I’m adopted, and when I met my birth mother and her family, I was shocked to find all the women were about my size. There has to be more to this than what we’ve been taught to think. I’ve given up feeling guilty about the way I was made and JLC can kiss my fat ass. She has no credentials or personal history to give ANY advice to people who are larger.

Check out http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/ to read about hundreds of studies that debunk the myths about being fat – and there are sooo many.

Which, a) I fail to see how that’s demonstratively different from “Only thin people are okay,” and b) is pretty strange coming from a woman who accompanied her un-retouched, un-made-up photo shoot in More a few years ago with a children’s book about self-esteem.

I say this as someone who really liked what she was saying then, and thought the world of her for having the nerve to have those photos taken and published. But this… I find really disappointing. Because again, it sounds like “healthy” is being used as code for “thin” and that leaves me wondering – exactly which kids did she intend to help develop strong self-esteem with her book? All kids, or just the ones who aren’t “too” fat?

There is a lot of debate about whether simply being overweight is that risky for your health. But I think you can believe that it is a health risk and still not be an apologist for people who are rude, prejudiced, or insulting toward fat people. I can be an unhealthy human being (though I personally am not unhealthy that I know of, luckily for me) and still be a human being, who doesn’t deserve to be treated like a child or an idiot or to have basic rights taken away.

Similarly I can buy (although I don’t, necessarily) Jamie’s arguments about how you shouldn’t just “accept” poor health, without condoning her overall disapproving, paternalistic tone or broad stereotypes of fat people. Even if you disagree with me and you think being fat is a ticking health time bomb, a person is not required to be healthy to deserve some basic level of respect and human dignity. You can even agree with the asswipe gym owner in the new post that it’s a good thing for people to slim down and get healthy (again, not saying I do agree, in fact I think it’s ridiculous to get up on a pedestal and decide what other people do or do not have to do to become acceptable to you… I don’t see him tossing cigarettes at smokers so clearly “health” is not the issue here in any case) but totally reject his “tough love” (barf) approach and nasty personality because of the objective fact that he is a shitstain.

I don’t have to “agree” with a person just because they advocate for health and I am also in favor of seeking good health. People are wrong and misguided about a lot of stuff and obviously they cloak a LOT of sterotypes, sexism, and other ugliness in “health” and then get away with never having to reflect any further on these flaws in their thinking. If they are not going to admit that a lot of what they think is rooted in prejudice, then I’m not going to sign on to their assertions. Not saying JLC is necessarily a terrible fat hating person, just that a lot of people are, and her comments reflect a little of that societal ignorance.

Meowser,

That is not what I said at all. I said (and I will say it again) that being fat was unhealthy for ME (not that I look like a ballerina now). I didn’t say that it was all right to hate on fat people, and I don’t recall saying that I hung my head in shame about it . I was just stating the facts about MY health and MY experience. I even said that I was aware of the fact that my story wasn’t the case for everybody, and no I DON’T believe that fat folks are deserving of the sweeping assumptions about weight. I think it’s fantastic that you got your condition under control without losing weight. It just proves my point that fat doesn’t equal unhealthy for everyone. I will say (and I don’t care if it’s politically correct or not) that I’m glad that I changed my lifestyle and lost weight. I’ll even go as far as saying that I’m proud of myself for it. Why? Because I was getting sick and I did (the way I knew how) something about it. I also chose to be vegan (main cause of body change). However, I’m not going to say that it’s the right choice for everyone, but once again, it was the right one for me.

I like this part. I tend to cut actresses some slack that are trying to (still, if you’re over 35 or so and not Meryl Streep) trying to have a career here in modern day America. The current administration leads to Ann Coulter run amok leads to Me!Me! Roth leads to women over size 0 being afraid to open their mouths and say anything that’s not the party line, let alone feed themselves.

OF COURSE, if she’d brought her lunch to the interview in a “Remains of the Day” lunchbox, she’d be a WHOLE LOT HAPPIER!!!

Hee hee hee hee …

What difference does it make if Jamie Lee Curtis hates the fat people?

What difference does it make if Jamie Lee Curtis says it’s okay to be fat and love yourself?

I don’t think she said the former, and she seems to deny having said the latter, but whether she said either one or not, whatever it is she thinks, what difference does it make?

I only meant to suggest that my read of the interview differed with Mo’s. I read an interview wherein Jamie Lee Curtis seemingly objected to having been misinterpreted which Mo interpreted one way and I interpreted another.

But whatever it is that Jamie Lee Curtis thinks, whyever should I care?

(Remember that nickname? :) )

I just discovered this site about a week or so ago. I love what you’re doing with it, and I love your writing as much as always–

and as an aside on that note, yesterday morning I was in a meeting at work and I noticed, for the first time, I swear!, the size of a colleague’s bust… and as I wondered whether she would consider her boobs to be “Jiant” it was all I could do to confine the laughter to inside my head.

–but I disagree with your take on Jamie Lee’s attitude as presented in the interview.

I haven’t read the other comments yet, because I wanted to go with my impressions of the article itself first. To wit:

Her use of the term overweight as quoted above is about the only occurence of the term in the interview, and when compared to her multiple references to salt and poor eating habits, the impression I got was that she was critcizing unhealthful living. Unhealthful diet/eating habits, unhealthful drinking and drug use habits, unhealthful thought patterns, unhealthful fixations on body image, etc.

For example, there’s this passage on the body image stuff:

‘ We arrive at the photo shoot five minutes early. “See?” she says, “right on time.” We’re greeted by some people she knows and others she’s just met, and all say some version of the same two things: “Wow! You look fabulous!” And, “You’re so skinny!”

‘ She shoots me a glance, comes up to me and whispers: “Do you hear it? That’s what I get. All the time.” She seems vaguely disgusted by the comment, but also vaguely grateful, a confusing mix of emotions. “I had a friend of my mother’s come up to me this Christmas,” she says. “She’s a dear woman, she has a heart of gold. She came up to me and whispered in my ear: ‘You look like you again.’”

‘ It was not, to her mind, a compliment.

‘ “I didn’t know what to say. Because the problem is that’s what I traded my life on. That’s what I get everywhere I go. Everywhere I go. Am I nothing but a body? Am I nothing but someone who talks about her frickin’ body?” ‘

I don’t think her comments were critical of people who are fat for their being fat; I think her comments were critical of people who are unhealthy and accept that they are without caring that they are.