Hey everyone, did you know that if you gain 83 lbs. you can get yourself on the cover of People magazine? Just ask Kirstie Alley. As far as I can tell, that's the only thing she has ever really accomplished. Let's face it, she sucked ass on Cheers. Now all she does is get paid by Jenny Craig to get thin and brag about it, then get interviewed by People magazine about how she got fat again.
All this would be fine and kind of boring, just another example of a narcissistic celebrity looking for a way to get into the news, if it weren't for the fact that she is spreading such a damaging message. In the People interview she refers to herself as "disgusting" because at 5'8" she let herself get up to 228 lbs. Yes, god forbid someone who's 5'8" should weigh that much. Can you imagine?! Jesus, how disgusting!! She also enlightens us all about how she got to such a disgusting size: she "went wild", she banished her workout equipment to the garage, and for dinner she would eat two cups of pasta with six tablespoons of butter. Um, OK, actually that last part *is* disgusting. In fact it's so disgusting that I'm going to go ahead and suggest that it's an exaggeration (or dare I say a lie?). But even if she really did eat that much butter on her pasta, unfortunately the implication is that other people who weigh 228 lbs. eat six tablespoons of butter on their pasta too. And they just "go wild" with their eating, and of course they don't work out. (Otherwise how could someone get to such a disgusting weight?!) This is just what we need, isn't it? The best part is that at the bottom of the People article there's a link that says "Does Kirstie's will to lose inspire you?" That seriously made me laugh out loud.
Kirstie, please shut the fuck up! If you want to lose weight, have at it, but does the whole fucking world have to hear about it? Your stupid "inspirational" story is not the slightest bit inspirational, for many reasons including the fact that half of it is probably complete bullshit. You got paid by Jenny Craig to promote their dumb-ass weight loss program, so why should we think that anything you have to say about it in a "candid" interview is anything but more propaganda?
In other news, just wanted to give you a heads-up that it's troll season. A couple of days ago a book was released called Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere (no relation; I haven't read it yet but I look forward to it) and so there have been a lot more random hits on this blog. Which is totally great and all, except that some of the people who stop by here and post comments are assholes. Usually you can spot them by name ("Anonymous") but other times you have to read like one or two words into their comments to figure it out for sure. If any of them are excessively vile I will delete them; otherwise, I'm leaving the comments open, so feel free to respond to any and all comments from trolls. (Also please remember that I try to avoid anti-thin stuff around here, so if you want to say mean stuff to a troll, please make it about something else.)
34 comments:
I left two anonymous comments today. I comment from all different computers so don't bother banning me, even if you can. Get over yourself. The internet doesn't care about your feelings. I used to be fat and it sucked. I don't care if you are "offended" by me saying that being fat is unhealthy for you. Fat people look disgusting.
You go around posting comments on my blog from different computers so I can't ban you from commenting, but *I* need to get over myself? You need to get a life.
FYI, I'm deleting one of your other comments because it's excessively long and boring. That comment contained a remark I wanted to respond to, though: "how about you stop going to outback steakhouse every week". If you actually bothered to read my posts you would know I'm vegetarian, and therefore I don't frequent Outback Steakhouse. Your skills at insulting people are really pathetic.
amen mary!! to your comment to anonymous--uh, projecting much there anon? disgusting and unhealthy is your attitude!!
and amen to your post. i do feel a little sad for kirstie though since it's clear that her self-esteem and worth is so tied up in hollywood body image and whether or not people love her or are still thinking about her. i mean, that she started gaining weight once valerie bertanelli started losing i think illustrates that b/c she wasn't the focus anymore.
hey, i hope you can keep the trolls at bay. rock on girl.
Thanks, Maude. You make a good point about Kirstie. I guess feeling sorry for her is mixed in there somewhere with my other feelings too, but being pissed off took over.
probably had i read the article, i would have been pissed, too. but the other sad part is that she's totally towing the company line so to speak, and people are going to read her "story" and believe that they, too, are worthless because they are not a size 00. and you're right, too, that people are going to look at everyone who is overweight and assume they are eating sticks of butter for dinner. it's sad she cannot recognize that she has many more issues than her gaining and losing weight. perhaps she should address the underlying issues and quit talking publicly about how she's so disgusting now that she's fat again.
though i'm not a fan of kim kardashian (sp?), but at least she's got the right idea. but we'll see if she pulls a jennifer love hewitt and after telling people to f*** off about critiquing her body, see if she drops 30 pounds so she can be "healthy." you know, which is fine if it really is about health, but it's just suspicious.
kirsti really needs to decide what she wants to do and get over herself. it's like oprah. really. i have better things to do than be bombarded with how fat equals disgusting equals worthlessness equals "all people who are not under a size two must be binge eating ice cream, butter, and steak for all meals."
again, amen girl. amen.
Hey Mary,
I stumbled upon your blog from another link, but I wanted to tell you that I find it interesting. I teach at a university in CA - and want to make sure that I don't accept socially supported false information about fatness. I am life-long lean person, who does kind of think of food as fuel. I often think that my taste buds are under-developed - nuances of taste are lost on me. My history of athleticism has given me a tremendous passion for movement and the joy it gives me. I'd be hard pressed to imagine a life without it. Persons who see my body type and lifestyle assume I work hard being "healthy." Actually, I'm very hedonistic - I do what feels good.
Regarding Kristie, go easy. I'm sure her life is complicated and we have too little information to psycho-analyze her. This is not to say that criticism isn't sometimes appropriate - but perhaps it should be leveled at the magazine instead.
Maude, yeah, Oprah's another one. At least this last time, though, Oprah made her story more about loving herself and taking care of herself rather than about self-flagellation (though obviously there's a lot of coded language in what she says, and she's clearly going for weight loss as a part of, or as a symbol for, getting her life together more generally).
Loren, thanks for your comment! It's hard for me to want to go easy on Kirstie, because she's a corporate shill and she's saying the exact same things in this interview that the diet companies want everyone to think. Also I couldn't help but take her remarks personally because I'm the same height as her. I find it hurtful when someone suggests that a person my size is too fat to be seen in public (though of course she was "only" talking about herself), and I feel I've made a lot of progress towards loving and accepting myself, so I can only imagine how hurtful such remarks are to people who already feel down about themselves. Maybe Kirstie is just so self-absorbed that she can't see the effect her comments have on other people, but as someone who's accepted massive amounts of money for promoting these same ideas, she ought to have a clue that her words matter to some people. As for the magazine, you're absolutely right -- I take it as so much of a given that People magazine sucks in every way that I omitted them entirely. But I don't mean to give them a pass.
Yes, I can see your point. On the one hand, as a celebrity whose views are widely broadcast, Kristie has a responsibility to not perpetuate false information. On the other hand, she has had to battle the same misconceptions that many do,especially in her choice of career. Thinking of this makes me feel fortunate that my own dark moments of depression or even self-hate are not encouraged and supported my multi-billion-dollar industries.
Hi Mary,
I think I left a comment on your blog a while ago, but I just want to say I really enjoy the insights you bring in response to these dumbed-down, fat-phobic articles found all over the internet. I'm a thin person, but I believe in civil rights, so I try to argue the differentiation between health and body size whenever I come across ignorance. It's really too bad that some people think fat people automatically look "disgusting," and not merely for the fact that our society has become so shallow and obsessed with physical appearance beyond belief. I hope you continue to educate the public as much as possible! Hey, if that troll keeps reading your blog, maybe he'll eventually learn some useful information. ;)
Take care!
why delete my comments, if you are so confident that being fat is "attractive"?
self-defensive much?
it isn't about civil rights, it is about fat people literately clogging up our society. They drive up the price of health care and we ALL have to deal with that.
Please don't put quotes around things I didn't say. I never said that being fat is attractive. I have said that some fat people can be attractive, just like some thin people can be attractive.
As for deleting your comments, I delete comments that I deem to be excessively hostile and/or uninformative and/or ignorant. The one I deleted was all three. I guess I'll leave this one up even though it's extremely unoriginal, and your remark about health care is ignorant. Furthermore, you misused the word "literally" and you misspelled it, too. Nice job!
oh noes, I spelled a word wrong! is this a debate about grammar/spelling? no, it isn't. my remark on health care isn't ignorant. We are moving to a national health care system which I support. Unfortunately more and more people in this country are becoming morbidly obese. And it is a fact that the more someone weighs, the more of a burden they statistically tend to put on a health care system, which thus raises the costs for everyone. It is just like smoking. Smoking will not kill you immediately, but it wears down your body, and you can "quit" ie "lose weight"
neither is easy, but both can be done and have a positive health benefit
am I still a "dumb troll"?
because I am simply stating facts.
Again I am really going to have to insist that you knock it off with the phony quotation marks. I did not call you a "dumb troll", so I guess you came up with that label for yourself.
The problem with your "facts" is that they are incorrect. Exercise and eating habits are much better indicators of mortality and morbidity than body fat percentage is, regardless of whether the person is fat or thin. I know this can be confusing to a (self-proclaimed) dumb troll such as yourself because a sedentary lifestyle and a high-fat, high-calorie diet can lead to higher body fat, so it is an easy mistake to assume that all fat people are unhealthy. But in fact, in terms of body fat percentage, at least to the extent that BMI approximates it, the stats on mortality go the exact opposite direction from the way you are assuming. Check out this post: http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/08/obesity-apocalypse.html. It shows that people who are classified as "overweight" or "obese" (grade I) according to the BMI standards actually have lower mortality rates than "normal" people. I'd love to know how these *actual* facts fit in with your worldview.
Mary, you are cracking me up today!! I have a huge problem with people who misuse "literally" and quotation marks. And about health care, I'm a thin, life-long athlete and just spent three weeks in and out of doctor's offices for the damage to my knee. (The other one was operated on years ago). I'm planning on working out until I need to replace them both and then wearing out the next ones. Sorry, Anon, turns out that I'm the one jacking up the health care costs.
Back to Kristie - I found her Oprah appearance infuriating and a bit sad. She is clearly angry and is misdirecting it toward her weight.
She should be angry that there is no place in Hollywood in particular and media in general for a fat woman or a woman who is not young, young-looking and conventionally beautiful.
There are few roles for her so she must grab attention by telling the world she is working hard to get herself together. Fat of course, is a symbol, of a person who cannot take care of herself, much less do anything significant.
On Oprah she hinted that she will come out with her own diet plan. I so hope it doesn't work and she stops getting attention for bemoaning her fat.
I do feel bad for her in the way I feel bad for any woman who is trying to deal with our cultures thin/beautiful mandate.
PS - I try very hard not to feed the trolls no matter howm much they beg.
Oh, I didn't know about the Oprah appearance -- sounds like I'm glad I missed it! Can't wait to see this exciting new diet plan... :-P
I'm interested in your thoughts on this article:
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/05/should_overweight_people_have.php
http://www.momlogic.com/2009/05/should_overweight_people_have.php
Whole link. :)
Well, it's cutting it off. Hope you can find it anyway.
The reason why is that fat people are more likely to get diabetes, a disease which severely impairs one health. You can't argue with that.
Fuck your study. Statistics lie, and liars use statistics.
Most of the fat girls I know are depressed. Why? Because they know, both consciously and unconsciously that they shouldn't be that way.
and OF COURSE you try to justify it, that is a lot easier than actually having the willpower to not overeat all the time.
Watch out! I didn't capitalize my previous comment! So instead of actually addressing it I expect some spelling corrects. Have fun gals.
Nah, that's OK, you're just boring me now.
ahahaha but you're still fat and disgusting and trying to twist it into a liberal cause of "fat pride"
Wow! Such anger. I bet it sucks to be him.
Mary, you've said it and you've shown Anon like it is. It's prejudiced people like these that believe that fat people should be critisized based SOLELY on weight with no knowledge of who we are or how we even actually live.
And Anon, go read The Diet Myth by Paul Campos and feel your world expand just a tad. And even though this is unncessary to prove on my part, you should know that I am overweight, considered "obese" by the BMI (which shouldn't even be used to begin with) but just had a full physical check up and guess what? Everything normal and I'm in the pink. Bone density and cholesterol the best my doc had seen in a while. You wanna tell me that my weight is going to "boohoo affect the health system", my results, like many others, have shoved it in your face.
Even if there are those didn't have the best health results or have disabilities, fat people deserve to be treated like humans, just like everyone else.
Butter is NOT disgusting!
if you are so proud of your fatness why don't you have a photo of yourself? too embarrassed?
:)
Oh, now he wants a photo. I should have known we had a closet chubby-chaser on our hands. Sorry, dude, but you're just not my type!
nah I just want to see how fat you are so I can laugh at you, I get a kick out of laughing at ugly people
Oh, I know this is an old thread, but I love the idea that I am "literately" clogging up society. Me and my book readin'! What's to be done??
she refers to herself as "disgusting" because at 5'8" she let herself get up to 228 lbs. Yes, god forbid someone who's 5'8" should weigh that much. Can you imagine?! Jesus, how disgusting!!
My question is: How as a 21 year old guy, at 5'11" 205 lbs, with an above-average amount of muscle under-neath, wearing 40" waist pants (just at 20% over a healthy weight - making me technically obese)... was I able to recognize that I needed to make big changes to get healthy again...
and yet you scoff at a shorter woman, with less muscle mass, 3 inches shorter, 25 lbs heavier who recognizes it as something to be concerned about as "negative"
Personally, I love woman of many different sizes, and i actually prefer a woman with curves...
But once you reach the point where your thighs rub against each other when you wear shorts and it becomes uncomfortable and you still pretend you're not fat, you're in complete denial of being unhealthy
Please tell me how you can be healthy when you're too overweight to even properly exercise without getting your thighs chapped?
How is it healthy to walk up stairs and be out of breath? To not be able to keep up with young children? To not be able to reach around to your own back when showering?
There's no issue with being proud of who you are, but be proud of your strengths, don't give up on being healthy and rationalize that "going against society" in this such way is a sign of fortitude.
Also, obese people raise the cost of health care for everyone. That alone is enough reason to be annoyed with the 1/3 of obese Americans.
Btw, thanks for deleting my post with links to scientific journals proving how unhealthy obesity is (a year ago after seeing this blog mentioned on the news.)I suppose censorship is the only form of control you exercise.
Wow, it's hard to even know where to start with you. It would take me all day to argue point-by-point with all of the things you said that I 100% disagree with. To just scratch the surface, you are completely conflating aesthetics and health. This is such classic irrational hatred mentality: you claim that your hatred for fat people is for their own good, but really when you take it apart it turns out to reflect your own sexual turn-ons. Do you think anyone else reading this blog gives two shits whether you like a woman with curves or not? You even provided your body measurements like this is some freaking dating site or something, and then there's your weird fetish about chapped thighs. Keep that stuff to yourself, dude!
As for the other stuff, try reading this little FAQ. You might also want to read the Junk Science blog and some writing by Paul Campos to get your facts straight about the science behind claims like "obese people raise the cost of health care for everyone". Also, if you really think that fat people can't walk up stairs or reach around behind themselves while showering, you must not know many fat people. Of course there are some fat people for whom that is the case, but they are a tiny minority of people labelled "fat" in this country. And I guarantee that someone as "disgusting" as Kirstie Alley is perfectly capable of washing herself (as if it's any of our business anyway).
I deleted your older comment because it did not engage with the post, it basically looked like a (very long) spam comment spewing out trite remarks about fat, things that all of us have to hear every freaking day from the mainstream media in what passes as science journalism these days. I didn't think the world needed yet one more outlet for that kind of rhetoric, so I exercised my right as the owner of this blog to take it down. If you don't like it, start your own blog.
Oh, and is that last sentence of yours supposed to be a dig at me? Ooh, good one. I can tell you're a really mature and thoughtful person I should spend a lot of time trying to reason with here, since you have such sophisticated methods of argumentation.
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