1) sex is not a limited resource, while there is only so much food to go around in the world at one point in time.

2) people don’t die out of lack of sex.

though i think that the anti-fat problem is tied more to socioeconomic levels in north america, since the affluent can usually afford their personal trainers and their organic trans fat-free foods and all that.

How dare someone be happy having broken the stricture of society? You get away with “being” outside the norm, as long as you suffer for it and pay lip service to the superiority of the dominant ideals and images by engaging in activities designed to take you closer to them, even if there is no chance of success.

God forbid you just leave people as they are, because then all the effort you’ve put into things might not have been necessary. What if “fat” people can be happy? What if you don’t have to be a size six to be loved? What kind of insecurities do you have to face up to if you lose that convinient excuse and are still lonely?

Extrapolate to the spiritual and you’ve opened up a great big can of worms: what if “they” are right? What if you can be counted as a good person even if you didn’t check off 1,2,3 on the “Big List of Things that Get You Into Heaven”?

Worrying about appearances gives us something obvious and measurable to take the place of internal elements that are harder to quantify or even acknowledge.

It would be much easier if I was judged in this life and the next solely on my outside and never had to tackle dreams and faith and emotions and all that stuff that’s even messier than sex.

having experienced the fat thing from both sides, i am thoroughly disgusted with the way a lot of people treat the fat. i come from a family with a long and rich history of bieng short and wide. i am 5 ft 3 in. before i had my son, i wore a size 10. i was admired, and i pitied those who were larger than me. i berated fat people for their lack of will power, and i tried to get every family member on a diet and exercise regime. i did not heed my mother’s warning that i too was in for a shock when i chose to have children.

now, 7 years after the birth of my son, i am still a size 16. i have tried countless diets and have lost and regained the same 30 pounds about 100 times. i have scales, books, videos, posters, cds… and nothing helped. finally i gave up to being fat. i eat regularly, walk every day, take vitamins, and i’m a healthy size 16. which is apparently the size god intended me to be. but now i get berated, i get lectures, i get asked if i really should have a slice of birthday cake, i get oinked at by rowdy teens, i get glares from people in the mall, etc. what kills me is that being a fat women seems to mean i am stupid, poor, and promiscuous… at least that’s how people treat me. and i think elkins hit the nail on the head in explaining why people are so scared of fat.

not being a homosexual, i can’t say if elins hit the same nail for homosexuality, but it seems to make sense. thanks for a great post, sorry if i rambled. oh, and for a great book, read Fat!So? by Marilyn Wann. excellent read :)

I gather that for the past few decades there has in fact been an increase in Christian diet plans, weight-loss programs that quite literally equate fat with sin. I know very little about the subject, but for anyone interested, there is at least one book on the subject called Born Again Bodies. (I haven’t read it, for the record, I’m just aware of it.)

Second: I once saw, in a Christian bookstore in Texas, a book called “Help Lord — The Devil Wants Me Fat!” I didn’t want to give them any of my money, but I’ve regretted not buying that book ever since, because I’m really curious about it. (I see it starts at $1.90 from Amazon now…oh, it turns out it advocates a 10-day fast “to destroy the devil’s food stronghold in one’s mind”! Aiiee! (”Mmmm…devil’s food.”))

Third: I suspect that a lot of the “panic” is class panic rather than moral panic. I noticed on the other thread that Don P. talked a lot about eating too many Big Macs and pizza, which are “marked” as lower class, as is being overweight in general.

Fourth: although evolutionary psychology makes for facile arguments, it might be a factor here. In an environment of scarcity, if you see a fat person, you might well conclude that that person’s got their share of the food, and yours too. Which could understandably anger you if you’re hungry.

And so what if there is moralism in the debates? Homosexuals themselves never fail to invoke moralistic tones- whether it be ludricous comparisons to Rosa Parks, or lectures about “lookism” or “disrimination”. And your claim that fat people are “persecuted” and “loathed” is not all its made out to be. For one, until recent times, fat has been seen as a symbol of prosperity and good health, hence the ancient phrase “as the fat of the land”. Various cultures vary on how they view fat, with black culture for example admiring a “thick” woman or Hispanics appreciating a voluptuous figure. But even if this were not so, the issue of hypocrisy again comes up. Homosexuals themselves prize and favor young, non-fat people, whether they be muscular or wispy pretty boys. “Moralistic” lectures on this score only call to mind the old saw: “Practice what you preach”.

Unlike heterosexuals. You will never see a skin mag aimed at heterosexual men that favors young, thin, white women.

But seriously, isn’t it interesting how ‘phobes forget there are female homosexuals? Anyone able to make the argument that lesbians prefer thin and young with a, um, straight face?

:)

(I actually don’t like the fat-gay comparison because it assumes a common non-normative experience predicated on a eurocentric, wealthy status quo…. but that’s just me!)

anyways, here’s a good book on fatness & moral terror:

Revolting Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity by Kathleen Lebesco (UMA, 2004)

Sex is a very limited resource, at least for the average straight man.

(Same way money is a very limited resource for most people, even though the government could theoretically print as many bills as it wants.)

Except, perhaps, the earthworms.

Are you high? I hate people who argue like they are high, don’t you know dope is a limited resource and once you’ve smoked it there won’t be any left for me?