A past ranttacular!

Hey all.

I'm not feeling particularly creative today (and my outfit SUCKS), so I won't be posting any new hilarious stuff. But I thought I would post something on here that I posted a few months ago on my Livejournal.

First, a bit of back story. On 25th October last year a blogger named Maura Kelly posted this article on the Marie Claire website about fat people on television. Well, that was how the article started out, anyway. Eventually it sort of morphed into a fairly detailed synopsis of her opinion of fat people and obesity in general.

I encourage everybody to read this article, and before you read either a) her subsequent apology in italics, and b) some of the comments below, have a really good, honest think about what Maura says in the article. Think about whether or not you agree, at least in part, with what she's saying. If you think she's being an insensitive, uneducated, misunderstanding prick, then please read on and enjoy the comments from many people that agree with you. If you do agree with Maura, I hope I can show you another side of the coin with what I'm about to post on here.

When I first read the article (lovingly linked at Fatshionista), I felt my insides burn up with outrage and anger and a bunch of other generally undesirable emotions. After spending a few hours calming myself down by reading the comments posted about the article (for once the comments were of the sort of calibre that I found soothing... once I'd waded through the pathetic waffle), I decided to spend some time picking out some of the worst parts and ranting about them separately.

Here is what I wrote on my Livejournal:

Seriously. Whenever someone posts an article in fatshionista I make an effort to read it, and I've been kind of annoyed before, but this? This is really, really shocking. And my emotions are dulled from lack of sleep right now. This article screams ignorance, prejudice, and such a laughably inaccurate perception of the subject matter (ie. fat people) that I would almost pity her, if I didn't currently hate her so much.

"the show centers around a couple who meet at an Overeaters Anonymous group [and] has drawn complaints for its abundance of fat jokes [as well as] cries from some viewers who aren't comfortable watching intimacy between two plus-sized actors." (not her actual words, but I'm going to comment on it anyway)
erm... there there? Would you like the makers of this show to come, kiss your bruises better and give you a lollipop from what most people are sure to probably believe is an ample back-up supply? Is the idea of fat people being in love, or hell, even engaging in casual sex, just too horrific for most thin people's minds?
Does anybody else feel that this blurb is insinuating that the general public is bigoted enough to not want fat people being happy on television? Or am I overanalysing this?

I also think it's at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity!
Exactly how is having fat people on TV promoting obesity? That's like saying that having tall people on TV is promoting platform shoes.

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.
*sigh*. I know I don't have to say ANYTHING about this quote to ANYBODY who's a member of this comm, but dammit, I'm going to say it anyway, and at least provide some relief by putting everything in bullet points
* Anorexia is "sick"? That's really, really nice. I'm sure the approximately zero or so anorexics out there not struggling with crippling body image issues will be DELIGHTED to read that their condition is viewed in such a casually insensitive way.
* Some slim models are simply naturally skinny, that is very true. Doesn't mean that they're healthy though. If a person is naturally skinny, that generally means that they will remain skinny whether their daily food consumption is an exact copy of the food pyramid, a blatant disregard for the bottom three levels of said pyramid, or a complete tossing out of the pyramid altogether in favour of a bag of carrot sticks and several packs of Marlboro Lights. But you know what? Who cares if they're healthy or not? It's their fucking lives. Evidently this author agrees with me, since she was totally fine with those people existing. They're skinny, after all.
* All right, I admit, I did agree with the bit about Mike and Molly not possibly being healthy at that size. Because you know what? It's TOTALLY possible to divine, just by looking at their bodies, that these two people could not POSSIBLY have a healthy diet, and they could not POSSIBLY exercise regularly, and their fatness could not POSSIBLY be the result of the dozens of other reasons, besides an unhealthy lifestyle, that cause people to be overweight. It's nice to see that at least a small part of this article is completely logical. Now, where did I put my shotgun...

And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for.
Ahh, you're the Treasurer of the United States, are you? Good show. I'd have thought the cabinet would prefer somebody who isn't a total fucking idiot, but what do I know?

So anyway, 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.
Yeah, I hear you. And you know what really sucks? We fats have to cope with the ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC SIGHT of fat people being in any way functional human beings, every time we look in a mirror. Your empathetic heart must bleed as you wonder how we cope.

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.
OK, all joking and sarcasm aside (particularly in reference to your mispelling the word 'heroin', yes, this was brutal. So why the fuck did you write it? And I'll tell you why it was brutal. Because what you have just done here is equate fat people to alcoholics and drug addicts. Do you quite understand the gravity of that? You have taken fat people, and equalled them to a group of individuals who have serious, life-threatening, life-CONSUMING, disaster-inducing behaviours. You have placed fat people under the same telescope as people who are dealing with horrific conditions that require serious will-power, time and determination to overcome, and have said that fatness, like alcoholism and drug-addiction, is a serious, life-threatening, life-consuming, disaster-inducing behaviour. This is so far off the mark that even the Hubble Telescope at its strongest couldn't see the mark from where you stand.
But even if what you had said was TRUE, you said, without any trace of subtlety, that all of these people disgust you.
Well you know what? Fine. Because insensitive, unaware, pathetic bullies like you disgust me.

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.
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyes you are.

I think obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over.
A quote that will go down in history as really hammering down the fact that you know absolutely nothing.

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 wi--BLAH BLAH BLAH YEAH WE'VE ALL BEEN HERE BEFORE.
*sniffle* I'm truly touched that you would deign to help us poor, helpless fat people with your weight-loss knowledge and infinite wisdom. Because until this point none of us had EVER been told how to lose weight. If only somebody out there had been kind and considerate enough to butt into our lives and force preachy weight-loss bullshit down our throats at every opportunity, and feel that doing this is not something that they should feel remotely ashamed of, because, after all, they're trying to "help" us, and we, as the lesser-beings that have let ourselves go so far as to be fat, should be eternally grateful.

Do you think I'm being an insensitive jerk?
You know, I'd snappily say "what the hell do YOU think?" and point at the rest of this essay-length comment, but I honestly think that you would still not actually be sure of my opinion. And I'll be honest with you - you can't fake stupidity like that.