The Narwhal Factor Revisited
Posted on September 16, 2012 by Dr. Deah
You know the phenomenon. It’s the thing that happens when you first learn about something or someone. Perhaps it is a new word. Then over the next week or so EVERYWHERE you go...voila! The word you just learned is in the crossword puzzle the next morning. You are on the phone with a friend and they use the word in a sentence, you are eavesdropping on a conversation at the coffee shop and they are discussing the nuances of the word. My step-mom and I called it the Narwhal Factor. She and I were talking about a children’s book that my son had just received as a gift for his third birthday. It was a POP-UP alphabet book where the picture for the letter N was a narwhal.“What the hell is a narwhal?”I explained that it was a whale that had a unicorn type tusk coming out of its forehead. “Well I’ll be damned,” she said, never heard of it.” The next day she called me from New York, “You’re not going to believe this! I was flipping through the channels and I swear to god, there was a documentary on NARWHALS!” We laughed and chalked it up to coincidence. She called me three more times that week. Once from FAO Schwarz Toy Store in Manhattan where they had a display of stuffed whales the centerpiece was…of course…a narwhal. The cover of the National Geographic in her Dentist’s office…narwhal…A book review in the New York Times about…well you get the point. We decided this was something that needed a name and so we dubbed it The Narwhal Factor. Well, today, I want to be your narwhal which may not be easy considering that most of you who are reading my blog or have found my website are:
- Already active in fighting size-ism.
- Clinicians, therapists, and professionals looking for resources to use with clients who are bravely working on their relationships with their bodies and food.
- Educators looking for curriculum to use in the classroom while training future therapists, or providing CEU’s to already practicing clinicians.
- People exploring options to work on their own personal self-acceptance and have seen the Leftovers DVD trailer.
- My father and my sisters.
- Stereotyping fat people is wrong
- Ignoring the kids that are bullying kids who are too scrawny or too fat or too anything is wrong.
- Believing that diets work when in fact eating disorders can be caused by dieting is wrong.
- Believing that all fat people are unhealthy is wrong.
- Hating yourself because you are too fat is wrong.
Have you had a Narwhal Factor experience that you'd like to share?
Til Next Time! Dr. Deah
Thanks for being a weight stigma Narwhal! We can use all the support we can get to bring about more awareness! Blessings!
Jump on in the water’s great! 😉 Thanks!!! I love your support as well!
The Headless Fatty – I hadn’t realised how insidious a message it was. The HF is so much a part of our society you don’t even notice it. And then you do. And then…NARWHAL!!!!
The HF is EVERYWHERE. And the fact that we don’t even register it’s existence until it’s pointed out to us – and we wonder where all that internal shame about being fat comes from!
Great example Angela!!!
Thank you for sharing this analogy! Its a great way to think about framing the goals of your purpose when you have a minority perspective (which as you know can be daunting to say the least).
Thank you Lisa and Susan for your comments. It always makes my day to hear that my writing is having a positive result in another person’s life. Big snugly narwhal hugs to you both!
This is a really lovely post. The tone was so upbeat I was immediately cheered up.
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