Hello, I Am Fat

1. @ 1133: what i’m saying is that the shape of my, or lindy’s, or anyone else on earth’s body, as well as my health status has nothing to do with dan savage. or anyone but me. at all, ever, for any reason. keep your prejudices off my body.

   my point in the melted cheese passage was that when i eat the way my boyfriend eats, i gain weight and he does not. this illustrates that our bodies process nutrients in different ways, for reasons that are beyond our control, and that therefore, you can’t know what someone eats by looking at his or her body.

   for lunch, 10 minutes ago, i just ate a baked cod fillet with roasted asparagus and some fucking cabbagey/cauliflower side dish, and my boyfriend ate two walnut muffins, a banh mi, and a plate of nachos. that’s what he eats. seriously. i also go to the gym three or four times a week and he goes never times a week. however, by the idiotic “i know everything about your lifestyle by looking at you” school of thought, one might look at my body and assume that i eat half a garbage truck for lunch every day or whatever the fuck skinny people think fat people eat.

   moreover, though, why does dan even care? what makes him so terrified for the health of people he finds disgusting? like, i have a job and a social life–i don’t have space in my brain to go around giving a shit about whether people like to pray to allah or weigh 263 pounds or fuck boys’ bottoms. i don’t care. it doesn’t affect me in any way whatsoever. and if i did care, which would be stupid, i sure as shit wouldn’t go around telling people to change their lives and bodies because i don’t like them. i would mind my own goddamn business. how fucking arrogant can you be.

   i agree that obesity promotes poor health, but it’s totally irrelevant. skinny people don’t have the right to tell fat people what they should or should not be doing, just like people don’t have the right to tell me that they don’t like my hair and that i should change it to suit them. i’m not going to give black people skincare tips. dan needs to check his fucking privilege and mind his own biz.

2. ” We often become repulsed/un-attracted to that which is grotesquely different than healthy individuals. We are programmed to seek healthy mates with healthy genes to procreate with, and shy away from the very different.”

   Someone must have forgotten to tell that to Nigerians, Samoans or Mauretanians, who traditionally favor fat figures. They got all evolution ALL WRONG! And what about those prehistoric gentlemen during the Stonerage, who were lusting after huge butts?

   On a more serious note, how you might want to read up on beauty standards throughout various cultures and eras, it might help you rethink your silly white male persepective.

3. ” We often become repulsed/un-attracted to that which is grotesquely different than healthy individuals. We are programmed to seek healthy mates with healthy genes to procreate with, and shy away from the very different.”

   Someone must have forgotten to tell that to Nigerians, Samoans or Mauretanians, who traditionally favor fat figures. They got all evolution ALL WRONG! And what about those prehistoric gentlemen during the Stonerage, who were lusting after huge butts?

   On a more serious note, how you might want to read up on beauty standards throughout various cultures and eras, it might help you rethink your silly white male persepective.

4. 1156 If you want, Constantly eat “yummy foods”, rather than a balanced diet. Just take responsibility for the consequences, and don’t claim it’s not your fault when you get fat.

   Gay or straight, if you want, constantly have unprotected sex with strangers, rather than carefully choosing your partners, and using condoms. Just take responsibility for the consequences, and don’t claim it’s not your fault when you get sick.

5. 1151: I never said I was a communication major. You might be referring to a prior post I made criticizing the Stranger’s dismissal of it as an academic program– but to infer I am a or was a student is bogus.

6. @1148 Fatcarrot – your post broke my heart a little. It pains me to read that it’s hard for you to go to a dance workshop and worry that you’ll be judged by the other women there (which is probably true; women can be incredibly judgmental of other each) and that no guys will want to dance with the “fat girl.” I hate that people have been cruel to you, and I admire your courage in doing something that frightens you, just as I admire Lindy for having the guts to talk about the shame she’s felt.

   I certainly have my own issues around my feelings about obesity, my fear of getting fat and the food guilt I struggle with on a daily basis. I’m well aware that my self-image is completely distorted and informed by rigid ideals about what’s attractive or not. So while we might be in very different places weightwise, I empathize with you and give you credit for focusing on health instead of just weight. It’s not an easy thing to do, at least not for me.

7. I feel bad for Dan. Called out and put into a no-win situation, at least in the eyes of Lindy apologists. Reply the way he *could*, the way many of you jackals would like, and he’s a big boss-man bully, further imprinting the “victim” label Lindy seems to have all but sewn up for herself and her BFFs. Take the high road and simply let his many previous words speak for themselves (and he didn’t “cherry pick” his links any more than Lindy did, and IMO his links provided a much clearer view of his voice on the matter than hers) and he’s called a “coward” by those same people. People not fit to wear his jock. (As far as comments being turned off, what would be said there that wouldn’t have been said here?)

   I’m impressed he chose the latter route.

   In the interest of full disclosure: I have never met Dan and probably never will.

8. @919: You are missing several important concepts:

   1) Often these people have gotten to their present weight on a normal diet of 2000 calories a day OR LESS. You seem singularly unwilling to concede this point.

   2) These people are reporting severe hunger even a) on a normal diet of 2000 calories a day, and b) WHILE THEIR BODIES CONTINUE TO GAIN WEIGHT ON THAT “NORMAL” DIET.

   It isn’t a matter of “oh, they’ve just been eating way too much and now they have to give their brains time to adjust.” They already were eating what should be a normal diet. Sometimes less. Their fat-storage mechanisms are literally depriving the rest of their bodies, even at bare subsistence level intakes. Their brains, and their fat-storing metabolisms, aren’t ever going to adjust.

   And all you can do is insist that they just need to eat less, and that if only they would be thin, they would eventually be all better, and healthy. Pardon me, but I’m at the point-and-laugh stage with you.

   It really, really isn’t that simple.

9. 1153: I said people who are OBESE are repulsive to other humans for selection reasons, not FAT.

10. Honestly can’t believe that Dan had the nerve to respond without allowing comments. Way to get the last word by any means necessary.

11. Rob @ 1161 You win. I am unequal to the task of getting an idea to stop bouncing right off your head. I hope someone who loves you gives you a nice but not fattening Valentine.

12. @1167 to be accurate, he said all those words well before lindy’s. so…not the last word by any means necessary.

13. Nobody’s arguing that it’s healthy to be fat. Did Lindy ever say that? Her post is about how we treat other people — even people who aren’t perfect. Yeah, most fat people aren’t perfect-they overeat. They have issues with food. But who the hell is perfect? Maybe you don’t have a problem with food, but you probably have something about you that isn’t so great — do you want it rubbed in your face day in and day out? Would that be constructive? I don’t think so. There are a TON of unhealthy behaviors, like drug addiction. How often does Savage harp on drug addicts? I can’t recall if he ever has. Why the constant harping on fat people? I think that is a legitimate question.

14. You know, Kim, Savage could have made his reductio ad absurdum attack on gay marriage opponents using lots of groups: the mentally ill, people with genetic diseases, alcoholics. He could have even gone extra classy and stayed away from conditions you don’t choose, and instead picked on those who made their own beds, like high school dropouts or convicted felons. “Ban Retard Marriage” would have made the point just as well (and dickishly) as “Ban Fat Marriage”. And “Ban Felon Marriage” or “Ban Dropout Marriage” would have removed a lot of the unnecessary cruelty.* Maybe he wanted to spare the feelings of all the high school dropouts and ex-cons he’s hired.

    But no. Dan Savage went straight down the list of options to attack his go to victims of choice: the overweight. Why? Because he worries about their health? Yes, he’s said that. Because there’s an obesity epidemic? He’s said that too. Because holding people accountable for their weight is sometimes justified? He’s said that on occasion.

    But the real reason is that Savage’s special mission in life is to shame fat people because he thinks that he’s saving lives by making fat people feel worse, and he thinks science wants him to shame fat people. And as a bonus getting a free pass to go on a tear about much fat people squick him out.

    * The flaw in the argument is that dysfunctional straight people will breed anyway. It’s practically the sine qua non of dysfunctional straight people to reproduce inappropriately and to excess. Banning them from marriage wouldn’t slow them down a bit. Whereas if gay parenting were in fact undesirable, then you could realistically reduce the number of gay parents by banning gay marriage, since adoption would be a little harder. The moral is: talk about reality and leave hyperbolic reductio ad absurdum stunts on the shelf next to where you keep your sleazy Quisling comparisons of your allies who slightly disagree with you. Godiwn thanks you. The only point is that gays are not worse parents, and deserve marriage as much as everyone else, and you can just say that without bashing fat people or drunks or high school dropouts.

15. @1166: Um…what?

16. @1148 fatcarrot

    I applaud you for accepting yourself and trying to let everything go. That’s definitely the very best place to be, and everything else will follow. I think it’s awesome you’re putting yourself out there, despite the restrictions you feel.

    On another topic altogether…you mentioned pity. All of us struggle with something, or with many, many things, one after the other. That’s a major fact of life, if not THE fact of life. Some of us are better than others at hiding all the shit we’ve been through, but like that old song goes, “everybody’s got a story that could break your heart.” I’ve had more than my share of heartache and pain, to the point of absurdity, but the last thing I want is for someone to take pity on me or feel sorry for me. To me, pity is something that takes my power away and turns me into the victim of my circumstances. Pity does this by seeing me only through the lenses of my past dejectedness, instead of seeing me from a place of transcendence. It keeps me stuck in the past. I don’t want to wallow in the suffering, I want to move on. I want to feel empowered, and to do that, the only thing I can do is live life fully, freely, respectfully, and gratefully.

17. #1165 “Often these people have gotten to their present weight on a normal diet of 2000 calories a day OR LESS.” – there’s a study in UK last year about how there is a big discrepancy between what people self report how much they eat and how much they actually eat (they used hidden cameras I think). There’re just so many foods (a little candies here and there) and sometimes habits (using a bigger bowl) that people don’t realize and they consume more calories than they think they did.

18. Kim @ 1150, this became about all of us when they decided that slog was the place to have this discussion – by “all about us,” you mean “when did we become emotionally vested in this?” Such emotional investment is pretty human. I’m a bit surprised at you.

    I’m disappointed, but not surprised, that Dan hasn’t apologized because he called bullshit on Lindy – in public, on the “RE: Ban Fat Marriage” thread. And she showed that it wasn’t bullshit, in public on this thread. The way the game should be played now, is that the apology should come in public.

    I do judge these things because I know how to say I’m sorry when I’m wrong, and I expect everyone else to be able to do that, too. What a better world it would be if everyone could.

19. I re-read all the offending columns. I’m now firmly in the Savage camp. He hasn’t said anything hateful, but apparently anything but “being fat is beautiful” is an attack on the self-esteem of fat people. BS. Savage was just as tough on gays who thought asking for personal responsibility in practicing safe sex was tantamount to shaming gays for having sex.

20. @1165 avast2006

    What you say is just not true. I know many fat and obese people, and they indeed eat more than 2000 calories a day. There’s only a very select few who become obese from eating 2000 calories a day or less, and these people have SEVERE health problems that need to be addressed immediately. If what you say is true, then many people in third world countries, without adequate food supplies, would also be obese. We don’t find this phenomenon to be the case, and therefore it’s not true.

    In the case of severe hunger that cannot be ignored, it could be a case of hypoglycemia, an often pre-diabetic condition wherein the individual craves simple carbs and sugars because of severely low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia almost always leads to weight gain BECAUSE of excessive caloric intake. This is also a problem that needs to be addressed immediately, because it’s often an indicator that the person is on their way to developing Type 2 Diabetes.

21. @1177: “What you say is just not true. I know many fat and obese people, and they indeed eat more than 2000 calories a day.”

    Fail. Anecdotes are not the same as data. (And you’re not learning anything at http://theskinnywebsite.com/ .)

22. I don’t get this thinking. I have been fat and thin at various periods of my life and lived with a family that is almost always been overweight. Sometimes it’s because people get too busy to work out or stress food or whatever. But this idea that there is a “fat type” and that some people just can’t lose weight is absolute horseshit. All genetics and the other features people invoke as to why they are fat just affects the rate at which anyone loses or gains weight. It is biologically impossible to be fat you are not overeating and overeating consistently is unhealthy. Overeating is eating substantially more than you’ll burn in a day. If you eat less calories then you burn, you will lose weight, if you don’t, your body stores it. Sometimes that is good but doing it all the time throws off hormone balance, stresses joints etc.

    However, if you are overweight but in good physical shape, you are doing better than an out of shape thin person. Nevertheless, the idea that you are embracing your body like it’s some type ignores the responsibility you have for making your body the way it is. It’s embracing habitual overeating as some women empowerment. It’s a fine choice to make, and I don’t, like dan, think rolls are unsightly. But it is scientifically well supported it’s unhealthy. If you’re happy with how you live your life, then do it, but don’t act like “some people” just have to be fat. It’s biologically impossible.

23. @1179 I’ve commented here many times, and I’m not going to repeat the information that I’ve left on this topic. Lie to yourself all you want.

24. This obese woman admits to eating 33,000 calories a day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvdEoM4U…

25. @1164–right on! Dan is soooo smart to have put his answers in a no comment form. He’s not the boss just because he can write snarky, funny, and damn good advice. This has become the saddest, most unpleasant Slog post ever. I’ll bet Lindy wishes she’d sent Dan a private email at this point–I sure as hell do. It’s like a nest of vipers in here.

26. @1181: Anecdotes are not data. You won’t get anywhere until you understand that.

    @1182: It’s a blog–it’s for commenting. More comments -> more page hits -> more $$$. Dan’s had years of becoming thick-skinned as a public figure; he could easily have ignored any comments. Netiquette says shutting down commentary is always bad. Lindy FTW.

27. @1181 – You’re so right people don’t realize how much calories they are putting in sometimes. I have a coworker who eats mostly salad for lunch but then gulps down a big cup of Star Bucks latte which probably has more calories than a big Mac.

28. @1183 WeeblesWobble

    Here ya go (FACTS from the European Congress on Obesity):

    “Are too many calories to blame for the raging obesity epidemic in the US? The answer is yes, according to an exhaustive study that squarely blames excessive energy intake for bulging waistlines since the 1970s.
    “This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories,” said Boyd Swinburn, head of population health at Deakin University who led the study.

    The scientists started by testing 1,399 adults and 963 children to determine how many calories their bodies burn in total, under free-living conditions. The test is the most accurate measure of total calorie burning in real-life situations.

    Once they had determined each person’s calorie burning rate, Swinburn and his colleagues were able to calculate how much adults needed to eat in order to maintain a stable weight and how much children needed to eat in order to maintain a normal growth curve.

    They then worked out how much Americans were actually eating, using national food supply data (the amount of food produced and imported, minus the amount exported, thrown away and used for animals or other non-human uses) from the 1970s and the early 2000s.

    The researchers used their findings to predict how much weight they would expect Americans to have gained over the 30-year period studied if food intake were the only influence.

    “If the actual weight increase was the same as what we predicted, that meant that food intake was virtually entirely responsible. If it wasn’t, that meant changes in physical activity also played a role,” Swinburn said.

    The researchers found that in children, the predicted and actual weight increase matched exactly, indicating that the increases in energy intake alone over the 30 years studied could explain the weight increase, said a Deakin release.

    “For adults, we predicted that they would be 10.8 kg heavier, but in fact they were 8.6 kg heavier. That suggests that excess food intake still explains the weight gain, but that there may have been increases in physical activity over the 30 years that have blunted what would otherwise have been a higher weight gain,” Swinburn said.

    These findings were presented May 8 at the European Congress on Obesity.”

    source: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-…

29. @1170 thank you.

30. Very few people with obesity issues in the third world. Maybe you should try the “living on less than a dollar a day” diet?

31. 984 et al: Littlesparrow, you dopy bint, it’s NOT ABOUT YOU.

32. Kim in Portland @1150: Your earlier comment was appreciated, but a bit off the mark. I didn’t mean to accuse you, but merely point out that your comment was most easily perceived as defensive when viewed within the larger context of the thread. I only meant for you to consider the ramifications of such a response, given the climate of hurt feelings here; I certainly didn’t mean to cast aspersions on your background or qualifications, of which I knew nothing. Kindly remember that meaning is negotiated, so other understandings of your words are often just as valid as your own. I simply wished to point out how your statements could be interpreted when approached from another perspective, and I do not think that can be dismissed as a simple tendency to find fault.

    (Although, finding fault is rather an occupational hazard for an editor…) 😉

    In @1150, however, I believe you are again doing Mr. Savage no service here by questioning people’s demands for an explicit apology. A public statement expressing some kind of remorse is a logical desire, because the problem was caused by similarly public comments. Mr. Savage may link to as many examples of contextually appropriate discussion as he wished, but these do not erase his many other comments where he uses obesity as a convenient dog to kick. It is those for which he should apologize.

33. @1183 sometimes decorum (esp inter-office) trumps “more $$$.” his comments section being turned off does not affect you at all, aside from keeping you from potentially drawing more hits to your own blog. about which i’m sure he’s very sad. but he did not add anything to the convo that he’s not already said many times before, hence no need for another open comments section.

34. Love Letter to Lindy West: I love you so much, as a writer I mean, that when your copy editor was a guest speaker in my class, I was a little bit sweaty and nervous. Because she gets to edit your copy. And I love your copy.

    I can’t work up an opinion about your fat. My own fat bugs me, mostly because I want to buy cute pants. But your fat doesn’t bug me, and in fact I think it might be responsible for your lovely boobies.

    I definitely like your words, and if your words come from that bod then that bod is pretty fucking great.

35. Linds!!!! I do hope you’re still listening because hear this: You are awesome from top to bottom, front to back, side to side, inside to out.

    I spent years being obsessed by my weight. Years doing everything I could to not eat. Not-eating was an all-consuming activity. It did not make me happy, it did not help my health (quite the opposite: my hair fell out and my periods stopped), but worst of all, I was not-eating when I could have been really DOING something, having a blast, writing the Great American Novel. What a stupid waste!

    I have a high-normal BMI now and feel fine—but I still look plump to the average eye, and people do call me fat. Well, fuck THEM, you know? I couldn’t care less what they think of me, but I WOULD like to have a do-over on the time and energy I wasted on pursuing some crazy body ideal. I’d much rather be remembered for what I said than how I looked. Because what I say and do lasts forever, and how I look? Well, ask any aging actress how that’s working for her.

    Girl, you have more talent in your little finger than 95% of us. Good on you not to squander your energy on extraneous things.

36. @1175

    The way the game should be played now, is that the apology should come in public.

    Dan doesn’t think he owes her an apology. He said her claims are bullshit, and he’s doing a damn good job of proving that, which is all he owes Lindy. He doesn’t owe us anything because he didn’t start this discussion. He doesn’t want to hear our opinions and I don’t blame him. He’s heard it all before, and if he’s interested he can come here.

    He asked for links showing him stigmatizing and hating on fat people. Links that he never got.

    He said that Lindy’s accusation was bullshit. That’s it. And now she’s given him a reason to show his numerous defenses of fat people who actually came to him for help.

    This is going to backfire on Lindy (if it hasn’t already) because she misunderstood a post of Dan’s, overreacted, and handled it poorly, probably due to the fact that she’s been carrying a grudge for a long time.

37. @1175 Matt: People keep mentioning an apology. It seems to me that they are assuming that Dan was wrong, and “cowardly” for not owning up to his “wrongness.” I understand that he is blunt, and honest, and doesn’t treat people with kid gloves, but I fail to see how that makes him “wrong.” You think that Lindy “called him out” on her fat marriage post, and that because she has a lot of supporters here, that somehow proves her point? What I see is Dan calling bullshit on *anyone* who is in denial: Be they a douche straight guy, a barebacking gay guy, a hypocritical Christian, or…yes…an overweight person who hates his life and yet has no intention of changing his eating habits. I truly think a lot of people on this thread are just shooting the messenger.

38. So all Dan can do is cherry-pick columns where he doesn’t deride fat people? Really? And put them up closed to comments? For fuck’s sake. Showing examples of when he wasn’t a dismissive ass to fat people does not in any way speak to the subject of him sometimes being a dismissive ass to fat people. Why not either write a thoughtful response or just leave it alone for now?

39. I love you for this, Lindy. I think my heart just grew 3 sizes. So fucking inspiring.

    Anyone with an opinion on this subject needs to watch this BBC documentary, Why Are Thin People Not Fat? If you want to know what science has to say, it’s required viewing:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6-A0iHSd…

    Thanks to seattlegrrrl for posting it on the earlier thread.

40. Lindy,
    Sorry but I am not impressed.
    If you cut out carbs completely and joined a gym you would lose weight GUARANTEED. So, uh, this is basically a lot of grief for nothing, girl. Get over yourself. Seriously. I do not feel even a little bit sorry for you.

41. @1195
    Yes, Dan is blunt and doesn’t treat people with kid gloves. However, in nearly every other issue he advises on, he can talk about the matter in shades of gray: cheating, as an example. He’s usually only harsh or cruel on people who are obnoxious jerks.

    But on the weight/”fatness” issue, Dan doesn’t seem to deal in very many shades of gray. Like many other posters here, he speaks as if overweight = eats too much = lazy. What Lindy and the posters who are defended/supporting her are saying is that weight is NOT that simple.

    Why is it not that simple? Because what we use to measure health in relation to weight are not always accurate.

    For instance, if you evaluate me based on appearance alone, I am anywhere from “chubby” to “overweight” (confirmed by helpful Internet trolls.)
    If you evaluate me based on BMI, I am healthy and normal. (5’1″ and 121 pounds.)
    If you evaluate me based on body fat content, I am “fair” at 27%.
    If you evaluate me based on waist-hip circumference (bust: 35 1/2, waist: 32 1/4, and hips 36 3/4) it’s amazing I’m not having a heart attach right now.

    Even WEIRDER is that after going to the gym for 3 months 3 times a week and working out at least an hour, I’ve lost body fat, but absolutely no weight or inches. Yet I know I’m getting stronger, because I can do more reps/heavier weights. I’m also not breathing as heavily when doing the Stairmaster, and yet my resting heart rate hasn’t decreased.

    And just to throw even MORE confusion onto the mix, my eating habits have not changed at all since before I started working out til after.

    So what does this mean? That weight and health are complicated, incredibly individualistic experiences. Dan seems to take that into account in other areas… And yet in the links other people have posted, he’s demonstrated an inability to reconsider weight = health = completely in an individual’s control.

42. Matt @ 1175,

    Would it matter if Lindy and Dan were satisfied? Or do they owe Slog some announcement?. I’m wondering about how many people feel that they are owed an apology from Dan for their own feelings of hurt or emotional involvement in this thread? Is the apology needed for Lindy, and individuals are upset for her, or is it for every single person here? If the apology is needed for all,then what does it need to say?

    Those are my questions. Just questions, not judgements. And, clearly you feel that there must be some public announcement. Thank you for sharing.

    Sorry you’re “surprised” at me. I’m sorry to have disappointed you
    with my questions.

    Take care.

43. @1062, of course, the difference is that Kate Harding IS a dishonest paranoid douchebag. And also a bigger bully than Dan could ever hope to be in his cruelest dreams.

    I’ve been meaning to post in this thread to thank Lindy for not linking to her.

44. How terribly sad and pitiful that people feel this need to attack your posts, your experience and then STILL attempt to shame you. That. Is. INSANITY! You wrote very well, you expressed your point beautifully and those that are taking all this time to attack you and your writings…I’m just amazed at the belittling. We have 1 single rule in my house – treat others the way you want to be treated. Clearly you that have attacked her either 1, don’t know that rule or even the idea of it and 2, must want to be attacked…? Is this what happened to you folks while growing up? You seem to be missing a lot of love. Really? I pity you folks…not someone that is overweight.

45. @1132, Jennifer Hudson *disgusts* you now? Seriously? Because her shape has changed? She was gorgeous before and she’s gorgeous now, she’s got a beautiful face and a lot of class. Saying you find her ‘disgusting’ is absolutely as offensive as saying you found her disgusting before but now she’s attractive. jesus christ.

46. @1198

    You DO realize that there are two kinds of carbohydrates, sugars and starches. Starches are complex carbohydrates that take longer to be digested and include foods such as breads, grains, pasta, tortillas, noodles, fruits and vegetables.

    … So by telling her to cut out carbohydrates you’re pretty much saying stop eating most fruits or vegetables. She also can’t eat bread or pasta. So that’s left her with diary, meat and fish. Of course if she’s a vegetarian/vegan, and “cutting out carbs,” she’s royally screwed isn’t she?

    I suppose starving IS a good way to get rid of fat until she, ya know, dies from starvation.

    Oh, wait, you meant something different when you said “cut out carbs”? You meant THESE carbs, not THOSE carbs. So, actually, it’s a little bit more complicated than what you first suggested by just suggesting to a random stranger based on only her body weight “Hey stop eating this entire food group.” Hm.

47. Amen and Amen again! Thank you for your declaration/manifesto! I was recently rejected from my jobs health insurance because of my weight and it really put me into a depression because I am healthy. No one is advocating taking health insurance away from smokers, drug addicts, or people who have unprotected sex. Fat people have become the only unhealthy people in the world. Because of this new wave of media phatphobia under the cause of “health concerns”, I really had to stop and reassess my understanding of my own worth. I’ve been fat since I was 12 and I’ve accomplished a lot since then, more than a lot of people my again and from my background. And I’m not going to wait until I’m skinny to be proud of myself. I have so much to say on this topic but all of that to say thank you for using your voice in such an important way.

48. @1196 in addition to Dan not adding anything new to the discussion, people like you are probably another reason his comments section is closed.

    a) he didn’t “cherry-pick” columns any more than Lindy did.
    b) the columns he linked to are examples of him SUPPORTING “fat” people (not merely avoiding mocking them…if you want to find a column where he merely “doesn’t deride fat people,” then go to his archive, close your eyes, and randomly click a link).
    c) he *IS* leaving it alone…he’s just directing you to things he’s already said in the past.

49. The latest Slog post just pushed this one off page 1. I’m guessing if they haven’t bumped it by now, no bump’s in the offing.

50. when was the last art post that got this much attention. oprah baby!

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