Recently, the enormous pile of fail that is Marie Claire magazine ran an op-ed piece by one vapid freelancer who took the opportunity to spew, like so much monkey diarrhea spraying the walls of a zoo enclosure, helpful advice for fat people.
The article is, if you want to treat your eyeballs to a feast of idiocy and self-importance heretofore unimaginable by people with souls, Should Fatties Get A Room (Even On Tv)?.
Okay, let's just grapple with that title there. Should fatties get a room? No. No, if I have to watch people of culturally acceptable body sizes pawing over each other in the supermarket check out line because the very sight of broccoli sends their libidos into overdrive, then I am allowed to kiss my husband in public. See, it's the "(Even on TV)?" part that gets me. It's like she's saying, "Of course, we all know it's unacceptable for fat people to touch each other in public. What decent human would even question that. No, no, what we are discussing is the probability of fat sex assaulting you in your very living room!"
That is, in fact, what the article is about. Or supposed to be about:
The other day, my editor asked me, "Think people feel uncomfortable when they see overweight people making out on television?"
Her editor was talking about Mike and Molly a sitcom that has drawn criticism for it's portrayal of two overweight people in a relationship.
But because she can't get over her own hatred of fat people, she can't write an article about that. Instead, she needs to warn us all about the dangers of being fat:
Hmm, being overweight is one thing — those people are downright obese! And while I think our country's obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy, I also think it's at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity! Yes, anorexia is sick, but at least some slim models are simply naturally skinny. No one who is as fat as Mike and Molly can be healthy. And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for, by way of our insurance, than any other health problem, even cancer.
Now, let me address these comments one by one, because otherwise I'm going to just start screaming DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE and end by throwing my laptop on the floor and stomping it to dust with my rhino-like body weight.
First of all, you cannot say something like "And while I think our country's obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy," and then jump right to using fucking fashion models as an example of health. If you believe you can equate the fashion industry with healthy body image, you are high. You are high on all the drugs in the world.
Second, "No one who is as fat as Mike and Molly can be healthy," is a statement that I'm sure you, as a physician, are completely qualified to make. What? You're a not a doctor? I'm sure I saw it in your byline... hang on...
Maura Kelly is a freelance writer who is working on a novel. She rides her vintage Raleigh as often as possible — usually wearing heels, and always wearing her helmet. (She will not be a fashion victim!) Follow her on Twitter.
Oh, that's right. YOU ARE NOT A DOCTOR. You have no idea how to evaluate the health of any individual, let alone many, many individuals throughout the world. Either you're too busy picking out which high heels to wear on your bike or you don't wear your helmet as often as you claim you do.
As for your claims that obesity is costing our country epic amounts of money in health care costs... where's your data? "And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for, by way of our insurance, than any other health problem, even cancer." That's a fine statement to make, but on October 18 of this year, USA Today reported that obesity is responsible for 17% of our national health care spending. Seventeen. Percent. The article states $168 billion. The American Cancer society cites cancer ("even cancer.") at costing $228 billion last year. So... I'm guess you're not a mathematician either, then, Ms. Kelly?
She goes on to say:
yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.
You heard it, fat people of America. Maura Kelly and the editors of Marie Claire find it "aesthetically displeasing" to watch fat people do anything. I don't know, I can imagine quite an aesthetically pleasing scene, almost poetic, in fact, involving a person with rolls and rolls of fat bodily shaking a clueless and rude freelance writer right out of her heels and helmet. Seriously, what kind of a fucked up, completely backward human being do you have to be to look at an expression of love between two people and decide it that it's gross, simply because those people look different than you do? Pretty fucked up, I think. I'm just being brutally honest here.
Now, don't go getting the wrong impression: I have a few friends who could be called plump. I'm not some size-ist jerk.
Actually, "size-ist jerk" isn't what I would call you at all. I would call you a vain, body-obsessed asshole who is far too invested in what other people do with their bodies. You didn't give me the wrong impression when you compared me walking across a room to a stumbling drunk or a heroin addict. You gave me a very clear picture of what a pathetic person you must truly be in real life, if your own fear of fatness manifests itself in actual discomfort from having to just see a fat person walk.
But ... I think obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It's something they can change, if only they put their minds to it.
Perhaps some of us have better things to do with our minds, Ms. Kelly, than obsessing over everything we put in our mouths, or what the overweight maintenence man at the gym is doing about his body. This might surprise you, because I'm sure you've never experienced this, but the second you stop worrying about what everyone else on the planet is weighing, you start to do other things, like think and enjoy your life.
(I'm happy to give you some nutrition and fitness suggestions if you need them — but long story short, eat more fresh and unprocessed foods, read labels and avoid foods with any kind of processed sweetener in them whether it's cane sugar or high fructose corn syrup, increase the amount of fiber you're getting, get some kind of exercise for 30 minutes at least five times a week, and do everything you can to stand up more — even while using your computer — and walk more. I admit that there's plenty that makes slimming down tough, but YOU CAN DO IT! Trust me. It will take some time, but you'll also feel so good, physically and emotionally. A nutritionist or personal trainer will help — and if you can't afford one, visit your local YMCA for some advice.)
Thank you so much for you completely unsolicited weightloss advice! As you are probably aware, all obese people ever eat is processed American cheese by the fistful, and we only ever get off our fat asses to lumber about distressingly in front of non-size-ist non-jerks like yourself, because we get our rocks off disgusting you.
Maura Kelly, you should be ashamed. But you won't be. I'm sure you'll look at yourself in the mirror and pick over your every flaw, just like you picked over the flaws of so many anonymous fat people in your article. You'll surround yourself with beautiful people who are similarly repelled by the very existence of fat people like me, and you'll all live in fear until the very day you die that someday, you might wake up fat. It won't happen, but you'll always be afraid of it. So, I feel sorry for you. Because all the advice you "helpfully" try to dispense, all the times you go to the gym, all the times you you hang out with your "plump" friends to try and feel better about your own weight, that will never alleviate the hatred you have for your own body.
Don't pity me, I'll just keep on pitying you.
Oh!......OH! my. goodness. I'm so glad, always so happy when a skinny person who obviously has money is able to give dieting/fitness advice. TRAINER? YMCA? the YMCA also costs money, and even with their sliding fee scale, there are those who still can't afford the fees. Yes, there are those who are able to eat right and do excercise and yet are still overweight. There are people who should be able to exercise, but don't and are overweight. Then there are people who cannot simply just stand as long as possible (the legs go numb, or the back starts hurting more than normal...) There are too many reasons for people to be over weight for someone to make generalizations and put up such an inflammatory article. There are many people who aren't living in the same reality as many regular people...they should just shut up.
ReplyDeletethanks for your response - it gave me some laughs and made me feel better about the brain fluffed people with nothing better to do than write goofy articles without proper research.
I think you just made a whole lot of people feel a whole better.
ReplyDeleteI just cannot get enough of people who assume that because I am obese (OMFG I ADMIT IT) I must be unhealthy. Am I the healthiest person on the planet? Of course not; but I Know plenty of people who have an "ideal" body who are absolutely NOT healthy. I have great blood pressure, for one.
ReplyDeleteAlso: if she thinks her advice is news to anyone, even fat people, she is so wrong. EVERYONE tells us these things, and acts like they're all really simple.
Though cheer up: with this kind of shit coming up when future employers Google her, she's less likely to land MORE BS freelance work.
Yeah, this article is ridiculous. I blogged a response, too. Fatties are not rejects who shouldn't be seen in public. Sheesh!
ReplyDelete*snort* Some people have far to much time on their hands. If I were her I would be watching my back now. Fat people can be pretty f'in stealthy.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the record, you my love, do not have rhino-like anything :)
The only reason I'm not blogging a response to this article is becasue yours has already said what I want to say.
ReplyDeleteI'll probably blog a link to it, if you don't mind.
Its interesting that Maura has posted an apology where she effectively apologises for being a complete bitch while still trying to justify herself.
I am particularly amusing by her assumption that all overweight people are unhappy.
Actually, I'm happiest when I'm not dieting, cause I've got less things to worry about :)
As I said on Facebook, my weight can and does change, but that woman will be a retard for life.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThe initial blogpost was pretty awful, no getting around it. Sentiment aside, it was tactless and poorly written.
ReplyDeleteBut the subsequent dogpile, including the many hypocritical personal attacks against Kelly, and now posting her home address and phone number all over the internet, has gotten far uglier than this ultimately pretty irrelevant blogpost of hers.
Anonymous: While I completely disagree that the dogpile was undeserved (and will continue to disagree until Maura Kelly issues an apology that doesn't amount to "I'm sorry you're so fat and angry"), the posting of her address here was totally unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteBut no, her post was absolutely not irrelevant. It is a symptom of a larger problem in which the editors of Marie Claire felt it appropriate to allow a woman recovering from an eating disorder to "advise" overweight women. Thin at any cost, huh? Doesn't sound irrelevant to me.
Not sure where I said the dogpile was "undeserved," but it has long since gone from dogpile to lynch-mob. But yeah, it is irrelevant: who the hell heard of Maura Kelly before yesterday? Wrong as she is, why would anyone care what she personally thinks as much as to demand her firing, her suicide, make personal attacks, post her personal info (and not just here--people are doing it everywhere). Any high ground has been lost here when you read the comments at MC.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you find it irrelevant, anonymous, but there are many, many fat women who will walk around for the rest of their lives remembering the line about Maura Kelly being repulsed by the sight of a fat woman walking. That is something we fear so, so much, that someone is looking at us and thinking we're less than human, and she put it in words meant to wound us and shame us into becoming what she would prefer. Maura Kelly is irrelevant. But what she said is not.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, while the calls for suicide are tactless, I read a comment from a woman last night on another blog. She said something that chilled me to the bone, and that was, "I feel like I might as well kill myself." It's tactless and horrid for someone to suggest Maura Kelly kill herself, but I'm really not all that worried about her. I'm worried about the women who actually did contemplate suicide after reading her attack yesterday.
And you think this person may not have realized that many people find morbid obesity unattractive and unpleasant to be around (right or wrong, this is a hard truth) before Maura freaking Kelly (again--who?) posted about it on a dating blog on Marie Claire, that revered journal of record? I'll continue to believe the flood of response to this, much of which is as or more hateful than anything she wrote and some of which is downright irresponsible and vile, is ultimately disproportionate. Kelly is a strawman for much bigger issues.
ReplyDeleteMs Kelly's ignorance and lack of sensitivity can be summed up in one phrase, penned by her own hand in said article "I can be kind of clueless" AMEN to that, she needs to get some help and some writing lessons.
ReplyDeleteLove your books and your blog Jennifer, you are the best! Thanks for standing up for all of us "fatties." Arg!
ooops, the post above is mine, did not want to be anonymous (don't want to be lumped in with the previous anonymous!) I will add my name to this one, sorry!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I think it's pretty clear that you believe Ms. Kelly is the victim here. You're not going to change my mind on this issue, and I can't change yours. Which is sad, because all fat people are really asking for, at this point, is to be treated like human beings. If Ms. Kelly had made her comments about any other group ("I'm not a homophobe, but watching gay people kiss is disgusting," "I'm not a racist, but dark skin is gross"), I feel like you would singing a much different tune.
ReplyDeleteActually, I disagreed with her when I first read it and was pretty grossed out by her tone in the initial post. Still am. But as the mob has gathered and gotten angrier and nastier, even continually dismissing her apology, you're right, I do believe Ms. Kelly has become a victim here. Not "the," but "a." As a writer (and I haven't read your books or even much of your blog, so sorry if this somehow wouldn't apply to your writing), a mob acting the way many of them have should chill you to the bone. Additionally, the false equivalency of what is most often (I did not say always) the product of one's lifestyle choices (yes, choices--but feel free to pretend that it's always about thyroid issues) to one's race or gender or orientation and the constant bandying of it on MC and online has rankled me. It does the fat-acceptance crowd no favors. It's much better to say, "Yeah, I'm fat: so what? I'm healthy and I'm happy. So what?" Whether an overweight person wants to or not (I frankly honestly don't care, it's a personal decision), the majority (again, not all) of them can change their status as overweight people, all self-pitying moaning aside. It's not easy, but they can. If they want to. The same cannot be said for our protected classes. This outrage directed at a lone blogger isn't Dr. King crossing the Pettus Bridge: the vast majority of our country is overweight or obese, and despite what you can say about the media (and much of it is a fair criticism), our culture does not, on the whole, oppress them. Good luck to you.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Yes, the things people have said to Ms. Kelly are reprehensible, but her apology comes off as mostly non-sincere, and her original article still unbelievably offensive. Just because no one has heard of her before, doesn't mean that her words may not have irreparably hurt someone now.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Fat hate bingo much?
In these comments I'm reading that fat people want to be treated like normal human beings. You are being treated like normal human beings. Are you implying that you don't make snap judgements about others regarding their hair, clothes, size, etc? Puhleeze. I don't like fat on myself, why do you think I'm going to be accepting of fat on someone else?
ReplyDeleteLynching? Seriously? Maura Kelly is a cruel, judgmental shithead, and she's getting pushback because she's high-handed and nasty. Is anybody stringing her up by the neck? No. Jesus, I cannot get over how some people want to hate fat people and hate it when people point out it's hatred, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post but fuck this pisses me off. Lynching? Read up on some Southern history, you insensitive melodramatic drama asshole.
-ginmar
This sign in system always seems to reject me. Heh.
I find this little link here about some more "fat people on tv = ewww"
ReplyDeleteIt's about a newscaster from Wisconsin and some hate mail she got for being fat. She called the guy out on live tv.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/jennifer-livingston-anchor-obesity-letter_n_1932869.html
I only just saw this entry and I must say, Good on you Jen. There are far too many image-obsessed/plain mean assholes in the world and this woman sure is one of them. As a person who has survived a severe case of anorexia, I now take comfort and pride in the person I have become, and in other's who are not ashamed of their appearance and body type. Thank you Jen, for calling this woman on her bullying and bullshit.
ReplyDelete