January 20, 2014
A plus-sized contingent of the fat-acceptance movement appears to suffer from “health denial” in the sense that they either flatly deny or attempt to downplay the documented adverse health effects of being overweight. But the CDC claims that being a porker increases one’s risk of heart disease, liver disease, gallbladder disease, diabetes, stroke, breast and colon cancer, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. A 1997 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that “Obesity greatly increases risks for many serious and morbid conditions….Obesity is clearly associated with increased risk for mortality….” A 2006 study in the journal Obesity concludes that “Visceral fat is a strong, independent predictor of all-cause mortality in men.”
There’s a reason it’s called “morbid” obesity, after all”or, as the kids call it, “deathfat.” To deny the health risks of being fat, to encourage people to celebrate their deleterious physical condition as if it isn”t likely to lay them out cold by the time they hit 40, would seem far more potentially harmful than to hurt their feelings with an occasional fat joke. Contrary to legend, it’s not over when the fat lady sings”it’s over when she dies from a heart attack trying to hit the high notes.
The CDC says that in 2008, obesity-related medical costs totaled nearly $150 billion. Last year the AMA declared that obesity is a disease rather than a result of poor decisions. One wouldn’t exactly be fatheaded to suspect that the medical costs of this new “disease” will be borne by all American citizens under Obamacare whether they”re big fat fatties themselves or not.
I find this unacceptable. It’s not my fault that you treated your body like a fast-food dumpster for decades, and I shouldn”t have to pay for your quadruple bypass.
I suspect that for many people, massive amounts of body fat act as an emotional cushion”if they can conclude that you hate them because they”re portly, they”re spared the pain of thinking that you hate them because of their personality. I believe this principle applies to all groups across the identity-politics rainbow.
What I don”t understand is that if you”re truly so A-OK with being fat, why would you need “acceptance” from others? Running around with your gunt flapping in the air screaming that being fat doesn”t bother you suggests to me that the opposite is true. All those familiar insults should roll off you like the sweat from your brow after you walk those three steps up into the city bus. The fact that you appear to need my acceptance only makes me think you don”t accept yourself, which in turn makes me less likely to accept you. Why can”t you accept that?
I say we start a broad-based movement that accepts no one until they prove themselves worthy of acceptance. Let’s reject and shame everyone straight out of the gates until we”re given reason to act otherwise. Acceptance would be earned rather than expected. It would be a better world.
Whew. I feel better after saying that”almost as if a huge weight has been lifted off my chest.
