the fact that neuro-imaging studies show physical changes in the brain are associated to mental disorders. Headlines that use terms like “loony” and “wacko” reinforce the notion that mental Illness is a sure sign of dangerous and irrational behavior, versus a disease with a biological basis. Headlines that employ such language also reinforce the idea that mental illness is something that is “all in one’s head” and can be controlled only if one has the moral fiber to do so.
It is shameful that the editors of major metropolitan newspapers choose to exploit isolated criminal acts to promote negative stereotypes and reinforce stigma in people with mental illness. Clearly, simply telling the truth and informing readers about a desperate criminal act is less important to them than taking the opportunity to exploit and discredit people suffering with mental illness, through malicious name calling that reinforces fear, mistrust and stigma.
This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY.
By Andy Malekoff © 2007
Early in December, 2007 there were several news stories about a man with a long history of mental illness who took hostages in Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in New Hampshire. A headline on the front pages of the New York Post read: LOONY SEIZES HOSTAGES IN HILLARY’S OFFICE. For two consecutive days the New York Daily News printed headlines that read: WACKO BOMBS AT HILL’S OFFICE and NUT’S LIFE FROM HELL.
By now you know that the headlines were referring to an individual with a known history of serious mental illness. Had there been no such history then the derisive terms “loony,” “wacko,” and “nut” would have been a way of highlighting the lunacy of a desperate criminal act versus employing insulting stereotypes to label an individual with a mental illness. Although these headlines are about one man’s criminal act, the effect of the language in the headlines is to discredit all individuals with mental illness.
So, you may be wondering, what is the big deal? Or, you may be thinking that you are reading another tired diatribe promoting political correctness. After all, the man did do something undeniably crazy. Nevertheless, although juicy headlines sell newspapers, there is collateral damage when stigmatizing language about individuals with mental illness is used. The headline writers cannot hide behind the crime. Language that appears in the headlines of popular newspapers does influence people’s perceptions, attitudes and behavior. In this case they promote an undesirable stereotype and reinforce discrimination. The headline writers who write such headlines are the equivalent of schoolyard bullies except, in this case, the schoolyard is the entire New York metropolitan area and beyond, and the headline writers are more sinister and have more sway than the typical schoolyard bully.
Stigma experts Bruce Link and Jo C. Phelan from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, offer insights on how stigma evolves. First, human differences are labeled and assigned undesirable characteristics that lead to negative stereotypes. Labeled persons are then put in distinct categories in order to separate “us” from “them.” Finally, labeled persons lose status, and experience discrimination that leads to unequal outcomes.
Many individuals suffering with mental illnesses - children, teenagers and adults alike - have long histories of being at the butt end of cruel and stigmatizing taunts and jokes. Most people with physical illnesses, on the other hand, are beneficiaries of widespread understanding, sympathy and support. This is the reality despite the fact that neuro-imaging studies show physical changes in the brain are associated to mental disorders. Headlines that use terms like “loony” and “wacko” reinforce the notion that mental Illness is a sure sign of dangerous and irrational behavior, versus a disease with a biological basis. Headlines that employ such language also reinforce the idea that mental illness is something that is “all in one’s head” and can be controlled only if one has the moral fiber to do so.
It is shameful that the editors of major metropolitan newspapers choose to exploit isolated criminal acts to promote negative stereotypes and reinforce stigma in people with mental illness. Clearly, simply telling the truth and informing readers about a desperate criminal act is less important to them than taking the opportunity to exploit and discredit people suffering with mental illness, through malicious name calling that reinforces fear, mistrust and stigma.
This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY.
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