Dr. Lisa G. Berzins This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Los Besos Del Oso's journal

   scottobear.livejournal.com/day - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/14/2001   Last Visited: 5/20/2002

   "Unfortunately, it's funny to people," said Dr. Lisa Berzins, director of women's behavior medicine and the eating-disorder program at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Hartford, Conn. "For people who struggle with their weight, it's not funny at all. The sad thing is people will pay more attention to a person dressed up in a fat suit than a fat person." Berzins says that fat suits send the message to society that it's OK to make fun of overweight people.
   
   (2 comments | comment on this)
   
   11:41a - Off the top of my head... Assume both are *real*.
   
   Poll #1836: Scared?

2. 2. GirthMirth ~ Size In The News

   www.girthmirth.com/size_in_the - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/17/2000   Last Visited: 8/7/2002

   On the East Coast, Lisa G. Berzins, director of women's behavioral medicine at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Connecticut and a specialist in eating disorders, uses a special approach to open schoolchildren's eyes. She appears before them dressed in a fat suit that makes her appear to weigh 250 pounds, and talks about body image and the pernicious influence of the media in creating unattainably thin ideals. Then she leaves the stage and comes back as her real size 6, and talks with the children about how their perceptions of her changed.
   
   "When I come back and I'm thin they're really stunned and really pay attention and are much more respectful," Dr. Berzins said. "It gets into a discussion about how they view heavy people in general."
   
   Dr. Berzins is interested in creating programs to teach that size and shape are part of the diversity children should respect, but she has had trouble getting financing. In any case, she said, such efforts are "microscopic" compared with the large numbers of people who continue to see weight "as almost like a moral issue - it's like you're virtuous if you restrain yourself and you're sinful if you give in."
   
   In that sense, those who fight against fat discrimination acknowledge that one of their toughest challenges is the internalized self-hatred of the fat people themselves.