International No Diet Day
Encyclopedia
This day is also dedicated to promoting a healthy life style and raise awareness of the dangers and futility of dieting.
International No Diet Day is observed on May 6, and its symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
is a blue ribbon, similar to the red ribbon of the World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day, observed December 1 every year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. Government and health officials observe the day, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an...
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History
International No Diet Day was created by Mary Evans Young in 1992. Mary is the director of the British group "Diet Breakers". After personally experiencing anorexia, she worked to help people appreciate themselves for what they are, and to appreciate the body they have.Young, a British feminist, was motivated by her own experiences of being pilloried at school for being "fat" and by speaking with women who attended her management courses; Developing Women's Management Potential. She tells the story in her book Diet Breaking: Having It All Without Having to Diet. (Published by Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).
During one of the these courses in 1991 she became particularly irritated with the coffee break conversation about whether or not the women were going to eat a biscuit - "Oh, I'll just have one", "I shouldn't really", "Oh, all right then". When Mary Evans Young asked the group "What do you think would happen if you spent as much time and energy on your careers as you do on diets?" it was as if she had struck a match. Everyone wanted to discuss it and everyone had something to say and as a result she began running "Do you really need to diet?" courses which became popular.
There were two other incidents that strengthened her desire to expose the futility of dieting; 1) a television program in which three women were having their stomachs stapled in an effort to become thin. None of them received any counseling before undergoing this major surgery. One of the women had split her staples, regained the weight and undergone the operation again – three times. Mary found this program unbelievably distressing: the physical and emotional pain of these women and the depth of their self-loathing was more than she could bear. She started crying, and went on all night. It was not until the morning that it dawned on her; she was crying for herself too. She had experienced that deep self-loathing. 2) About a month later She read a newspaper report about a teenager who had hanged herself because she was bullied for being fat. She was size 14. (USA size 12).
In May 1992 Mary introduced the first No Diet Day. It was originally intended to be National No Diet Day; then, a week before the event, International Clear Your Desk Day was declared. This inspired her to declare the day International No Diet Day.
It was a small affair to be celebrated by a dozen women with a picnic in Hyde Park, London. Ages ranged from twenty-one to seventy-six and they all wore stickers saying: DITCH THAT DIET. It poured with rain, the same year Pavarotti was rained on at the open-air concert in Hyde Park, and so Mary held the picnic in her home. The media turned up in force, queuing outside, sheltering under umbrellas, and jostling to get interviews and take photographs.
The first International No Diet Day was held on 5 May, but by the following year people in America had joined the campaign and those in California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona were concerned that the date clashed with the Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo
Cinco de Mayo is a holiday held on May 5. It is celebrated nationwide in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla...
celebrations in those states. For Mary Evans Young there was no particular significance to 5 May so she agreed to change the date to 6 May, which coincidentally is her birthday.
Feminist groups around the UK celebrated the INDD, and as the years went by, groups in other countries around the globe started to celebrate this day, especially in the USA, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
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Goals of the INDD
There are several goals to the INDD:- Doubt the idea of one "right" body shape.
- Raise awareness to weight discriminationWeight StigmaWeight stigma, also known as weightism, weight bias, and weight-based discrimination, is discrimination or stereotyping based on one's weight, especially very large or thin people...
, size bias and fatphobia. - Declare a free day from diets and obsessions to body weight.
- Present the facts about the diet industryIndustryIndustry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
, emphasizing the inefficacy of commercial diets. - Show how diets perpetuate violence against womenViolence against womenViolence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women...
. - Honor the victims of eating disorders and weight-loss surgery.
- Help end weight discrimination, sizism and fatphobia
External links
- International No Diet Day Information Website
- ABC Tasmania, Tuesday, 6 May 2003 - How to celebrate International No Diet Day Report from a radio station in Australia.
- Health 24 - No Diet Day
- Youth Central, Government of Victoria, Australia - Eat cake on 6 May for International No Diet Day
- www.largesse.net