OPINION I Page 6 The Michigan Daily Vol. XCIII, No. 23-S 93 Years of Editorial Freedom Managed and Edited by students of The University of Michigan Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily Editorial Board Kicked while down A S IF THINGS weren't tough enough, college students who depend on financial aid got some more bad news from Washington recently. The Department of Education has proposed changes in the financial aid rules that would make it more difficult for students who pay their own way through college. Under the proposed changes, students would be required to answer several more questions in order to determine if they are financially in- dependent. Being declared financially independent allows students to become eligible for substan- tial amounts of federal aid-money they would probably not qualify for without this status. The stiffer regulations were proposed because of an increase in the number of studen- ts declaring themselves independent, which Education Secretary Terrel Bell claims is proof' students are abusing the system. University financial aid officials, however, say the proposed changes are unnecessary because it isn't clear that students are abusing the system. Furthermore, the fact that the average age of college students has risen over the past few years has been the major cause of the rising number of financially independent students. Harvey Grotrian, the University's financial aid director, said the proposed changes are "no insurance that the money would be distributed any better (or more equitably) than it is now." We agree with his assessment. Admittedly, there is a fair amount of students who annually lie about their independent status and cheat the government and taxpayers out of money that ought to go to students who really need it. But we believe the best way to police the cheaters and determine if students should be considered financially independent, is through University financial aid administrators-not lengthy government forms. Ni cGeRe WIL51NlATep POR, MR ReA A "! m t eFOMPL r°" 1 L1Noou6Nf - _ I The Michigan Daily Saturday, July 16, 1983 Sinclair s liR NS PRETYCAMOW. TsCO..To Co F you DONT FRIGHTEN - \ N A new racis-m'in America 4 I By Alice Kahn The ad in the Wall Street Jour- nal shows an average-sized woman standing on a scale in a pair of shorts. A look of un- fathomable horror crosses her face as she reads the verdict. The ad describes investment oppor- tunities in a new chain of fran- chised weight loss parlors. "This woman will pay somebody to lose, weight," read its caption. I look at the picture and think: "Boy, they've got her coming and going." The fact is, I know her problem all too well. This is a painful confession, but it comes after years of failed diets, failed pills and failed at- tempts at behavior modification. Although exercise makes me feel better, it has never had much ef- fect on the numbers on my scale. Recently I've lost some weight, but more importsnt, I've learned about new perspectives that finally made me call for a truce in the battle of the bulge. One of these perspectives came from Dr. Margaret MacKenzie of the University of California, who has compared attitudes toward fat in the United States and Samoa, and calls the American view "the new racism." Holistic health and "new age" groups are among the most militant fat phobes she says. A growing number of therapists, feminist writers, obesity researchers and fat people have begun to view the weight problem from a position so radical that, until recently, no one dared suggest it. Their secret message is: "Don't try to lose weight." One member of this body- esteem avant garde is Kim Cher- nin, author of "The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of slenderness." She compares slenderness to the practice of foot-binding in parts of Asia. She also finds analogies between the 20th century horror of female food lust and earlier fears of sexual appetites in women. The problem, according to Chernin, is best symbolized by the girl with anorexia nervosa: She is literally starving to death, yet feels fat. It seems to me a better symbol might be what doctors refer to as the "bulimic" woman, who eats in binges followed by self-induced vomiting. Said one practitioner: "You can eat all you want, throw up the calories and still be thin." Unfortunately, the practice also can require enormous amounts of money for food and lead to gastrointestinal disease and severe tooth decay. It is a testament to the pressure to be thin that one bulimic woman told me she got the idea after reading an article on the hazards of self- induced vomiting. Dr. William Bennet and health writer Joel Gurin in their book, "The Dieter's Dilemma," take a painstaking look at the health ef- fects of obesity and argue against the common belief that it's dangerous to be fat, or that sim- ple willpower is all that's required to "shape up." They trace the roots of the word ."overweight" to the actuarial tables of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and debunk their value as general predictors of longevity - mainly by pointing out that they apply only to life in- surance buyers, who represent just a tiny fraction of the population. These fathers of what I'll call the "All New Feminist No- Weight-Loss Diet" pointsto the growing body of research suppor- ting the "set-point theory," which says each one of us is somehow biochemically set for a certsin weight or weight range. Although it is possible to lose weight through great effort, the theory goes, we eventually drift back to our set points. To try to get away from my food-related cultural conditioning I took up a peculiar exercise, leading me to that lurid den of sugar and calories, the neigh- borhood bakery. Unflinchingly I order white bread, a bag of cookies and a cake. When I get home, I feel oddly full and satisfied, even without eating much of what I bought. My husband is horrified that I've spent $10 on junk food, butI point out that in today's psychotherapy market, a $10 insight is a bargain. Kahn, a nurse practitioner in 'Berkeley, Calif., wrote this ar- ticle for the Pacific News Ser- vice. I I 0 I Unsigned editorials appearing on the left side of this page represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board. Letters and columns represent the opinions of the individual author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the attitudes or beliefs of the Daily. 4