In defense of lateness

Plus: Why sports is still a man’s world [View this email online]( [NPR Health]( January 15, 2023 by Andrea Muraskin A new year is a good occasion to adjust old beliefs and practices. This week, an author [counters medical and cultural myths about what it means to be fat](. Plus, a competitive runner [argues for awareness and acceptance of developing female bodies in sports](. And, we present a case for a [different attitude towards punctuality](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Why the healthcare system – and everyone – should change how they think about fatness]( [A woman stands on a scale]( Rick Elkins/Getty Images Last year, I went to see a brilliant one-woman play called “[Too Fat for China]( by Phoebe Potts. It’s the story of Potts’ thorny road to adopting a child. Back in 2011, Potts and her husband were looking into adopting from China when they hit a roadblock: her BMI. At 5 feet 3 inches and 168 pounds – a body mass index of 30 – she was considered too overweight to be an adoptive parent by Chinese rules. It may seem surprising that a higher BMI could disqualify a person from adopting. You might also be surprised to learn that BMI is not a reliable indicator of health in the first place. That’s one of the myths author and podcast host Aubrey Gordon is looking to bust in her new book [You Just Need To Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People](. She tells NPR’s Life Kit that an “anti-fatness” culture in the U.S. is harmful to people of larger body sizes and it’s time to get rid of it. Take BMI. It was developed by a mathematician and statistician, (not a doctor), and based on measurements taken from French and Scottish men in the 1800s. “What researchers have found is that it may actually actively be harming the health of people of color and black folks and indigenous folks for whom it was never designed and was never tested or meaningfully adjusted for,” says Gordon. “It was also never designed, tested or adjusted for women.” Gordon would like to see a greater understanding of the many factors that can cause a person to be fat, such as genetics, environmental factors and specific health conditions. And she says there are practical changes that could make life easier, like changing the type of blood pressure cuff used to adapt to all bodies. No matter your size, [here are some ways you can make the world friendlier for bigger folks](. [Plus: Diet culture is everywhere: Here’s how to fight it.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- [The sports world is still built for men. This elite runner wants to change that]( [Lauren Fleshman]( Ryan Warner/Oiselle In the 1998 Winter Olympics, two American figure skaters were neck and neck for the gold: Tara Lipinski, age 15, and Michelle Kwan, age 17. Many expected Kwan to walk away with the title, but Lipinski got the top spot. But what stands out in my memory was this: all the talk about their bodies. Kwan was described as “womanly” because she had breasts and curved hips, while Lipinski cut a streamlined pre-pubescent figure. During replays, commentators reflected that Kwan’s shape gave her a disadvantage when it came to balance, where Lipinksi was more aero-dynamic. As a 13-year-old girl watching at home, I felt like something was off. In school we were told that developing breasts and menstruating were natural and healthy life processes. But the lesson from Lipinksi’s victory seemed to be that if a young athlete pushed herself enough, she could delay puberty, thus maintaining a competitive advantage. Distance runner Lauren Fleshman noticed that hitting puberty actually enhanced the performance of her male peers – when losing a race to a boy in middle school upended her status as fastest. And as Fleshman told Fresh Air this week, getting her period felt like an impediment, an "added burden that my male peers didn't have to deal with." The development of breasts and hips, she says, felt "scary, like they threatened the future that I wanted in sport." Now a professional athlete and coach, Freshman says she’s seen other female runners develop eating disorders or mental health problems, or drop out of the field altogether. She’s on a mission to educate athletes, and coaches, about things like female puberty, the importance of a healthy menstrual cycle, and the need for good sports bras. Here are some of Fleshman’s ideas for [how to talk about female bodies in sports without objectifying women and girls, or pushing them to perform like males](. [ICYMI: 'Running While Black' tells a new story about who belongs in the sport]( [In praise of being late: the upside of spurning the clock]( Islenia Milien /NPR Americans place a lot of value on being on time. Show up to class after the bell, and you could get detention. Habitually late to family events? Your relatives are likely grumbling about you behind your back. Three minutes late to a Zoom meeting, and you can expect a reminder text. But placing high value on “being on time” is a distinct cultural construct, according to anthropologists. It took off during the Industrial Revolution, when factory work, railroads, and more available clocks and watches created expectations of punctuality. Today, plenty of people still punch in to factory jobs, ride trains, and drop off and pick up their kids from school according to the clock. But other individuals and cultures organize time more around social events rather than minutes and hours. When American anthropologist Irma McClaurin traveled to Belize in the 1990s, she found there was a general understanding that “people aren't always in control of the management of time.” Paris-based business professor Anne-Laure Sellier says so-called “event-timers” tend to be more attuned to their emotions to make decisions throughout their day. They're better at immersing themselves in the moment, adapting to unexpected situations and savoring positive feelings. “Clock-timers,” as you might expect, tend to be more organized. In a relationship or a professional partnership with someone who has a different time style? [Here’s some tips on how to make it work](. [Plus: Can dogs smell time?]( Before you go: Westend61/Getty Images; Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images - Listen: 'Bad Sex' and how the sexual revolution [left women's desires behind]( - CDC starts swabbing air travelers for [new COVID variants]( - Prices are down and enrollment is up for [Obamacare health insurance plans]( - Photo essay: as she nursed her mom through cancer and dementia, a [tense relationship began to heal]( We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of [NPR's health journalism]( on Shots and follow us on Twitter at [@NPRHealth](. All the best, Andrea Muraskin and your Shots editors --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? 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