I wonder, when authors and TV show creators endow every single one if their characters with this mysterious. “metabolism” that supposedly allows them to gobble truckloads of junk food and remain extremely thin, is that done on purpose, to annoy readers or spectators? Seriously, if I encounter one more character blabbing about this magic “metabolism “, I will barf. Not only is this stupid, it is also excruciatingly boring.
Metabolism
Clarissa's Blog 
I almost never watch TV, so only a guess in the dark: the “metabolism” is a sign of being a morally virtuous person. For men watching their weight would be feminizing, and for women – a code for being a neurotic killjoy. Not watching weight would bring another set of stereotypes into play. Ok, so it’s not even about being virtuous, it’s about being “normal”. Like, a normal character is a white man and all others are deviations from the standard to be used on TV for specific purposes.
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No, these characters with great metabolisms are all total neurotics. They wouldn’t be characters otherwise. 🙂 Who would want to read or watch shows about boring normal people. 🙂
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Ah, and, of course, were characters eating healthy food, another set of stereotypes would appear. The standard (at least, in US movies, I guess) is McDonalds, not salads.
From Marcotte on Pandagon I got the impression (don’t know how true it is, may be you could say) that healthy food is sometimes coded as liberal (as in politics). True?
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We are confusing reality and fiction now. In real life, yes, caring what one eats is often associated with a progressive way of thinking. But this is fiction we are talking about. I’m reading a series of British murderer mysteries and the detective there is one of those metabolism people. Another example was mother and daughter from Gilmore Girls.
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Metabolism is the rate at which the body synthesizes nutrients from food, as far as I understand. Most people with high metabolisms are athletic, though there are a few who can eat just about anything and not gain weight. Those people are few and far between, though–I only know one or two. The rest I know are all athletes.
High metabolism is generally associated with athletic lifestyles, while low metabolism is generally associated with sedentary lifestyles. There are genetic factors, too–a person who doesn’t exercise can have a naturally high metabolism, just as a professional athlete can have a naturally low metabolism.
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I agree, it’s bloomin’ ANNOYING!
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I think it just comes from the fact that they’re obviously not going to show (*GASP*) fat people on TV, but they also don’t want to show their characters dieting, because there’s an idea in mainstream American culture that the most likeable people don’t diet. There’s a whole host of reasons for the latter, maybe I’ll get into ’em more if I start to feel more ranty! Anyway, if it’s unacceptable to watch your weight, and it’s also unacceptable to be anything but stick thin, then “freakishly fast metabolism” is pretty much the only option left. It’s a way to make the characters as likeable to a mainstream audience as possible. In fact, a lot of women try to create this image in real life (even though it’s a lot less attainable for people who aren’t, y’know, fictional). It’s not that uncommon to overexercise and undereat when you’re alone so you can “save calories,” and then overeat when you’re in public (especially on dates). That way, you cultivate that image of “the woman who can eat whatever she wants and still stay thin.”
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Truth be told, I’ve only seen the “metabolism” line before used as a punchline of dramatic irony, like a flashback where a character is slim in his youth and can eat whatever he wants, and says “It’s my metabolism!”, but in the present, he’s gotten older and is now overweight because his metabolism changed, but his eating habits didn’t.
Maybe I’m lucky, or just not all that observant, so I never noticed that particular trope.
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A stupid interviewer asked the actress from Gilmore Girls if she could also eat tons of junk food like her character. She told him that of course not. I cant believe there are idiots who actually believe it’s possible to eat that way and look like the character does. And it isn’t just weight. People who never eat fresh produce and find the idea ridiculous suffer from very noticeable health issues. How come the viewers buy into this ridiculousness?
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And I remember another interviewer asking Marina Sirtis, who played the character Deanna Troi on Star Trek, if she was as much of a chocolate-lover as her character. She wasn’t impressed with that line of questioning.
I wonder if anybody is every going to ask Noomi Rapace or Christina Hendricks “Since your screen characters are such well-known smokers, do you also smoke a lot, and if so, what’s your secret to keeping such white teeth and a healthy complexion?”
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Not all people who have shitty diets suffer from health related issues. Metabolism does affect people in both positive and negative ways.
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“Metabolism” is just as much of a myth as “a chemical imbalance in the brain”, “calories” and other silly inventions of the pharmaceutical industry.
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Some people actually can eat like the characters on Gilmore Girls and still look like them. But those people are very rare, and almost all under the age of 25.
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The character I’m reading about is a middle-aged man who drinks enormous amounts of alcohol and eats horrible garbage, yet is more spry and energetic than I was at 18.
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Haha, yes, I meant in reality. You’re absolutely right that these people are waaaaay more ubiquitous in fiction.
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I don’t see the cultural expression of ideas about metabolism. I believe that the speed of one’s metabolism can be increased by drinking coffee and eating hot food.
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If so, then mine would be through the roof already. But it kind of isn’t. 🙂
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//“Metabolism” is just as much of a myth as “a chemical imbalance in the brain”, “calories” and other silly inventions of the pharmaceutical industry.
What do you mean about “calories” being a myth? They do exist, don’t they?
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Not in a way that would be useful to anybody but a medical professional.
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I’ve taken many, many chemistry classes and I can tell you a calorie exists, and is useful, in exactly the same way as a joule, a watt, a newton or an ampere is useful.
It’s a measure of energy: specifically, the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one cubic centimeter of water by one degree Celsius.
So they are useful to more people than just doctors: chemists, chemical engineers, anyone whose job involves calculations using the laws of thermodynamics.
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“So they are useful to more people than just doctors: chemists, chemical engineers, anyone whose job involves calculations using the laws of thermodynamics.”
– That I agree with completely.
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Metabolism” is just as much of a myth as “a chemical imbalance in the brain”,(Clarissa)
Yep, just like personalities and hormones and such. Afterall, we are all the same. Lol, sometimes you make me smile. 🙂
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“Yep, just like personalities and hormones and such. Afterall, we are all the same. Lol, sometimes you make me smile. ”
– I’m sure it happens every time when you ascribe strange ideas like “we are all the same” to me.
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Clarissa, you once asked RE blog post ideas and I wanted to ask whether you would like to post on the topics of:
– “Don Quixote” – I have it now in English translation and wonder whether a reader without any background may understand this book. May be you could write what’s so great & new (at the time of publishing) about it, what one should pay attention to while reading, why you love this book, etc. ?
– Your pov on food. If you don’t find calories language useful, what concepts are? What should US government do about obesity crisis? F.e. in a new Feminist post Jill says: “I’m glad that NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg has banned the sale of extra-large sugary drinks from some establishments”. Others disagree. In the new science blog I found today there is an interesting article about
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/homeless-obesity/
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“Don Quixote” – I have it now in English translation and wonder whether a reader without any background may understand this book. May be you could write what’s so great & new (at the time of publishing) about it, what one should pay attention to while reading, why you love this book, etc. ?”
– That’s a pretty tall order! 🙂 But OK, I’ll try.
” What should US government do about obesity crisis?”
– This is not an issue that can be addressed by the government.
“has multiple causes, some of them physiological.
“People who are homeless are under a lot of stress, and stress causes higher cortisol levels. Higher cortisol levels lead to weight gain,” said nutritionist Sherry Tanumihardjo of the University of Wisconsin, who has studied the hunger-obesity paradox”
– Then I guess people in concentration camps should have all suffered from obesity. Surely, their stress level was a bit higher.
It really annoys me when instead of just admitting that people in this country eat tons of crappy food, pseudo-scientific statements like this one are made.
“Higher cortisol levels lead to weight gain”
– As opposed to eating tons of crap, I guess.
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//Then I guess people in concentration camps should have all suffered from obesity. Surely, their stress level was a bit higher.
It really annoys me when instead of just admitting that people in this country eat tons of crappy food, pseudo-scientific statements like this one are made.
If you read the entire article, you would see it was good. Look:
Thank you for agreeing to write. I guess, your students get the explanation at the lesson, but it’s probably hard to understand without it.
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I haven’t had a chance to teach Cervantes yet but I hope to soon.
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