Fat people are dumb and lazy… Oh, and unpatriotic, too

4th July 2007

Fat people are dumb and lazy… Oh, and unpatriotic, too

“How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct,” once said the British politician Benjamin Disraeli. Perhaps Jaime O”Neill should have taken this adage to heart.

Via the FatStudies Yahoo group comes news of a scathing, vitriolic editorial on exactly how fat Americans have become – and by proxy, lazy, dumb and unpatriotic, too. A sampling of his hate-filled messages:

But fat’s not funny anymore, not given the sheer number of fat people thundering through America’s malls and markets… You’re everywhere these days, people of a size once found only in tents where yokels paid a quarter to gawk at them. You’re not just fat; you’re huge, ponderous, beyond jumbo, a vast and undulating formidability of flesh, an avalanche of avoirdupois, a devolution of the species back to a future of protoplasmic balloon creatures.

You’re becoming a living metaphor for the way the United States is viewed by much of the rest of the planet: a rapacious, gluttonous, insatiable nation of swine, the Pig People of North America, the fat neighbors who are fouling the whole neighborhood, consuming everything in sight, and strewing waste in your wake.

Lots of those obese people deal with it by purchasing electric carts to haul themselves around in. You’d think when you’d gotten too damn fat to walk, that fact might be a wake-up call, a message from God or just an indication that something is a little out of whack in the old lifestyle department, but the message lots of Americans take from the confabulation of flab is that it’s time to motorize the motion.

Seeing those stats in the full and bounteous flesh, out in public, strolling in herds and swelling the size of crowds is, as I say, beginning to creep me out.

Fat, dumb and ugly is not the image most Americans have of themselves—or their nation—but until or unless we shape up, that’s pretty much the reality.

We must reclaim our bodies and our minds from those who’ve snatched them from us. If we can regain our bodies and our minds, maybe we can regain our country, too.

I think the sheer ignorance and overarching and on-its-face erroneous assumptions about fat speaks for itself.

The only information I could find on this imbecile is that he is a freelance writer and former community college teacher who lives in Magalia CA., near Sacramento. His wife Karen is a photographer. Write a letter to the editor at: sactoletters@ newsreview.com

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Fat Bias, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1 On July 4th, 2007, Meowser said:

***Jaw hanging down***

What fucking nerve does he have, making fun of the disabled? Oh yeah, if you’re fat and need an assistive device, it must have been your ginormous APPETITE that got you there. No, it couldn’t possibly have been anything like, oh, I don’t know, lung disease, fibromyalgia, injury (sustained in a war, perhaps?), multiple sclerosis, cancer…shit, there are hundreds of reasons someone might need a Rascal scooter besides loving Teh Donuts so much you need ten of them every hour on the hour. Baby-eating bastard.

And whoever published this and paid him for it deserves to wear their genitals as a head ornament.

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 4:26 pm

2 On July 4th, 2007, Hope said:

This reads like a case of projection; the writer is projecting his own self-loathing and frustration with life onto a group of people who are visibly different than he and giving his contempt the gloss of legitimacy with faux concerns about health and neighborliness. Yeah, I know that’s Pysch 101, but sometimes it is that obvious. And as a truggling freelance writer myself, I know how frustration and resentment of others’ apparent success can sneak into your mind and fester there.

As for his statement, “We must reclaim our bodies and our minds from those who’ve snatched them from us. If we can regain our bodies and our minds, maybe we can regain our country, too.”

WTF? So he thinks fat people are body snatchers? Weird. The real body snatchers and mind twisters are the diet industry and marketing departments of Big Pharma, which shame us into thinking we’re not good enough, so here, take this pill for the rest of your life so you can conform to the herd. Never mind the anal leakage, be like the rest of us!

I see Meowser’s jaw drop and raise it with a *groan.*

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

3 On July 4th, 2007, littlem said:

“You’re becoming a living metaphor for the way the United States is viewed by much of the rest of the planet: a rapacious, gluttonous, insatiable nation of swine, the Pig People of North America, the fat neighbors who are fouling the whole neighborhood, consuming everything in sight, and strewing waste in your wake.”

Hmmm.

iI read – and I posted a similar thought in Mary Garden’s “Same Old” blog — that a lot of fat hatred could be said to be guilt displacement by the wider society’s (pun intended by my subconscious, I guess) overconsumption of other things — disposable clothes, seasonal designer clothes, acres of land, McMansions, SUVs, fossil fuels.

I thought at minimum it was worth musing over.

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 9:19 pm

4 On July 5th, 2007, Monica said:

Jaime O’Neill is expressing our population’s discomfort with its own consumerist excess. Too bad he hit the wrong target. I don’t see a whole lot of fat people in those macho pickups with tires as high as the roof of my Saturn.

posted on July 5th, 2007 at 1:55 am

5 On July 5th, 2007, Rose said:

I wrote the following letter and don’t expect it to be published, but I really hope that others do the same. I want their offices flooded with letters of outrage, and maybe, just maybe they’ll think twice about printing hate rants like this!

Dear Mr. O’Neill:

Your above-referenced article is one of the most offensive things I’ve ever seen printed in an editorial column of a “respectable” newspaper. If you substituted the word “fat” for “African American,” “Hispanic,” “Jewish,” or “Handicapped” I suspect the piece would never have seen the light of day. That an editorial writer can let loose his utter contempt for those who don’t look “right” to him and get such a piece published is proof-positive that the “War on Obesity” is in fact an all out war on the obese.

Without any sense of irony at all, you cite Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.” Mr. Hitchcock was one of the most brilliant, and most obese, directors of the 20th century. He didn’t let his obesity stop him from fully expressing his artistic vision and sharing it with the world. Would you have preferred that he spent his life ashamed, hiding in his room, so that his fat body wouldn’t have offended the delicate eyes of the slender?

Mr. O’Neill, stop concerning yourself so much with the size of other people’s back-sides and worry more about the big, fat empty space in your chest where a human heart should be.

posted on July 5th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

6 On July 5th, 2007, Rachel said:

Excellent letter Rose. The fact that Hitchcock was obese didn’t even occur to me, but it is great irony.

LittleM and Monica: Interesting angles on the debate, and ones I agree with.

posted on July 5th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

7 On July 26th, 2007, daren rodgers said:

Thank God for this site. I was 300lbs and now I am 190. I did it by doing 2 simple things. 1, moving my fat ass. 2 putting down the fork. I have every right to hate all fat people, I was one! Now I am healthy, strong and I will live about 20 years longer. Up until now, I have never ever been a racist. But I am now. Seeing as over 50% of Americans’ are fat or worse, they make up the majority; the majority is the standard that a race is judged by. Thus being fat is now a race, and I am proud to say I am a racist against fat people. As a black man it is utterly devastating to have to say this, but it is true. Look at this site and tell me we are wrong!

http://www.bigfatblog.com/

posted on July 26th, 2007 at 12:35 pm

8 On July 27th, 2007, Rachel said:

Daren – I am not even going to try and argue with you, because it’s apparent that you don’t – and won’t – understand. The fact that you think my site and my views are in agreement with is idiotic editorialist speaks volumes for your apparent gullibility and vast ignorance.

Check back in with us in five years when, as the overwhelmingly prevailing statistics prove, you weigh more than 190 pounds and then tell us your views again on fat people.

posted on July 27th, 2007 at 10:51 am

9 On August 2nd, 2007, Sharon Johnson said:

Why don’t these idiots back off O’Neill? He is simply stating the truth, we have an obesity problem in this country simply because we don’t want to offend anyone! I myself weigh 188 pounds and I’ve been trying to lose wieght for almost four months since I found out I weighed 208 pounds. I am not doing this because someone called me a name, or my husband made fun of me. I am trying to lose weight to be healthy again! So far, it is easier to breathe and I can walk a little faster. Also, trying to say obiesity is a dissability is like claiming alcoholism is one! Don’t try and sell meon that theory, because I have 20 years of sobriety. It will probably take me six more months to get back down to 125 pounds, but then again it took me over a year to get to over 200 pounds. Jamie (if I may refer to you by your first name) your article was honest, interesting and hopefully changed a few people’s mind about eating fried greasy and fattening foods.

posted on August 2nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm

10 On August 2nd, 2007, Rachel said:

As with Daren – I won’t try to sell you on anything Sharon. The futility of changing your minds is most evident.

But I do recommend that you make an informed opinion and actually research the issue beyond the end of your fork. Try reading Gina Kolata’s new book, Rethinking Thin, or The Diet Myth by Paul Campos. And those studies you read which lead you to believe there is an “obesity problem” in this country – look at the companies who fund such studies, and consider just what their financial stakes are in having obesity declared an epidemic and disease.

And keep in mind, your experiences aren’t everyone’s and it is possible to be fit and fat. Perhaps you gained weight by eating fried, greasy and fattening foods, but that isn’t the case for everyone. I am vegetarian – nearly vegan – and both my husband and I shun fried and processed foods, and sugar. Yet, I’m still overweight according to BMI standards.

I think we all agree that fitness and good health is paramount, regardless if you lose weight or not.

posted on August 2nd, 2007 at 5:01 pm

11 On August 4th, 2007, daren rodgers said:

Who the hell asked you to explain anything to me Rachel? I am stating a fact and my feelings. And sorry to say it but no matter how you try to work it, Fat is a very ugly word, and to accept it is just sick

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 2:23 pm

12 On August 4th, 2007, Rachel said:

Uh, you did when you posted your ugly views on MY blog.

I’m so sorry that you’ve internalized so much self-hatred Daren. You seem so angry and bitter. I’d hate to see your self-esteem should you gain back any of the weight you lost.

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 2:27 pm

13 On August 4th, 2007, daren rodgers said:

I am a fatphobic troll. I have nothing better to do than disparage others for their weight and happiness because truth be told, I hate myself regardless what I weigh.

posted on August 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pm

14 On August 8th, 2007, tom saunders said: