Slim People “Fed Up” With Fat People
This article from the L.A. Times runs down some recent examples of fatism, such as the save-the-whales PETA ad, the mandatory “fat class” graduation requirement, and the proposed bill outlawing restaurant dining by obese people in Mississippi.
The pattern, the Times posits, is that slim people are “fed up” with the obese. Some choice quotes, bolding mine:
Michael Kellner, a trim, 37-year-old public relations professional who lives in San Francisco, is among the disgusted: “I am completely and utterly frustrated with rising healthcare costs due to the deluge of fat Americans taxing the healthcare system. I’m in shape and have been all my life because I don’t soothe myself with food all day.”
Way to snap judge, there, Michael Kellner! And you’re so right on. In fact, after reading your quote, I had to go “soothe myself” with a can of frosting, which I licked off my fingers because I couldn’t be bothered to find a spoon.
Actually now I’m thinking about the whole issue of self-medicating with food. I’ve done it: gained weight during periods of great stress, partially because I learned to associate food with comfort and love as a child. I’m sure I’m not alone. But it doesn’t mean some asshole like this Kellner guy knows what the fuck he’s talking about, or has a right to judge fat people on that basis. Sometimes self-medicating with food in response to legitimate stress is a better alternative to things like suicide or alcoholism. And you can’t, obviously, assume that thin people never do something and fat people always do something, which I think is the salient point. Anyway, moving on.
Los Angeles actor Jim Dailakis feels most frustrated with the fat issue when he travels. “I understand some people have issues that are uncontrollable. However, why is it that if I say anything about being stuck between two huge people on an airplane, I’m being politically incorrect? I work out religiously, watch what I eat and am very healthy. Yes, I’m fed up with it.”
I think we’ve talked the issue of discomfort on airplanes into the ground, haven’t we? The hypocricy of obese people being targeted for making others uncomfortable when, A) they’re uncomfortable themselves, because airplanes suck; and B) it’s a horrible self-conscious experience to fly while fat anyway; and C) you don’t see people attacking parents who bring crying, screaming, or seat-kicking children, who also make flying uncomfortable. We all know all of this, so… moving on again.
“In our society, being heavy has become more of a stigma lately because we’re struggling with other issues of consumption,” says Abigail Saguy, associate professor of sociology at UCLA. The economic climate, a recent history of people buying more than they can afford as well as environmental issues, including the depletion of our planet’s resources, are making people feel more angry about society’s overconsumption, she says. Obviously overweight people are an easy target… If people feel they’re sacrificing, then see someone spilling over an airplane seat, they feel angry that that person is not making the same sacrifices they are.
This is an interesting theory. In fact, it’s the central metaphor of Wall-E, which we’ve discussed before.
If public health officials, employers and still-slim Americans channel their concerns properly, it will have a positive effect, health experts say. “There’s no better example of what happens when public health takes on an issue than what we’ve seen happen with tobacco over the past 10 years…” “Not long ago, the thought of not allowing people in a building to smoke wasn’t realistic; now it’s common. Similarly, in some schools the thought of banning sugary drinks and junk food seems completely unrealistic, but that will change too. The changes will meet resistance, but over time, healthy ideas will gain acceptance.”
Once again, I hope people who want to ban junk food in schools (which I’m obviously not against) will stop demonizing fat people en route to enacting positive change. And also, the idea that it’s only “still-slim Americans” who will have a voice about public health is really, dangerously fucked up.
So, that’s a lot of ground to cover in one post. What do you guys think?
Thanks to @Knifemouth for the link!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Art, Eating Disorders, Fatism, Health, Kids, Movies, Personal
And people wonder why fat folks are terrified to EXIST publicly.
I like the self-righteous comments about working out and eating healthy, like fat people simply CAN’T do that. You know, thin people eat at McDonald’s too.
And don’t get me started about all the times I’ve sat next to a “normal size” man and been smashed into the aisle or the window because of invisible schlong syndrome.
I’m fed up with the deluge of people who exercise all the time and get sports injuries, raising my healthcare premiums.
Like my (average-sized) husband who had something like fifty physical therapy appointments last year after having surgery to repair his ACL, when he tore it playing soccer.
His insurance company put out a hell of a lot more money for his healthcare last year than my insurance company did for me.
First of all, the phrase “deluge of fat Americans” brought about images that made me giggle. It’s rainin’ fats!
Second, the cliche of “stuck between two fatties onna bus/plane/rickshaw” needs its own law. And also, it’s not just us fatties who are invading space. I don’t like sitting on the bus/plane: 1) next to people who have smoked so much that it permeates their clothing to a point that a perpetual cloud of nicotine stench wafts around them like the dustcloud around Pigpen 2) between or next to a pair of dudely dudes having their dudely dude conversation about how like totally wasted they got and like how many chicks they totally would bang and why 3) next to old men who constantly clear their throats with a sickening “hurrrrghl!” But you know what? Public transportation — and this includes planes still, as most of the general public is allowed to fly a plane if they can find the money for it — is always going to be a potential pain-in-the-ass (even if said ass is fat) for EVERYONE. Find a way to deal with it.
Third, I think when you say “So-many percent of Americans are in the overweight category” these guys conjure up a series of straw-fatties, eating mountains of burgers and cupcakes all day (except on days when they have to go out in public and take up two bus seats) that they know MUST EXIST because statistics never lie!. They picture the Straw-bese, as it were. And it gets mixed up with this idea of moral fiber and discipline and what’s mine-is-mine and they just go nutty-bananas whenever they see someone being fat in public. Especially if that fat person is eating in public, but EVEN if that fat person is merely existing in public, or even — holy smokes! — exercising. I was biking to meet a friend one day and someone actually mooed at me as I zipped by. And I flipped around and screamed “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?!” before continuing to the coffee shop.
WHERE I ATE A MUFFIN! BOOOOGAHHH-BOOGAHHH!
By “needs its own law” i mean, like, when someone invokes it we shout “FATTYONNAPLANE LAW!” and that person loses the argument.
No, clearly he self soothes with smug superiority and hatred.
Anyway, good break down of how the omgfatpeople panic facilitates scapegoating for societal ills. How long until we are all rounded up into fat camps ‘for our own good’?
By internet custom, I believe that makes it “Tigi’s Law,” after the one who first proposed it. As in, “In any discussion of life as or with fat people, the person who blames fat people for the cramped conditions of modern airplane travel automatically loses.”
“I was biking to meet a friend one day and someone actually mooed at me as I zipped by.”
I can sooo relate to this. It’s fucking ridiculous how people expect us fats to constantly try to lose weight, and yet we get catcalled if we’re doing something active. Ridiculous.
“The pattern, the Times posits, is that slim people are “fed up” with the obese.”
THEY are fed up with US? Yeah. Anyone still having trouble with the concept of Privilege needs to look in on this article.
Fat People are being threatened , Yes THREATENED with the halting of our education, loss of our jobs, loss of our income, loss and detention of our children to CPS, reduction or discontinuation of our healthcare by both our employers AND the government, restriction and limitation of when where and how we can travel. We are being experimented on by the medical community (Can you say WLS?), encouraged to harm ourselves in unfathomable ways to become mainstream (People have had electric fondue sticks inserted into their BRAINS) Big Pharma has tested all KINDS of biochem concoctions on us, some of them deadly, without even breaking stride or looking back.
Yet Slim people are ‘fed up’ with the Obese. Obviously because the Privilege they experience as un-persecuted ‘normal weight’ people is being impinged upon. . . . In some way. How inconvenient
Oh, Right! The ‘I’m paying their healthcare’ Card. You know, the whole fat people are unfairly collecting more than their fair share theory that ALWAYS, INVARIABLY, INEVITABLY, gets dumped into comments by some outraged ‘personal responsibility advocate’. Funny. Whenever someone of color feels they are being discriminated against, some people will bitch and complain about how much they hate when ‘THEY’ play the race card. Yet some of those same folks will play the ‘I’m paying fat healthcare’ card so fast and so hard the closest analogy would have to be projectile vomiting. And they don’t see a damn thing wrong with it.
This is privilege
As long as someone photoshops a jpeg of Samuel L. Jackson shouting “WE NEED TO GET THESE MUTHAFUCKIN’ FATS OFF THIS MUTHAFUCKIN’ PLANE!” I’ll feel satisfied with whatever we name this law.
If named for me, the honor would be supreme. I would extend it — “In any discussion of weight or fatness, any person who invokes the cramped conditions of modern public transport, including but not limited to air travel, as a reason that fat people are a drain on society, loses the argument due to specious reasoning.”
#
@Sparkle Pants
“And don’t get me started about all the times I’ve sat next to a “normal size” man and been smashed into the aisle or the window because of invisible schlong syndrome.”
A-bloody-men. The epidemic of blokes who think they *really need* to take up twice as much leg room as anyone else on the train is a far more pressing concern for users of public transport than any OMGDEATHFATZ moral panic.
Did anybody notice the irony that Michael Kellner (supposedly) makes his living as a Public Relations Professional Ha ha ha! Bad PR for your self, asshole. You can’t even spin this issue right or without tired cliche. Why would anybody hire you to speak on their behalf?
Dear Mr. Self-Righteous Gym Rat: funny, I’m completely fed up with being judged by egomaniacal twats like you. BTW, health care costs are rising in the US because of the 45 million people who are still uninsured, not because of fat people. If you spent a fraction of the time paying attention to current events that you do preening in front of the weight room mirror, you might have been saved the embarrassment of having your ignorance captured in print.
And to the actor no one’s ever heard of who doesn’t like sitting beside fat people on airplanes: if my big fat ass ever finds itself beside you, I will make sure it gets close enough for you to kiss when I get up to go into the aisle.
That is all.
You guys ROCK!!!!!
I have nothing to add. You all have said it much more eloquently than I could. (Especially Empressmitzi!)
Each Monday, the Los Angeles TIMES prints something called HEALTH, a full section of the paper devoted to…take a guess. More often than not, this section contains at least one fat-bashing article, always counched in the same terms:”We’re just doing what’s best for people”.
I hate to make the comparison, but Big Brother has already taken away so much from so many using the same skewed logic, it’s just a matter of time before we won’t be allowed to eat at all. I think one of the major problems here is fear: so-called “normal” people’s absolute terror of the unknown. It’s at the root of nearly all bigotry & hate; look at religious extremists and their attitude: “If you don’t worship EXACTLY as we do, you’re a heathen”. Ergo, the thins look at us as “If you don’t eat & exercise EXACTLY as we do, you’re subhuman”.
All of the above comments ought to be sent straight to the LA Times with a gentle reminder: Yo, schmucks, all of us fat people buy the products advertised in your paper (which is in really big financial trouble). What if we decided to say, “Those products are made by THIN people and we won’t buy any of them”? If our numbers are so massive, can you imagine what that would do to the economy?…Just consider that food for thought.
I absolutely love this blog, and this post, obviously.
I just don’t understand why people can’t peacefully coexist, or at least why people who can’t stand other people can’t shut the fuck up and stop blaming the plight of society on fat people. Stop the scapegoating! Holy crap, it’s enough already.
Please excuse me while I go stuff my face full of canneloni in anger.
This holier-than-thou “I work out so I am a better person” stuff makes me insane. Ted Bundy worked out. Guys who carjack people or shoot people in home invasion robberies often work out and are in great shape. Terrorists might even work out!
It’s absurd and so disheartening.
I work in a hospital as a dietitian, ahem, a fat dietitian, and much to the dismay of all the fat-haters out there who love to place blame, I do not spend all day treating fat people whose limbs have been cut off due to diabetic complications or treating their 5th heart attack. Most the people I see are old w/ failing organs, heart, lung, kidney, liver, take your pick. Aging is the biggest cause of rising health care costs, not fatness. And FYI, a BMI <23 is associated with higher risk of death in elderly. That's why I love to see fatter patients in my hospital because I think they have a better chance of surviving whatever condition got them there in the first place.
there is such a prejudice towards fat people – when you try to exercise at the gym or outside people give you dirty looks or drive by and make animal noises at you – at the grocery store they make ugly faces at your shopping cart – and the worst is seating, when people avoid sitting next to you!
I don’t frequent a gym, but I have to take exception to Laura’s comment. Respectfully, it depends. When I exercise at a local “sports center,” i.e. a place where people sit on the benches watching their children play soccer, the parents stare at me like I’m an exhibit at the zoo.
When I exercise on a local jogging trail that is popular with serious athletes, I don’t get any crap about being obese. They treat me as someone who is trying to improve her health. They’re not condescending or patronizing; they act as if I’m one of them. An athlete. As indeed I am, damn it.
I’ve found the same as The Merry. We’re all at the gym. There was one gym where I would get looks, and I quit that gym. As in, I stopped giving that place money.
tigi, try ’stuck between two Zen geeks’. (That’s Zen as in the MP3 player. I couldn’t even complain, because one of them was my husband. Kids who think kicking the back of your seat is an ideal way to pass a nine hour flight are my personal flying bugbear, anyway.) Also, ‘Strawbese’ is an excellent term for use in argument.
I am completely and utterly frustrated with rising healthcare costs due to the deluge of smoking and drinking Americans taxing the healthcare system. I’ve got a perfect liver and lungs and have had them all my life because I don’t soothe myself with booze and cigarettes all day. ;)
I read this blog religiously, but never post. But I have to today to say that “Strawbese” may be the best term I’ve ever heard and would love to see it turned into something official.
Also, I love you all so much. All your arguments are intelligent and well-founded, even when emotional. It’s like you’re all in my head!
While certainly real life bigots do have these attitudes, if it is in MSM, it is there as a marketing ploy to send folks running to their nearest diet center. I have long ago discovered fat bigots are not worth my time. I wouldn’t exercise one second longer or deny myself one less bite of pleasure for their sake. What are they doing to please me. Let them kiss my Rubenesque derriere.
I’m sick of all these baby boomers getting old. The increasing elder population in the USA is draining all our resources. They really need to stop aging, for the good of us all. We should go “Logan’s Run” all the way.
Just kidding. But seriously, why can’t people just mind their own damn business?
bumblebee, you are so right. I’ve heard tons of arguments about how fat people are the biggest expense in healthcare, but the truth is it’s the aging population. Go to a hospital. Who do you see the most of in there? Elderly people with age-related conditions. If only we could stop those lazy old farts from aging and wasting our tax dollars.
As for that fat person on an airplane argument:
I don’t like sitting next to someone on the bus who’s put on too much cologne/perfume, or someone with a ton of shopping bags, or someone that hasn’t bathed, or someone with a screaming child.
But these are just the things everyone has to deal with on public transportation, so suck it up, buttercup! They’re not kicking those people off the bus(or plane), and they’re not kicking fat people off either.
I kind of wonder if this was directed at any other group, would the Times have published it? Replace fat person with pregnant woman. I mean, that’s entirely preventable, isn’t it? And if she just got an abortion, she would be rid of it. Easy!
Geez there’s a lot of sarcasm in this post.
People sure to preoccupy themselves with hatred … honestly the shame is in not embracing people for who they are and the wonderful things they contribute to our society, regardless of their “differences.”
When will we mature past cultural hatred? Fat, thin, rich, poor, abled, disabled … we’re all humans with something to contribute. It’s that simple …
Sparkle Pants, I just LOLed for about 5 minutes at the phrase “invisible schlong syndrome.” Then I shared your brilliance with my mom who knew EXACTLY what you meant and agreed that guys who do that generally take up more size than a regularly-seated fat person!
Seriously, though, ROLFMAO.
“If people feel they’re sacrificing, then see someone spilling over an airplane seat, they feel angry that that person is not making the same sacrifices they are.”
Oh hey, fuck you, you snap-judgment “sacrificing” assholes! Who the fuck are you? No, I’m not making the same sacrifices everyone else is. Y’know why? Because *gasp* PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT AND HAVE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES. SOME OF THESE SITUATIONS AND CIRCUMSTANCES ACTUALLY MAKE OR CONTRIBUTE TO THE PEOPLE IN THEM BEING FAT.
Also, off is the direction in which these ignorant assholes can fuck.
I have rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. And depression. And Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Guess what? None of those were caused by being fat (in fact, there’s a strong genetic component to all of them), but they sure as hell contribute to keeping me fat. So when these judgmental douchebags can figure out how to change my DNA so my joints don’t dislocate on a daily (or more) basis, my immune system stops attacking the cartilage in my joints, my brain stops telling my muscles that they hurt (and all the associated joys, hah, of fibro), and adjusts my brain chemicals after years of being in ridiculously stressful situations? THEN they can bitch at me for “costing them money”.
Obviously, being rude is not going to help anyone. However, USA is in the midst of obesity epidemic. Whether overweight people like it or not, they are threatening their health. I am not talking about people who are slightly overweight and otherwise healthy. I am talking about someone who is obese. It’s not normal to be obese, no matter how many times you are told to celebrate whatever shape you are in.
Most people that are obese are not willing to change anything about their diet or life style, and the grim reality is that they have to. Of course, rude comments and smug attitude is not helping either.
oh yeah, I am not talking about someone with fibro, thyroid issues and other chronic genetic illnesses.
Do you have ANY evidence to back this up, or are you just talking out your ass?
Because, I looked into it and all the research says that FITNESS not FATNESS is the greatest indicator for health. Yes, you can be 40 pounds “overweight” (by the insurance company charts) and be physically fit, and you will be healthier than a sedentary individual who is ten pounds underweight.
So, I’d like you to present your research because anyone voicing such a position must be informed with oodles of data, correct?
Do you truly believe that someone who is obese does not get up every day and a). realize they are obese and b). realize how much people like you loathe them? Do you really believe that in light of the soul-crushing treatment they receive on a consistent basis that they have been, at some point, unwilling to do virtually anything to be thin?
Seriously? You think it’s because they haven’t tried when the diet industry is a raking in billions of dollars a year? Who’s paying for this shit? Thin people?
Do you realize that airlines designate fat people as a Person of Size or POS? Yes, a clever use of the letters for Piece of Shit. In fact, every single place we go, we are reminded that people like you HATE US and believe our body type is the result of a character flaw.
You have no idea what the “grim reality” is, because you have no idea what causes fatness or how to correct it. Neither does the medical community.
But hey, I am sure if YOU were in control, you could have us all looking like lingerie models in no time, right? All we have to do is just change or diet.
Leslie, let’s not get hysterical here.
First of all, I wrote in my original post that I am not talking about people that are slightly overweight, but rather obese.
Secondly, what proof do you require? The proof that obesity is bad for you?
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/life-vie/obes-eng.php
Medicine does know the reason for obesity:
- genetics(hereditary illnesses, poor metabolism)
- diet (more calories in than out)
- exercise (or lack of thereof)
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314/DSECTION=causes
Let’s leave the airplane controversy out of it.
The point that I was trying to make is that if someone is obese they should try and make the changes in their life – healthy changes, not ridiculous diets, instead of justifying their obesity to be normal.
“But hey, I am sure if YOU were in control, you could have us all looking like lingerie models in no time, right? All we have to do is just change or diet.”
—
where did I say that?
“Do you truly believe that someone who is obese does not get up every day and a). realize they are obese and b). realize how much people like you loathe them? Do you really believe that in light of the soul-crushing treatment they receive on a consistent basis that they have been, at some point, unwilling to do virtually anything to be thin?”
—–
Let’s leave emotion out of it. Realizing something and doing something about it are two vastly different things. I have seen people succeed in losing weight when they committ to a healthy program, and I have seen people yo-yo diet only to become frustrated and give up all together. It’s amazing what one can do when they make 3 following changes:
- start moving (even a little bit)
- stop eating empty calorie foods
- portion their meals
The key is doing the right things. If one doesn’t have a hereditary issues, the chances of success are on their side.
It’s painful to see people giving their children junk food, that’s who the epidemic starts. Later on in life, it’s hard to break the habit of eating a lot and eating wrong foods.
First off, why do you assume anyone is “hysterical”? Because I disagree with you and have the ability to communicate in an effective manner? Or is it that you are not used to being challenged?
It’s a nice passive-aggressive attack and an nasty attempt to marginalize your opposition by a thinly-veiled insult of mental instability. This is commonly used by men in the medical community. . . my guess is you’re somehow associated. In fact, your arguments sort of reminds me of the assholes I usually meet in doctor’s offices. You wouldn’t happen to be a nurse, would you?
I’m not emotional, but it is interesting that you have the ability to read in all kinds of things into my short post. Have you been psychic long? Can you please tell me where I left my digital camera?
Those are really terrific links with absolutely no research to back them up. Again, do you have any data to support your claims that “Most people that are obese are not willing to change anything about their diet or life style”?
I would really like to see your data, do you have any or is this statement just ill-informed?
Again, I ask you, who do you think is supporting the BILLION dollar diet industry? Skinny people? People who don’t want to change? WHO?
Seriously, you need to get a clue. I got “obese” as a vegan who was riding a bicycle to and from work each day, and walking five miles, five times a week. I also played racquetball two hours a week. Tell me, was I just not portioning out my organic vegetables properly or was my lifestyle just not healthy enough? I am sure my doctor would love your learned opinion on the matter since my diet was better than his.
And leaving out the airline issue? WTF? Did you even read the original article?
So please, do tell us what “right things” we’re all not doing. Start with me. I’d love to know exactly what I am doing wrong in your highly esteemed opinion (since you don’t seem to have much in the way of “fact” to offer.)
Oh, and by the way, I have an overactive thyroid and should be 15 pounds underweight. That should make it so much easier for you to pinpoint my “problem.”
I’m just waiting to get started on your program since you apparently know what ALL of us obese people need in order to stop this “epidemic.”
Yeah, I kind of thought you were talking out your ass and wouldn’t respond.