Then we wouldn't have articles like this, in which all the country's ills -- and much of the world's, including, I kid you not, global warming -- is blamed on fat people. And in which the author fantasizes -- err, speculates -- on how better off everyone and everything, from the economy to Earth itself, would be if there were no fat people.
Imagine substituting any other population or group of people in the title phrase of Shirley Skeel's MSN Finance article:
"What if there were no more black people?"
"What if there were no more Jews?"
Would MSN Finance publish an article to that effect? Or are they just interested in promoting some kind of bariatric "final solution"?
The article is so full of mistakes, misconceptions and logical errors that it would take me hours to go through them, and I really don't care to spend the time on such gallingly poor journalism. Besides, others have already addressed some of the more salient (and egregious) claims: see Cthulhu's Cafeteria and LiveJournal, with possibly the best response being men_in_full's "Love letter to a fat man".
Contemporary societal, medical and media hysteria about fat people is fueling increases in discrimination toward fat people as well as eating disorders. As Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli writes in an article at Amednews.com:
In the war on obesity, thinness has become the hallmark of success. "There's this continued glorifying of unhealthy and unnatural images," says Harry A. Brandt, MD, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Center for Eating Disorders at the Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore.
As a result,
The face of anorexia is changing, says Brenda Woods, MD, a family physician and director of primary care medicine at Remuda Ranch in Wickenburg, AZ, an inpatient and residential treatment facility for women and girls, with facilities in Virginia and Arizona...."We've had a 400% increase in calls by women older than 40 and a 700% increase in the child population, age 7 and 8."
Keep in mind that anorexia nervosa has the highest fatality rate of any psychiatric illness.
Fortunately some physicians are recognizing "the importance of people being comfortable in their own bodies and realizing what is overweight for one person might not be for another." For instance, Brandt says,
"Maybe you are at your body's normal weight. Maybe you have the genetics to be large. Discrimination against the obese drives people to change, and we encourage people to engage in unhealthy behaviors. [Like chronic dieting, yo-yo weight loss and regain (aka weight cycling), eating disorders, and mutilation in the form of bariatric surgery.] Genetics loads the gun, and society pulls the trigger. [Emphases and bracketed comments mine.]
Shirley Skeel and MSN Finance to fat people: Bang!
. Frater is a fat activisit 
Recent Comments