The Skinny on Obama?

Anyone here read the Wall Street Journal?  They recently ran an article claiming that some voters may not vote for Obama because he is too thin.  I have two main reactions to this.

1- The WSJ has devolved into a propaganda rag that Murdoch uses to further his own ends.  If somebody wants quality financial news, the preeminent paper may now be the Times.

2- The article may have inadvertently stumbled upon one of the main stumbling blocks in diabetes (type II) prevention: alienation.  That is, that the message of healthy weight maintenance may not work on children because most of the parents/role models/adults in their community are overweight.  Since children often mimick the adults in their surroundings, a concept using a different body type may be shunned for what is familiar to them.

There is a powerful and natural desire to integrate into the social group.  Even for adults, there is a natural cohesion in body types in peer groups, so that any change from the norm will stand out.  For example, I have often seen adults call someone "skinny" who has lost weight, even though they are still overweight!  What is happening here is that the person is being distinguished for changing from the group norm, much as children must note that the healthy weight concept may differ from their own community group norm.

There is also a stigma to being thin that exists in poorer areas.  A thin child may be misread as a sign of malnourishment or poverty that brings shame on the child/family.  And adults that lose signifigant weight may be seen as sick or frail, again rooted in a symbol of being too poor to be eating well.  Ask any foreigner who visits the US and the first thing they will say is how big everyone is here.  And this is said without any intent of derision, but rather denotes a symbol of wealth and bounty.

So if it is true that healthy weight maintenance may be alienating to many children, how can this be modified in order to effect diabetes prevention?  I think one answer is to emphasize exercise.  Here, the role models can be large and muscular, and no stigma of poverty or sickness can hold.  If we can get our children to exercise more, and to habituate it into their lifestyles as they mature, we can cut the rates of diabetes regardless of social body image.

As to the WSJ claim, it may be that some readers will not pay for the paper because it's substance is too thin.