Political Cartoon: When I Get Thin

14 Responses to Political Cartoon: When I Get Thin

1. 1

   Someone says:

   November 4, 2011 at 12:48 am

   I had sex tonight with the most beautiful woman I have been with in 20+ years. Won’t describe her, except to say that she is perhaps 30 pounds overweight by conventional standards for a woman her size (5’5″). The weight shows as just a slight paunch and nice strong legs. In any rational assessment (say, based on a poll) she would be a 9+.

   She is convinced that she is 80 lbs overweight and ugly.

   I don’t know what to do about this as a person or as a man. (This = the larger phenomenon, not the relationship with this woman.)

   Cartoons like this help, I think.

   
2. 2

   Eytan Zweig says:

   November 4, 2011 at 1:52 am

   I have to confess that I’m not entirely sure I understood the bottom part of the cartoon. Is the person facing the corner supposed to be an example of someone concerned about his or her own weight and thinking all the “then” thoughts? Or is he or she supposed to be the cartoonist’s avatar, frustrated not at their own weight but rather at the “then” thoughts of all the people above?

   Not that this affects the main point of the cartoon, which I think is very well conveyed by the top two thirds.

   
3. 3

   Ampersand says:

   November 4, 2011 at 2:21 am

   Eytan, I was thinking of it as an example of someone putting of his/her own life until the mythical post-weight-loss time.

   But your other interpretation is interesting, too.

   
4. 4

   Jay Generally says:

   November 4, 2011 at 10:42 am

   Thank you for sharing this. I really loved it. It mists my eyes, tho’.

   
5. 5

   gin-and-whiskey says:

   November 4, 2011 at 11:03 am

   It’s a good cartoon. Just FYI you misspelled “look” as “Lok for a better job” and you only bolded “then” in “Then I won’t be so shy,” not anywhere else. I don’t know if the second one is intentional.

   
6. 6

   Simple Truth says:

   November 4, 2011 at 11:08 am

   The “Then I’ll deserve to have a lover” guy looks so sad…he reminds me of someone I know.

   Thanks for another great cartoon, Amp. I really like this one. I think it hits very personally.

   
7. 7

   shalom says:

   November 4, 2011 at 11:24 am

   This is a great cartoon.

   
8. 8

   nobody.really says:

   November 4, 2011 at 11:30 am

   “Semplice, ma bene.” Toscanini (1941).

   
9. 9

   ballgame says:

   November 4, 2011 at 12:31 pm

   Excellent cartoon, Amp.

   
10. 10

    Nancy Lebovitz says:

    November 4, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Excellent cartoon, but I don’t know if there’s any way to present the problem going even deeper than that– Kate Harding wrote about having to give up the fantasy of being an adventurous extrovert along with the fantasy of being thin– “thin” has an amazing about of totally irrational stuff associated with it.

    
11. 11

    Ampersand says:

    November 4, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Everyone: Thank you!

    Nancy, thanks for that link. (I don’t think the fatosphere has ever had a better writer than Kate Harding.) I may try to do a cartoon about that someday.

    G&W, thank you! (And: AAAARGH!) I’ll fix that the next time I go into the studio.

    Nobody.Really: translation?

    
12. 12

    Robert says:

    November 4, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    “Simple, but good.”

    translate.google.com

    

13. Pingback: Friday quick post: “When I Get Thin” cartoon | Dr. Sheila Addison

14. 13

    Lapang says:

    November 7, 2011 at 12:27 am

    My that cartoon hits really close to home. I wish I’ve found the fatosphere before I got bulimia… I laughed and cried hard, so thank you barry.