Fat pride article in Reason Magazine

24th October 2007

Fat pride article in Reason Magazine

posted in Fat Acceptance, Fat Bias, Pop Culture |

Check out this pro fat-acceptance article by Juliet Samuels in Reason Magazine, although I wouldn’t recommend reading the comments.

The article ploughs the surface of the movement, but doesn’t quite dig deep enough. Plus, she (or an editor) misspells Marilyn Wann’s name throughout the article, an error that demonstrates to me that either she didn’t do her homework thoroughly, or she really didn’t spend all that much time on this piece.

But, she does sum up something I and probably many others have been trying to articulate for so very long:

The anti-obesity campaign is waging war against the very people it purports to help and, in doing so, undermines the very medical authorities it relies on to perpetuate the crisis. Fat people are tired of being patronized by politicians, mistreated by doctors and barraged by crises and “cures…” And hard as it may be to accept, many fat people don’t want to be “helped” by quack dieticians, misguided doctors, and opportunist politicians. Most, in fact, just want to be left alone.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under Fat Acceptance, Fat Bias, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 24th, 2007, Kate Harding said:

Okay, I have to tease you a little, because the writer’s name is apparently Juliet Samuel, not Samuels. But the misspelling of Wann’s name is especially strange since I recall JS posting on the Fat Studies list, so she obviously had the opportunity to see it spelled several times. Maybe an editor did that?

Aaanyway. It’s a good read, and it reminds me that we really need to get First, Do No Harm up and running.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 11:07 am

2 On October 24th, 2007, ladyjaye said:

Y’know, I think that one day, the FA community should gather up and go for a class-action suit against the medical industry for their non-respect of First do no harm… At least that’s my fantasy, like a major anti-libel suit or something.

Where is the BBW or BHM lawyer who could come up with details on how to go on with this?

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

3 On October 24th, 2007, Yellowhammer said:

The comments were stupid and brutal.

And stupid. And brutal.

What is up with all these stupid, brutal people in the world?

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 1:17 pm

4 On October 24th, 2007, Rachel said:

Kate – I’m thinking an editor, too. I’ve had errors introduced into stories of mine at the paper by well-intentioned editors. Most notably, one who misspelled the name of Gandhi as Ghandi! Needless to say, I heard about it from the Indian community here.

Still, I wish she had probed deeper and talked to more than the most notable in the FA movement. I’m hoping the NY Times story picks up where Samuel(no s) left off.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

5 On October 24th, 2007, mshell67 said:

Why do I read comments when I’m told not to read them? I’m like a driver craning their neck at a car wreck, WTF is wrong with me!!! It makes me feel like crap and now I need to look at puppies and kitties!!

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 2:14 pm

6 On October 24th, 2007, vesta44 said:

I usually read the first couple of comments to see how they are going, and if it’s bad, I quit. Sometimes people call the asshats on the carpet, but that doesn’t happen near often enough. But I did like the sum-up she did, it’s so true. Kinda like, if you don’t have anything good to say to me, STFU!

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

7 On October 24th, 2007, Misty said:

The “fat pride” movement cripples itself by the use of the offensive word “fat.” Attempts to “reclaim” this word are like the black community’s attempts to “reclaim” the n-word. It remain insulting and humiliating to many individuals who might otherwise support a size-acceptance movement.

Apart from the fact that it is an ugly word in itself (sounds like “rat”), the acceptance of this slur implies an acceptance of one’s enemies’s defition. Like it or not, the word “fat” is synonymous with “OVERweight,” and the truth is that most of the people to whom this slur is applied are not “fat” at all, no more than they are “over” some arbitrary notion of “normal” weight.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

8 On October 24th, 2007, JeanC said:

Fat is not an insult, it is not a bad word. It is a perfectly acceptable descriptor and I use it all the time. I’m FAT! I am not skinny and I am not thin I AM FAT!!!! I love that word. Brings to mind lusciousness and bounty. Until recently, fat was a good word, fatted calf, fat of the land all good things. It is only in recent times that is has become a bad word and reclaim it we must.

And what is wrong with “rat”. Rats are wonderful little fuzz butts who give lots of love to their people, are quite intelligent (if they had thumbs humans would be in a serious heap of trouble), clean and sociable. I quite love the “*at” words. Cat, rat, fat, pat, mat, bat. They make nice sounds when I say them

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 3:25 pm

9 On October 24th, 2007, Rachel said:

Fat only has a negative connotation if you apply one. It’s a word, a descriptive adjective, nothing more, nothing less.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

10 On October 24th, 2007, Sarah said:

I don’t read comments about fat acceptance on any blog that is not geared toward the topic, because I already know what comments I am going to find.

Reason had another article about a book which concerned too much “nanny” government when it came to what people eat. The comments were filled with fat-bashing, even though the article touched upon several topic that could have been discussed. I left some “helpful” comments, in order to enlightened some people. I assumed people who read “Reason” magazine would at least be more intelligent than others – sadly, I was wrong.

posted on October 24th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

11 On October 25th, 2007, Monica said:

For some reason, libertarians are the worst fat-haters in the world.

posted on October 25th, 2007 at 2:40 am

12 On October 27th, 2007, Eve said:

Well, I read some of the comments, and I got to someone blathering about how parents have the responsibility to raise their kids to not be fat. This kills me, because my parents totally did that. We weren’t allowed more than a little candy, and we certainly didn’t spend hours in front of the TV stuffing our faces with Cheetos or whatever. There was never any white bread in the house. We didn’t have a video game system. I was a bookish kid, so I spent a lot of time reading. My mom drove me to swim team practice three times a week. My dad was thin and my mom was fatter.

Guess what! One daughter is now thin, and the other two are fat! Even though our parents raised us “right” (though without a lot of obssessing about our weights – maybe that’s where they went wrong)! Mind you, the thin daughter is also the athletic one, but hey, she likes sports! My other sister and I like books! You can’t blame my parents for that. I hate it when people do the whole blaming parents thing, as if kids don’t have personalities of their own.

posted on October 27th, 2007 at 12:23 am