Fewwwwwwd

Last Sunday, The Guardian's Gaby Wood interviewed the USA's answer to Gillian McKeith - a similarly sinewy, hungry blonde named MeMe Roth. MeMe, or Meredith Clements to give her her full-fat title, has made a name for herself by calling people obese. Her victims are often celebrities, but are almost always women.

Roth is president of the National Action Against Obesity, but that doesn't hold an awful lot of weight (ho ho) because she is the only member. Her strategy is to attack high-profile fatties and hope that the shame spiral eddies downwards and drills into the consciousness of the heavy masses.

This is straight up body fascism by any other name, only the guile under which Roth executes it is philanthropic concern. To her credit, Wood gives little sympathy to Roth's cause, challenging her to explain her evasion of the issue surrounding fast food companies - whom Roth doesn't target as part of her campaign. Roth doesn't do corporate, she does personal.

"Two basic facts behind the rise of obesity are that high-calorie foods are cheaper than fresh fruits and vegetables, and that the food industry is big business", writes Wood. "Yet when I ask Roth who are the really bad guys in this situation, she replies: "High fructose corn syrup", as if these larger factors were not even part of the picture."

Wood also explicitly, and quite rightly, questions the sanity of some of Roth's formulations, especially the one where she likens unhealthy eating habits to rape.

"The defence has been made in the case of sex criminals that there is pleasure on the part of the victim. The same is true with what we're doing with food. We may abuse our bodies with food, but it's incredibly pleasurable. From a food marketer's point of view, when your quote unquote victim is so willing and enjoying of the process, who's fighting back?", babbles Roth, her brain obviously lacking nourishment.

The argument is so ridiculous and offensive it warrants a whole separate article of its own, yet on the other hand you feel it doesn't deserve crediting with a dedicated response - perhaps Wood felt the same way and that's why she decided to let the remark go almost unchallenged in her piece. It's a long enough bit of rope for Roth to hang herself with without Wood tying the noose. And that is true of the rest of the interview too. Roth's true colours are revealed and her insecurities are thrown into sharp relief - she's an (arguable) anorexic who hates fat people because they scare her. There's a whole backstory of obese parent issues that are too dull to go into, suffice it to say that she's dedicated her entire life to not turning into her mother.

For me, where Wood disappoints is her failure to call Roth out on the glaringly obvious hypocrisy of her efforts.

"Love it or hate it, whatever socio-economic category you're in, we are a People-magazine society. So if you get it right with Angelina Jolie, the kids will listen and everything will change", says Roth.

Hang on. Isn't it exactly this kind of scrutiny - played out in the weekly gossip rags, whereby female celebrities' bodies are forensically commented on from every angle - which is contributing to the rise in anorexia, bulimia and general body issues and self-loathing amongst young girls? Is that not just Roth's lesser of two evils (the bigger being obesity) - make girls feel guilty and ashamed about being fat by holding up impossibly unattainable photoshopped images of female stars and propagate a body image that, while at the other end of the scales, is just as unhealthy?

Where's the benefit in that? There is none as far as I can see, not for individual health or the collective spiritual health of society.

After all, the best advocates of change are those who practice what they preach and in this area, Roth is plainly deficient.

"So how about lunch?", writes Wood

"She squirms visibly. "You're taking me where I don't want to go ... What works for me doesn't work for a lot of people."

Well, you've said that, I insist, so taking that into account: lunch? Roth hesitates. "I discovered when I was in college that I work best when I get a workout in and eat after that. Sometimes I'll delay when I eat until I get a workout in. But I don't let a whole day go by without running four miles."

OK, I go on, but supposing you couldn't work out until four o'clock in the afternoon - would you not eat until after that?

"I might."

I look at my watch. It's 3.30pm. Alarm bells start to ring in my head. How about today, I ask. Have you eaten at all today?

Roth is a little quiet.

""No," she says."

There is a pause.

"But I feel great!"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/24/meme-roth-obesity-nutrition.

http://jezebel.com/5269464/anti+obesity-activist-meme-roth-compares-eating-to-rape.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Check out my review and interview with the choreographer of the Young Vic's latest production here:

his week The Young Vic and Sadler’s Wells team up to create an exciting dance theatre production called Pictures from an Exhibition based on the torrid and tragic life and works of the 19th century Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky and his piano suites which were inspired by the paintings of his dead lover, artist and architect Victor Hartmann. It’s an admirably ambitious project, crossing genres by combining dance, movement, live music, poetry and dramatic theatre.

Director Daniel Kramer has been very successful in creating an uncomfortable sense of claustrophobia. The resulting unease is felt throughout the piece - James Fenton’s minimal verse helps to heighten the feelings of isolation felt by Mussorgsky (played by Edward Hogg) as he sank further and further towards rock bottom. However, Fenton’s contributions are let down somewhat by the acting which veers dangerously towards melodrama at times and jars with the surrealism of the dance-only sections.

Frauke Requardt uses her dancers to great effect, mixing minimalist modern styles with twists on the classically infused with influences from traditional Russian folk. She tackles the sinister depiction of Mussorgsky’s abuse suffered as a boy at the hands of his piano teacher using the character of a demon clad in neon green and orange as narrator and provocateur of Mussorgsky’s buried memories.

For the scene, Hogg wears a flesh-coloured jock strap with a baby’s milk bottle attached in place of his genitals. Either side are ping pong balls, placed as testicles. In one grotesque sequence, a female dancer dressed as a nurse cradles him like an infant as the demon reaches under his night shirt and detaches a testicle, putting it in his mouth. It is then revealed to be an egg as the demon turns towards the audience and cracks it in his mouth before spitting the contents into a bucket placed below the stage. The effect is powerful, especially for those in the front row.

Requardt’s blackly humorous choreography inspires brilliant performances by the dancers and is arguably the most compelling reason to go and see Pictures from an Exhibition. I caught up with her to talk about her involvement in the project.


What was it about this project that inspired you to be involved?

I love cross-art productions. You just learn so much about what the different art-forms are made to express best.

Had you worked with either Daniel Kramer or James Fenton before? How did you enjoy it?

I have never worked with either of them before and yes I enjoyed working with them tremendously. I bow down to James' intellect and knowledge. His poetry is just beautiful.


Being able to draw on Mussorgsky's Russian heritage must have had an influence. Where else did you look to for reference? Did you look to Hartmann's work?

Yes, we did look at Hartmann's pictures since that's what the music was written about, but we found that actually some of them were lost. James did an incredible amount of research, reading through Mussorgsky's letters and informing us about the artistic and political climate at that time in Russia. He always brought more information - paintings, letters, biographies - and he talked about Mussorgsky's contemporaries and the zeitgeist of that period. We wanted the movement to be big at times and looked at Russian soldiers dancing, but we also wanted really contemporary intricate parts that would express his suffering in a more poetic way.


How long did it take to create this production?

Ten weeks, and a lot of talking before that.

What are your hopes for Pictures from an Exhibition? How would you like it to be received?

I hope we created a meaningful piece that deserves to be in the world. I have a feeling that people will either hate it or love it, which is fine by me. I would like it to be acknowledged as the ambitious and daring piece of work that it is to me.


URL to original article on Don't Panic's site here: http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/arts/pictures-from-an-exhibition