No More Jolly Fats

So, over at Skepchick the least Skeptical* and totally not a Chick member, Sam, posted about the obesity crisis and asked if people thought it was the government’s fault or down to individual responsibility, blah blah blah…  And while a good many of the comments were the usual fat-hating, non-scientific, “everybody knows” bullshit, more of them discussed actual lived experiences, and cited actual studies that indicate that no, fat isn’t the big evil, and focusing on weight as opposed to good habits and exercise is just stupid. (Find Cheri Cloninger’s reply about halfway down the page for a load of awesome links).

Yeah, that's about what all my thought bubbles look like these days.

But I’d like to point out something to all the Fat-Shamey McDouchebags out there:  If you consistently tell someone that they are worth less as a human being, that they are ugly and unfuckable, and unloveable because of something many of us can’t control, is it a big surprise when/if they do quit taking care of themselves and giving up any good habits they had? When your entire life you are surrounded by culture, peers, strangers, and even family members telling you how awful you are now, and how not awful you would be if you would just starve yourself and work your body past endurance to shape it into something that they can find attractive, is it any wonder that so many people do just give up?  And wind up blaming themselves for their inability to get thin?  Even though we know that 95% of people who do lose weight can’t keep it off.

Because I want you assholes, all of you, who fat shame people to really think about what you’re saying when you do that.  You are telling someone that they are less than a human being to you because you don’t want to either stick your dick in them, or have them stick their dick, or anything else, in you.  You are telling them that it really doesn’t matter how healthy or strong they are,  or smart, or kind if they can’t attain fuckability in your eyes because that is the only metric of human worth you recognize.  You are telling them they are non-people.

So I have no compunction whatsoever about cheerfully telling you to go fuck yourself.

I also have no compunction about cheerfully telling you to go drink bleach, because I hear it’s an awesome way to lose weight!

Not really.  I mean, I really don’t have any compunction about saying it, but drinking bleach will actually not make you thinner, it will just make you really sick, and possibly dead.

But then again, the same goes for all your toxic fat-shamey comments:  They don’t make anyone thinner and tend to make people really sick, and possibly dead.

I’m not exaggerating.  Fat is something a lot of people get bullied for.  People commit suicide because of bullying.  Or people let themselves die slowly because they’re afraid to go out and exercise  because other people yell insults at them, or throw things at them, or try to hit them with their cars.  People who could be happy, healthy fat people with good numbers and stamina and strength let their bodies deteriorate because they can’t take the abuse from people “who care.”**  Or else they starve themselves and compulsively exercise, and suffer heart attacks due to potassium imbalances and other things that happen when people who can’t lose weight any other way go to extremes to try to do it.

I’m still just haunted by the friend who said she needed to “try harder” than gastric bypass surgery.

And I’ll say this again:  When you equate thin and healthy (even though that isn’t how it works, jerkfaces), you encourage people who can’t get thin to give up.  I mean if no matter what you do you’ll never be “healthy” (thin), then why keep beating yourself up.  The way to make more people healthy is to focus on actual health, not thinness.  Focus on your cholesterol (yes, I know they keep see-sawing on that one), your blood sugar, your blood pressure, are you able to do all the things you want and need to do, do you enjoy life?  That’s the important metric here, not how fuckable you are to jackasses who’ve let themselves be brainwashed by a society that less than a hundred years ago was trying to make women fatter to make them fuckable.

Gods, if one more ignorant jackass tries to evo-psych me about men “evolving” to want thinner women, I swear, I will not be responsible for my actions.  No jury will convict me.  I swear.

So, this is the way it is:  Being mean to fat people doesn’t make them thin.  It just makes them hate themselves, or if they’re self-realized enough to know you’re full of shit, you.  Which you deserve, by the way.  In case you’re wondering.  Particularly if you think it’s OK to bully children about weight.

*I say least skeptical because of a past AI he proposed about whether the unregulated free market was a good idea and got snippy with me when I (granted I was rather snippy first) said I didn’t think so because I’d read a fucking history book.  Because I really don’t think that any sane, thinking person needs more evidence than what has fucking happened any time we’ve HAD a largely unregulated market.  And why do they think we regulate the markets in the first place?  I mean, it’s not like the market sprung up “regulated,” laws generally get created because people think they’re needed (regardless of how stupid the law might be, i.e. sodomy laws).   And don’t get me started on how he behaved when people called him out for his use of the “headless fattie” photo he picked to accompany the post.   Skepchick is otherwise an awesome site, I just don’t know what the fuck Sam’s doing there.

**Hint:  They don’t really care.