by Marilyn Wann
I recently heard about Experiment.com, a fundraising website for scientific research, and I realized…we have everything we need to collect bigger, better data than the anti-"obesity" hatemongers.
I challenge us all to make Biggest Data happen.
Here's how: Body-positive researchers and scholars post their long-dreamed-of projects on a fundraising website like Experiment. If you're like me, you long for more data to support your weight diversity worldview. We donate some money to our favorite projects and spread the word. Instead of rewards, we get updates on the project and info about the results. (Experiment.com charges an 8% fee for projects that fully fund, similar to other fundraising websites.) If researchers seek study subjects, we could also become participants and spread the word for others to join in, too. Everyone with a blog or a website or a social network can make a difference.
Researchers and scholars who don't want weight negativity in their work often face barriers in getting funding. What if body positive community could offer them (and us) a big boost of momentum?
What if we had the Biggest data on...
What if weight-related data didn't mainly come from anti-"obesity" researchers and from institutions with a mission to "prevent" fat people? (Yale's Rudd Center, et al.) What if research studies didn't have to conclude, "But people should still try to lose weight," when the data don't support that?
What if Health At Every Size® research and fat studies scholarship, which is already brilliant, could flourish hugely?
Would it mean the end of weight prejudice and discrimination?
I'll be full of joy when the same-old weight-loss researchers (with their millions in backing from big Pharma and the diet industry) try to say that crowdfunded, weight-neutral research has some kind of bias…
I recently heard about Experiment.com, a fundraising website for scientific research, and I realized…we have everything we need to collect bigger, better data than the anti-"obesity" hatemongers.
I challenge us all to make Biggest Data happen.
Here's how: Body-positive researchers and scholars post their long-dreamed-of projects on a fundraising website like Experiment. If you're like me, you long for more data to support your weight diversity worldview. We donate some money to our favorite projects and spread the word. Instead of rewards, we get updates on the project and info about the results. (Experiment.com charges an 8% fee for projects that fully fund, similar to other fundraising websites.) If researchers seek study subjects, we could also become participants and spread the word for others to join in, too. Everyone with a blog or a website or a social network can make a difference.
Researchers and scholars who don't want weight negativity in their work often face barriers in getting funding. What if body positive community could offer them (and us) a big boost of momentum?
What if we had the Biggest data on...
- the harm that weight prejudice and discrimination do to public health?
- the vast economic cost of weight prejudice and discrimination?
- the human impact of weight bigotry and its role in other oppressions?
- the benefits of a Health At Every Size® approach?
- and so many crucial questions!
What if weight-related data didn't mainly come from anti-"obesity" researchers and from institutions with a mission to "prevent" fat people? (Yale's Rudd Center, et al.) What if research studies didn't have to conclude, "But people should still try to lose weight," when the data don't support that?
What if Health At Every Size® research and fat studies scholarship, which is already brilliant, could flourish hugely?
Would it mean the end of weight prejudice and discrimination?
I'll be full of joy when the same-old weight-loss researchers (with their millions in backing from big Pharma and the diet industry) try to say that crowdfunded, weight-neutral research has some kind of bias…
RSS Feed