Sometimes, I Hate People
I am so sad and pissed off that the amazing, inspirational Fat Girl on a Bike has had to put her blog on hiatus because people are assholes. (The previous link doesn’t work, and her photo has been pulled from the BMI project.) Sarah explains:
The last straw was a very lengthy discussion on another blog, specifically discussing me based on photos from the BMI project… The biggest reason I don’t discuss diet and weight loss with strangers is I lived for 17 years as a calorie-obsessed bulimic who spent much of my spare mental energy trying to see how many grams I’d be able to lose if I just puked up 4 percent of last night’s dinner. Constantly reading and hearing about eating, weight, obesity, etc., have recently rekindled all sorts of eating disordered thoughts and behavior and I will NOT let that happen to me again…
[T]his shit is 100 percent personal, based on one fucking picture. Not a series of pictures, but one fucking picture. And people claim it’s not personal, by saying it’s not me they’re criticizing, it’s just my fat. Guess what, my fat is part of my body…
Based on those pictures, some anonymous fucktard can make a public assertion that I’m unhealthy, weak, sick, in need of medical attention, grinding my joints to a pulp, not an athlete, not a triathlete, lying about what I eat (which I never discuss online), lying about the levels of exercise I do (which I also don’t discuss in intimate detail), self-hating, and a whole host of other things.
I don’t know exactly what was said, but I can well imagine. If you are so “concerned” about “the health” of fat people, WORLD, then why do you SHAME THEM and judge them and attack them when they are out there exercising and being healthy? Sarah inspired people to get out there and be physical and overcome the guilt and shame. Here’s one comment of many that speaks to this:
This breaks my heart. Sarah’s blog gave me the courage to get over my fears of being laughed at and start biking and going to the gym again. I’m so ashamed that people can be so horrible.
I hope Sarah is back soon; I don’t blame her one bit for needing to take a break. And I hope all of you who found inspiration in Sarah don’t let the opinions of WORTHLESS JUDGMENTAL ASSHOLES change the way you live your life. Don’t give them the power.
Posted by mo pie
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After getting into fights on various websites on places like Fark and Digg (where these people are monstrous assholes and proud of it, I don’t visit any of those places anymore and my blood pressure thanks me for it), they feel like it’s a form of tough love, and because fat people are hard-headed retards, they need to be constantly mentally beaten like red-headed stepchildren until they get it right. It’s not actually any form of ‘caring’. They’re mentally ill busybodies that feel the need to jump on and destroy anything that makes their already fucked up little worlds anything less than perfect. If it doesn’t look the way they want it or they perceive any slight or inconvenience, it must be dealt with as harshly as possible.
OMG! I always check Fat Girl on A Bike before I come to BFD and I was upset to see that it went private.
Sarah – I hope you come here and will find out how much love and support you truly have. It infuriates me that other people try to force their negativity on the rest of us. Sarah – your blog is a bright spot in many people’s lives. You are a source for transformation. Please take your break, refresh and come back hauling ass. WE LOVE YOU SARAH!
Those fuckers. That picture actually made me think about biking again. I do not understand how people can be so hateful and mean. That picture is an INSPIRATION!
I’ll miss Fat Girl on a Bike terribly. This kind of hatred and attack mentality is one reason I don’t allow comments on my own blog. I put up with enough crap in real life and through reading her blog I know Sarah did too. I’m with you BFD…sometimes, I hate people.
I just started reading Fat Girl on a Bike before she went on her break. I’m so disappointed I didn’t get to read more of her site. I hope she comes back strong and fighting, I definitely admire her.
That really is a shame. I’ve come under the same assholes as well.
I’m a fat chick and I love my bike, and walking.
This post just inspired me to ask a friend to go hiking this afternoon with a friend! I haven’t been hiking in months. See?
I’ve read her blog many times and found her to be inspirational and well-written!
WHY does this kind of small-minded group of people feel so entitled to make these remarks? Did they win some kind of fucking special award? Please someone tell me. Because i’m 100% sure they are FAR from perfection so why they feel they can make comments and belittle someone else is beyond me.
Sarah, if you read this, I am so sorry for what you’ve been through. You do have a support system here and I hope that you can come back from your break with a blogging vengeance! To never blog again would be giving *them* the upper hand. Especially since it is clear that you have inspired so many people!
(((((BIG HUGS))))))) girl!
I hate people, too. People are assholes.
This is horrible news to me. Fatgirlonabike inspired me to start jogging again, after years of avoiding it because people told me it would hurt my joints. I’ve been walking/jogging for three weeks now and it feels great! I think maybe Sarah doesn’t realize that the sh!t you’ll get from people is directly proportional to the light you give off. Don’t let them win. Come back bike girl!
Violet, why do you give a fuck what the losers on FARK think? I tussle with them all the time just for fun. Most of them are bitter guys (yeah, many are males who hate women) with issues, and messing with their little pin heads is one of my favorite hobbies. Don’t take it personally. Although I have all sorts of issues with the fat acceptance movement, I have to dive bomb them when they are messing with fat people. As I said in one thread, hating fat folks is the last bigotry left for people who think they are too high-classed to be bigots.
I hate people. :(
I love(d) Sarah’s blog! Her dedication to triathlon and to challenging herself is so, so inspiring.
I remember when something similar happened with Fatty McBlog. Someone posted a link to them on the Tucker Max site and from then on, the trolls were rampant.
I often wonder if that’s why they eventually stopped posting to their blog?
The only thing I can think of is that those who feel the need to slam on others really don’t have fufilling lives of their own. Knocking other people down is the only way that they can feel good about themselves. It’s very very sad if you think about it.
I really have nothing to say but: Grrrrrrr!
And that I’m so sorry to hear about it.
I’m really really sad to hear this. I haven’t been surfing lately (I have a HUGE project at work) but it was the picture project that turned me onto fatgirlonabike and I’d just started reading it, and found it to be not only terrific, but excellent writing from a perspective — that while I dind’t always agree with — could relate to. Her posts were making me truly think about myself as an athlete, as a fat athlete, and the soul searching that cme with it has done me a world of good.
I hope she comes back in some form or another, but for now, I need to be angry that there’s people out there who ….
who….
oh, I’m just going to start spewing green vile from all orifices any moment now.
In case anyone is curious, the conversation that probably spawned this is here: myfatspouse.com/component/option,com_joomlaboard
/func,view/id,6560/catid,24/
(I won’t make this an active link; just cut and paste and close up the spaces.)
Found in my referral logs.
Oh, ugh, that horrible myfatspouse spew of hateful bandwidth. Yes, and I know why you don’t link — you can see they watch their statcounter for who goes to them and then hate even more.
Ugh ugh ugh. Hasn’t that website’s owner woken up and divorced his hateful ass yet? Ugh.
What pisses me off even more is that the Biker douche tries to pass what he did off as his sacred duty or something.
“Oh, believe me, I didn’t want to do it, but it had to be done. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I don’t agree with bla bla bla,” as if he was conflicted between his final decision and the benevolence he wished he could have acted on instead. Give me a fucking break.
Condescending son of a weasel.
Wow, this makes me so sad and sick. I loved Fat Girl on a Bike — Sarah was, and is, totally awesome. I wish now I’d have commented on her site to let her know how much she inspired me.
I don’t know if she has been back, but she commented in the thread on Kate’s blog that Mo Pie linked to. So if you express your appreciation there, she might see it…
Anonynimity brings out the abusive bully in a lot of people. It’s unfortunate, because right now these jerks are getting reinforcement for being “right” through mainstream media, when the truth is, they’re full of crap.
Myfatspouse is a support group for people who aren’t comfortable with their spouse’s weight. It had and has nothing to do with Sarah, and I don’t see exactly why looking at a conversation about you on someone else’s site is reason to take your site down when lots of people on your own site say you’re great. Just don’t go there any more. After all, no one forced her to take her site down.
A poster at the My Fat Spouse message board (where the original Fat Girl On A Bike bashing happened) has offered an apology (not a retraction):
They’re talking about us, too, by the way. We are “militant fatties”! The thread is here.
Just because a guy is a seasoned athlete with a certain amount of expertise about competition doesn’t make him a physician. Brother Crash is welcome to his opinion, but he’s NOT Sarah’s doctor, or her orthopedist, or her nutritionist. He has no basis to evaluate her fitness other than her photo. He can judge her competitive edge all he wants – she posted. But how the hell can he make some kind of diagnosis.
There are thin, thin, thin people who would finish in the slowest groups of a thriathlon, too. And they very well could have more joint problems than Sarah. I’ve read her blog, and I don’t recall her saying she has joint problems.
And why can’t the super-competitive people among us accept that some of us run, hike, lift, whatever to DO IT. Not to win. Not to be the fastest.
Guys like brother crash have tried to run my life forever. I have low blood pressure, low cholesterol and NO FREAKIN JOINT ISSUES. But I’m fat. AND I slam out three miles every other day — yeah, it takes me 45 minutes to do it. But my knees never hurt — and maybe Sarah’s don’t either.
If you’re fat and sedentary, you’re a sinner courting death.
If you’re fat and fit, you’re courting disability.
We can’t win.
“Guys like brother crash have tried to run my life forever.”
That’s it. You nailed it. It’s all about *control*.
Hey guys:
Thanks for the support. However, the myfatspouse posting is NOT what made my take my blog down. I didn’t even see it until today. It’s just one of many blogs and message boards that love to rip me apart and I know how to ignore them.
I also know what they are all about and how much fun they have pontificating over everyone else’s bodies and lives. I’ve been dissected on there before and it’s not a new thing.
For those MFSers that are lurking, I want you to know something. It’s a very creepy feeling to read what other people say about you, despite them not knowing a damn thing other than what they see in a photograph or the few sentences they scan. If you’d like, I’d be happy to let you know how it feels. All you need to do is send a photograph and write a few sentences about your life that don’t really go together. I’ll be happy to make up my own story to fit it and send throughout the blogosphere and media.
My reasons for taking my blog private TEMPORARILY were cumulative and most were outlined in the guest post on Kate Harding’s blog.
I will say this. As much as I regretted taking the site private because I know how many people I helped, I have greatly enjoyed the free time I’ve had — and the freedom to write about my life and not worry about the infamous douchehounds of the intarweb dissecting and analyzing every tiny detail they can think of.
Oh and PS to those on MFS who are ‘concerned’ about my joints: I don’t have joint problems. I don’t have knee problems. My minor problems come from muscular alignment issues and are currently being treated with proper training (as has been the case for several years.) Those are common issues that ANY athlete deals with regardless of size. I can show you a few elite ironman triathletes who have the same problems.
I don’t need your (quite possibly well-intentioned) advice on what professionals to work with. I am a smart woman who knows more about my body than you do. And like I’ve said before (of which you likely didn’t have the attention span to read) my body is MY business and there are many things related to what I do that I do not discuss on the internet. Thanks, and have a nice day.
I wish you would come back…or at least let me know what your private blogsite is.
Your blog was such an inspiration! I look to see if you have put it back, to no avail.
Pleeeeezzzzzzzzz, come back!