This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2008.
Another Fat Bitch
I have a dear friend who is battling breast cancer. She has had both breasts removed, but they have found more cancer in other tissues and organs, much of it inoperable. The cancer is being treated with radiation and chemotherapy, with limited success.
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Dear long winded bitcher,My heart goes out to anyone who has fought or is currently fighting cancer or any other serious illness. That being said…There is a HUGE difference between someone who gains weight while fighting an illness and your average no willpower fat fuck (see that yum yum cheesecake bitch for reference).Do I have all the respect in the world for anyone fighting serious illness? You bet I do.Am I going to have a new respect for every obese person that huffs and waddles down the mall because the intense exercise of WALKING puts a strain on their respiratory system/heart? Noooope.Patiently waiting for your loving response,
=(
J, I think you have missed the point a little bit. When you see a fat person waddling and huffing down the mall, you don’t know their story. All you see is an ass. You can think whatever you like. It’s when you make your thoughts known to that person that you become the kind of asshole the OP is talking about. I’m not saying you’re the kind of person who would treat someone like shit on your shoe just because they’re overweight. I hope you’re not. But a lot of people DO, and they feel completely justified. They are douchebags.
To justify their rude behavior, all people who shame fat people to their face have is their assumption that the fat person is fat due to the supposed moral failure of uncontrolled overeating. They have absolutely no way of knowing for sure why the person is overweight and, really, it’s not important to them anyway. Their need to build themselves up by tearing others down is far more important to them than the person’s actual situation. Really they don’t even give a shit that these people overeat. Many of them may even have the exact same (or worse) eating/exercising habits as the person they’re insulting, but happen not to get fat from it because of their genes. They see that fat = shit in our society, so they attempt to define themselves in relation to it. And who cares if the bitches are long? If you don’t have the time/patience to read them, then don’t.
Your friend said: ‘How could they know?’ Well, sweetheart, when I see some tub of lard woofing down two burgers, onions rings, fries and a jumbo coke at the food court, my first thought is not that they have cancer. I’m sorry for your friend but she is the exception rather than the rule. How a person (male or female) can go beyond 300 lbs and not clue in but continue to stuff their chubby cheeks is way beyond me. And, yes, I have contempt for their lack of self control.
Please don’t try to use genetics too much in this argument; of course there is SOME genetic influence, but come on, if it was all about genes then 60% of the population would have been overweight or obese in the 1970s. But they weren’t. The human race has not evolved in a mere 40 years to be so fat. For 90% of the obese, it’s not about genes or thyroids or the dozens of other pass-the-buck reasons that are given. The issue comes down to lifestyle, commercial / industrial influences, etc. etc. – certainly not all within individual control, to be fair, but it’s not so simple as “genes”.
Hey, TTFN. Not so much the exception any more, actually. Weight loss is still more common, but not by very much. Anti-nauseant drugs are much better than they were just a few years ago, and many chemo drugs cause depressed metabolism and even stimulate fat storage. Also, how often do you actually SEE a fat person stuffing herself with fast food? All the overweight people I know are extremely self conscious about eating in public, because they know what people are thinking. Most of the time you just see the fat person, “waddling down the mall”. You know nothing about the person behing the ass.My heart goes out to your friend, HYA.
Basically, the people who are bashing fat people don’t know what it’s like to be fat. They also have NO idea how potentially hard it could be for THAT person to lose weight, because they aren’t that person. For some people, they have to eat 1000 calories a day or less JUST to lose weight, because that’s the hand their metabolism dealt them. If most of these people had to even keep TRACK of what they ate in a day, they probably couldn’t, let alone eat 1000. Yet they insist on bashing people who SIMPLY do EXACTLY what they do in the run of a day, but aren’t blessed with the speedy metabolism which allows them to eat 2000, hell maybe even more, calories a day and not gain weight. When you have ACTUALLY *LOST* weight, not just “be thin”, when you have ACTIVELY done something to lose a substantial amount of weight, THEN you can criticize. Until then, get over yourself. How does the saying go… I can lose weight but you’ll always be a cunt?
elocine,So what you’re saying is I can lose weight but you’ll always be a cunt?
Excuse me – I have been at the Scotia Square food court just about every weekday for over 20 years and I have seen more than my fair share of morbidly obese people shovel vast qualities of food into their overburdened bodies. Don’t tell me what I have or have not seen.
Don’t know what it’s like to be fat? I was 200 pounds five years ago and am now 150 because I cut out fast food and exercised. What’s your excuse?
Whoa, TTFN! Why the venom? I didn’t tell you what you have or haven’t seen. I ASKED you how often you had seen it. I haven’t seen it that much myself, but I don’t spend a lot of time at malls and/or food courts. Clearly, your experience is different from mine. sheesh. Try to have civil discussion around here…
Sorry if I was a little out of line. There’s no need for venom, for sure. Didn’t mean to jump on you.
Which is more of a moral scourge– the overweight person in the food court who can’t find the willpower to resist another french fry, or the trimly athletic business person eating lo-cal sushi at the next table over as he figures out a way to screw investors out of their retirement funds? I’d suggest someone’s physical appearance is a rather poor indication of the moral threat they pose to the larger community.
Not a moral threat, Tim, but a threat to our overburdened health care system. How many obesity related illnesses do you want your tax money to pay for? It’s not so much their size as their visible lack of control in public eating areas.
Tim, I am totally on board with that statement. It comes back to the fact that our culture worships physical perfection with an almost religious fervor. You can be evil to the core, as long as you look good. Unattractiveness is the greater sin.Thanks, TTFN. No worries. The point I keep trying to make, on this thread and other fat-related ones, is that unless you see the same fat person engaging in the same unhealthy behaviour on a regular basis, you don’t know why that person is fat. Sure, the most likely explanation is that they eat too much and don’t exercise enough. But there is a chance that they are like the OP’S friend. Or they might have some other less tragic but still valid reason. We just don’t know.If I was someone who was openly judgemental of overweight people, this bitch would make me ashamed.
I disagree, TTFN. I think it IS their size. At least for most people. Most people couldn’t care less what you eat or how much of it, as long as you’re reasonably thin.I am thin. Or maybe “lean” would be a better word for me. I don’t eat fast food every day, but I could, because I am a serious athlete and I burn a lot of calories. My performance would probably suffer if I ate that crap every day, but a casual observer in the mall wouldn’t know that. People could see me at the same food court eating the same double cheeseburger and supersize fries and milkshake every day of the week, and they wouldn’t be thinking what a pig I was. They would just think I was “lucky”.
I just realized that I’m like an ex-smoker harping at a smoker. (Hangs head in shame.)
“You can be evil to the core, as long as you look good. Unattractiveness is the greater sin.”That’s a good quote.
People constantly bash others for appearance. The fat issue seems to be a perfect excuse for adults to continue behaving like high school idiots, under the guise of ‘being concerned for the strain on the health care system” etc. What bullshit. I don’t care if you’re fat- there are lots of reasons to look down on eachother, doing it to someone for being fat is one of the most superficial.
You’re the man, Tim.
Let’s not forget that judging people harshly and making assumptions about them based on their “attractive” appearance is no better than doing it for their “unattractive” appearance. Thin people aren’t all anorexic or shallow, wealthy people aren’t all pretentious snobs. And bankers aren’t all thieves.It’s easy to resent others for a million reasons, but it makes us no better than we are accusing them of being.As I’ve said here before, I’m not here to pick on the fat but to point out that fat people bashing thin is no better than the opposite. Skinny people aren’t your problem (except of course the ones that really are bashing you.)
I wasn’t trying to imply that genes determine everything. However, I suspect that the reason I myself have an easy time keeping weight off despite my frequent intake of fried foods and chocolate, has to do with my parents and grandparents, who are all slim. My siblings are also slim. We inherited their fast metabolism. My point was that I can get away with these habits and still remain slim, but another person would bulk up right away. Yes, I could get fat if I really tried, while some fat people could probably lose weight if they really tried. The opposite is also true – some fat people will simply never lose weight without drastic measures such as surgery, and some skinny people would never gain weight no matter how much of anything they ate. Genes play a part, but it’s also individuals’ compulsions.
Don’t judge. Perceive.
I’m sick of all these snowboarders putting a strain on the health system with their ankle injuries. I’m sick of all these pedestrians putting a strain on the health system with their motor vehicle injuries. I’m sick of all these runners who need double knee replacements. I’m sick of the smokers, the drinkers, the tokers, the cokeheads, the skinny people who never learn to eat well and thus develop some severe colon cancer or intestinal difficulties because they’ve never had to have an outward manifestation of their health due to good genes. I’m sick of the people who work too hard, get stressed out and have heart attacks and need blood pressure medication putting a strain on my health system. I’m sick of people who drive cars that contribute to air pollution that puts a strain on the health system.I’m sick of people using flawed logic to justify being judgmental shallow twats.
elocine – “I’m sick of people using flawed logic to justify being judgmental shallow twats.”On that, we most certainly agree. I only like to point out that it works both ways. 🙂
Mole Rat – I understand what you’re saying. Slow metabolism probably does have a genetic component. It can also be a product of metabolic syndrome, which arises from a constellation of factors more or less based in obesity. So there can be a chicken and egg question. Did the low metabolism cause the sloth, or did the sloth lower the metabolism?(Sorry for the word sloth; not intended to be crude, only succinct.)
And I’m being judgmental and/or shallow how?
elocine – wasn’t referring to you. just saying fat people can be just as shallow and judgmental of the thin as the thin are of them. sorry bout that.
@ ElocineWhile I appreciate your argument’s pointing out the hypocrisy of the heath care system response for justifying depreciating obesity, there is still truth to that argument.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rateNumber one cause of death are Cardiovascular diseases which are tightly related to obesity, not snowboarding accidents and pedestrian mishaps.
So, they’re dying. Dying =/= a strain on the health care system. Being sick for years and years, does.My point isn’t that it isn’t a strain, it’s that it’s a bogus argument because people make choices every DAY that makes them more likely to need medical care than the next person. That’s no excuse to say the things or even think the things that people are so wrongly inferring from someone else’s weight. Like the “seeing someone scarf down two burgers” comment. If you wouldn’t judge a “thin” person for doing it, don’t judge the fat person for doing it, because that much saturated fat, trans fat, and just uckiness is not good for anyone of Any weight. The thin person isn’t making healthy choices either, obviously.
That’s true, Jammie, I have heard that metabolism slows with age and also that a tendency to have one type of metabolism can be altered by unhealthy habits. I guess it depends on the person.
The problems with health care have very little to do with obesity. Sure, obesity related illness may use up a bigger portion of health care dollars than other health issues, but something will always have to be the #1 killer, and it will always be somewhat preventable (like MVA’s, and some cancers). The problem with the health care system is that it doesn’t receive the money it needs and doesn’t use the resources it has efficiently enough. It’s a sad state when we start blaming the users of the system (i.e. each other) for the problems rather than the administrators (i.e. government) for letting the system fall apart in the first place. Fat people pay taxes too and have just as much right to universal health care as anyone else.
Strongly disagree Miles. The health system receives billions and billions of dollars and it should be more than enough if spent in the right areas. Unfortunately it is currently spent mostly on acute care services to treat generally preventable health related issues. The fact is, the biggest problem with health care is culture. Culture of convenience, culture of the automobile, culture of sedentary lifestyles, culture of overindulgence, and culture of individualism that takes care out of the hands of people and their families, culture of pharmaceuticals, culture of the medical model, and culture of entitlement where we all want every little thing for free and accept no responsibility for ourselves.A healthy culture, including healthy diet, health promotion, and preventative health care can prevent chronic disease manifold and save a lot on those treatment services. Remember the obesity related illness are CHRONIC – you may only need an appointment or two and a surgery to fix up that bad you knee you got from jogging, but you’ll require monthly visits, a lifetime of medications, glasses, foot care, a few surgeries here and there possibly including an amputation due to complications, and 12 or 13 years at the end of your life wasting away in bed with home care if you develop Type II diabetes.Obviously I’m exaggerating a little for effect, but please don’t buy the media hype that says health care needs more and more and more money. Emergency rooms and surgical wait lists are a lot sexier than programs that teach you what portions of brocolli to eat.
PS don’t get me wrong Miles, I’m not blaming the populace here. The leaders create the culture to a large degree, and over the last 80 or so years, they have led us straight into a bottomless hole. But blaming hospital management is pretty off-base. They are in an absolutely hopeless situation. I’m surprised anyone would be masochistic enough to go into that field.
To clarify a bit Jammie, I don’t blame hospital administrators at all (well, not much). I blame the government for not allowing funding to keep pace with a growing and aging population. Universal health care is expensive, but it is also effective. It keeps us living longer so we can accumulate a lifetime of ailments that keep us using health care dollars well into old age. Older people cost more money to take care of (perhaps we should blame them AND fat people for soaking up health care dollars?). Health care funding has failed to keep pace with rising costs, despite the billions of dollars poured into it. However, I agree that more money is not necessarily the solution to the problem. Many people now suggest cheaper and more effective ways to use the current resources more effectively. For example, with respect to wait times two solutions have been proposed that include centralizing and streamlining wait lists to more effectively fill appointments when someone cancels. The second solution is to switch from hospital-based medicine to specialized clinic-based medicine in high population areas. These include clinics that perform only one type of surgery to minimize turn around times in OR’s and speciality clinics like Diabetes centers or Respiratory centers where you can visit multiple members of your health care team at one time under one roof rather than going to different hospitals on different days. I also strongly agree with you about the cultural problem, but I do think that health care needs an overhaul and it can and should always be designed to handle the demand placed on it.
Also agree that health care needs an overhaul, but the focus needs to be on reorienting it completely to focus much more on primary prevention. The wait list stuff is unfortunately a bit of a red herring. Naturally, we need to keep up with the needs for surgeries, but it should be noted that these kinds of services, while important, actually account for a tiny fraction of the health of the population. To put it in context, something over 18% of the population suffer from high blood pressure and the short-term and lifelong effects thereof. On the other hand, fewer than one tenth of one percent of people get hips replaced. These are just two small example, but they show the contrast that the media tends to gloss over in all their rants about wait lists.This is not to diminish the concern for those who need surgery. The services are needed. But fewer than 7% of health dollars are spent on public health services (which generally focus on family health / prevention / population health promotion.), while close to 60% is spent on hospitals, doctors, and drugs. We need to learn to maintain the ole car before it breaks down rather than waiting for the exhaust system to fall off before we take it to the shop.I’d also point out that the belief that old age is necessarily full of decades of ailments is also largely cultural. Frailty is not in fact a normal part of aging. Of course some bits and pieces are going to wear out, and of course people are likely to be in hard shape for the last year or so of life, but the belief that it is normal to spend the years from 65 to 80 in a state of near-disability is quite wrong. In the healthiest populations such as in BS, Northern Europe, and Japan, people remain healthy and stable for many years longer than they do here in the Maritimes. (see “disability free life expectancy” or “disability adjusted life years”) One example of why this is the case is the cultural belief that exercise is not possible or has no effect in the senior years. This is demonstrably untrue, but we succumb to the idea and let ourselves go as soon as we hit 50. Stopping work at an early age is also a factor. People who no longer feel useful will waste away pretty quickly.Anyway, I’m becoming long-winded so I better can it now 🙂
It’s not just surgeries that have long wait lists. Diagnostic imaging and other specialized tests also have long wait lists and service a larger percentage than 0.1% of the population. I wouldn’t call it a red herring issue, however I wouldn’t want to suggest it’s the only issue (think privatization, access to family physicians etc). Again, I do agree with your point that the media (and cultrual) focus is in the wrong place. Also, fair points about the old age issue, but when I say old people cost more money, I wasn’t necessarily implying that old age is eqivalent to frailty and ailments. All I meant was that if you live more years, you are going to use more healthcare simply because you are around longer. In fact, I would argue that the fact people are living longer is a good sign that the health care system works at keeping people healthy into their old age. However, it is also true that many older Canadians have a variety of health issues in their old age and the current system is struggling to keep up with that demographic. The health care issue is really a simple one…it’s supply and demand. Too many people needing health care and a system that can’t handle the demand. The solutions are what become complex: more funding, more doctors, more equipment, restructuring, more public health promotion, privatization…etc. What I don’t want to see is the government and the population start blaming the people for breaking the system (like blaming fat people) when it’s the government’s responsibility to keep the system working for the people they represent.
Miles – You also make fair points about aging; I’d only quibble with one – “In fact, I would argue that the fact people are living longer is a good sign that the health care system works at keeping people healthy into their old age.” Not really – it works well at keeping people living longer, but with its focus on quick fixes for acute problems, it isn’t particularly good at keeping them healthy. As noted previously, people in Nova Scotia on average spend approximately the last 12 or 3 years of their lives suffering some sort of disability. Our system does not do a good job of maintaining wellness. The number of years disabled is less in other places where people have a healthier lifestyle and a more progressive health care system.It’s a shame that privatization of illness treatment services receives as much negative attention as it does. Privatization of insurance would be very bad news; this is where the Americans run into trouble. Media almost never makes a distinction, representing the two issues as the same thing.Finally on the supply and demand problem, health care is not a commodity; what we see in Canada at least is a “build it and they will come” model, where people will take and use absolutely every thing that’s thrown at them. There will never be enough nursing home beds, never enough hospital beds, never enough surgeries. The minute there’s “enough” of something, some new technology comes along and everyone has to have it, or people insist on making some other new item free when it was previously not part of insured services. Medicare was originally about hospitals; now it is hospitals, public health, nursing homes, home care, rehab, nutrition services, etc. etc. Now people are insisting on free medication, free transportation, free nicotine patches, free stress reduction. And they want it all delivered to their doorsteps so they don’t have to bother themselves with leaving the house. Not all of these would be bad things (a couple of the latter ones could be); many of them MUST happen, but in the big picture it is out of control and if we continue to pander to it, we will only be reinforcing all those cultural problems I previously referred to.
I’m not sure how many of your have seen this, but it outlines how Capital Health plans to save money due to the deficit.http://www.cdha.nshealth.ca/default.aspx?page=SubPage¢erContent.Id.0=35219&category.Categories.1=604It shows how much money they are currently spedning on things that have nothing to do with patient care, and definitely aren’t being compounded by obesity. A huge amount of money spent in hospitals is in the OR’s of course, but having worked in one, I know that a very large percentage of that comes from hip/knee/joint replacements, which as people have noted come a lot from althetic people, not obese people.Second, I’d like to point out that there can be dangerous consequences of losing a large amount of weight due to the mass amounts of chemicals that people have been subjected to by the government over the past 60 years. Many of the chemicals that were used in insane amounts as pesticides and herbicides gather and grow in fat cells in the human body. And while they will cause some problems being there all the time, when the person decides to lose the weight, they are then releasing the chemicals from the fat and further into the body, which can cause all sort of cancers and other illnesses. This can certainly not be blamed on the obese person, but on the government and companies who have spread these chemicals over the years.
Poking fun, being rude, ignorant, superficial, whatever you want to call it….bashing someone simply based on their size is really no different than bashing someone simply because of their race, religion or sexual preference. Now I know I have made some comments that are pretty harsh, to get the point across…but that doesn’t make it right. However, we are free to have our own opions and free thoughts, whatever they may be, but to intentionally say something simply to insult or upset a person, whatever your reason may be is not cool. And yes there are some people I am sure that vocalize some thoughts or opinions, without even realize that the person can hear them quite clearly. It could very well be you someday. And to the OP, your friend sounds like a remarkable person, better than I! I do not believe I would be so calm and forgiving if in her situation.
The “old vs obese” as a burden on the health care system seems a bit flawed to me. Getting old is inevitable. In many (most?) cases, being obese is not.
I have to admit I didn’t read all the comments here but my position is unswayed. Most of you know it and those who don’t here it is in a nutshell…1+1=2Get it? This is a universal truth whether you have a hormone imbalance, strange medication, eating disorder or what have you. I have seen drugs cause bloating (not to be confused with adding fatty fat fat). Certain drugs stimulate appetite, others suppress it. Whether you stuff your pie hole or not depends entirely on a purposeful physical action (or inaction) on the part of the barer of said pie hole and their resolve.Bottom line… If you don’t put it in you can’t retain itIf you put it in and put out as much energy as you’ve consumed you will not retain itANY other behavior will result in a change to your bodySimple math, people!That said, I feel it is wrong to regard any living thing, people included, with cruel intent. “Judge not lest ye be judged”.That said, I’m sure happy God invented anonymous bitch boards. hehe
Got that, people? Kay says there is no excuse for getting fat. Not even cancer. Fat = no self control. Too bad you’re dying, but you’re still a pig.Kay, when you hadn’t weighed in on this subject after a few days, I thought maybe it was because you had a sliver of decency. Maybe even compassion. Not so. You are just a nasty piece of work. I am really, really, really glad I don’t actually know you, because you are a repugnant human being.
Kay didn’t say there’s no excuse for getting fat, it
Hey web nazi… what the hell happened to this thread (strike through font). My last post didn’t contain any HMTL so what gives, man?
The new internet censorship laws have come into effect.
Kay, how come you were refering to yourself in the third person in your second last post, the one that appears unfinished?Perhaps you didn’t realize you were logged in as Kay? Perhaps you thought you were logged in as another user, say, Desi?
Fuck off Jennie.
I think Jennie makes a great point there desi/kay.
Fuck off you too T… I don’t even know anybody named Kay.
possibly multiple personalities?
I don’t know who the fuck this Desi is.Hey web nazi…. there’s a less than symbol in my post that fucked everything up. Suggestion.. parse all input text to replace greater than and less than signs with their html encoded equivalents and screw allowing your posters the privilege of fucking up your site.