Did you see this: Marie Claire magazine posts "Should fatties get a room?" article.

[hambirg]

I don't see anything terribly wrong about what she wrote. She's not saying she hates obese people, she just saying she doesn't want to watch them on tv. Most people share her viewpoint. This is why dating shows on tv (Millionaire Matchmaker, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette) always have good looking, thin, fit people on them.

I remember a few years ago there was a copycat of The Bachelor but the bachelor was a huge obese guy and had his choice of huge obese women. The show got horrible ratings and was destroyed on a weekly basis by Joel Mchale on The Soup.

It's just a fact.

Sadly, this reminds me of the days when people didn't want to see mentally disabled people either.

So because this woman doesn't like to see fat people, they should kindly stay out of sight for her?

She's an admitted anorexic. She has a mental disorder where she is afraid of fat. So all fat people shouldn't be on tv or should kindly follow her "dieting" advice so that she doesn't have to look at them? That's absurd! Why should anybody have to cater to her psychosis?

The manner in which she wrote her opinion was clearly just to make herself feel superior. The irony is akin to watching crackheads poke fun at meth addicts! While she is entitled to her opinion, others clearly have the right to respond with their own.

Here are two morbidly obese people I know.

I would clearly rather watch them make out than some of the models in Marie Claire. Be your own judge.

I do think it is odd that we let the fashion industry, heavily made up of gay men, dictate what is considered a beautiful woman. Does anybody remember the Ralph Lauren scandal over this picture?

Seriously, her head is bigger than her waist!!!

 

[jaminmd]

I do think it is odd that we let the fashion industry, heavily made up of gay men, dictate what is considered a beautiful woman.


DH always says the same exact thing.

(My disclaimer: I am NOT a homophobic person in the least and fully supportive that gays should have the same rights as every other human.)

 

[Mermaid02]

This is one of the difficulties I'm having with the whole thing
One example of a Marie Claire cover

The "disgusting" actress from Mike and Molly

Now I am not so naive as to think that we don't live in a society where Ashley Olson would be considered by most to be more acceptably attractive to the ---- let's call them the Fashion Crowd.

But this idea presented that just having to look at Melissa McCarthy as being too unpleasant is simply ridiculous. Yes, Melissa McCarthy is overweight. I find it hard to believe that there are all that many people out there in real life that think she's disgusting and ugly in relationship to the more traditional model with her overly thin pasty pale heroine addict inspired blackened eyes.

Sorry.

I find it ironic that it says "More than a pretty face" above the Marie Claire magazine title. Nope, seems like pretty is all that matters there- and it's THEIR definition of pretty.

 

[hambirg]

Sure they do, nobody said they didn't.

But what you said is that

she just saying she doesn't want to watch them on tv. Most people share her viewpoint.

Simply not true. We've been watching fat men on TV pretty much since TV began. There was:

Ralph Cramden of The Honeymooners,
Lou Grant on Mary Tyler Moore,
The Skipper on Gilligan's Island,
Louie De Palma on Taxi,
Norm on Cheers,
Dan Conner on Roseanne,
George and Newman on Seinfeld,
Tony Soprano on The Sopranos. . .

I suppose I could keep going, but you get the point. Those were all pretty successful TV shows. Nobody seemed to be bothered by their fatness and the ratings certainly weren't affected by some perceived fat people repulsion.

I guess the author is really bothered by the fat couple. That begs the question does she somehow think fat people don't deserve to find love and happiness within a relationship? Somehow I find that not so far fetched coming from somebody that has their own food issues. The irony is almost funny if it wasn't so sad. I think she would have been better served keeping her neurotic perception to herself and seeking more therapy for her own issues.

And I'm dead serious about that. She is clearly still suffering with anorexia. If she is so overcome with her obsessive fear of gaining weight that she simply can't watch a sitcom with a fat couple or stand to watch a fat person walk in front of her then SHE has issues. I hope she gets help for her demons. Anorexia is not a pretty disease.

 

[mhsjax]

Ok, I have to post an opinion and then I am going to step out and be ugly for a minute. First that actress from Mike and Molly is adorable, Ashly Olsen not so much. I am talking about in the face, in the pics.

Now for the ugly remark and this goes with what I just said above. My DFIL was a very heavy man, he had a hat that said, " I may be fat, but you are ugly, and I can lose weight." Ok, there I said it.

I am not going to sit here and say it is ok to be over weight, (I am overweight, but working on it) My DFIL was DM was adn both of them had heart problems and we all know that it isn't healthy, but neither is the other end of the spectrum. These mags only want skin and bones, but then again these are the same mags that try and tell us the $200.00 for a pair of jeans is a steal of a deal.

FWIW, I have a friend that was a photog in the fashion industry, Big time, I mean BIG. He left, he said you will never meet a more self centered , rude vapid, group of people in your life, and if anyone has a DD or DS wanting into the fashion industry, DON"T DO IT.

Not just him either, I know someone else that has some knowledge of the fashionista world, not one nice thing to say about them.

Anyway, my point is I wouldn't listen to a word they say, she has a right to her opinion, but if she is like most people in that world, she isn't worth getting worked up over.

 

[Magpie]

Here are two morbidly obese people I know.

The lady with the muscles scares me, but I think this guy is actually quite hawt.

I like my men with some meat on their bones!

(Did anyone else think Sean Astin was sexier than Orlando Bloom?)

 

[Magpie]

I'm not really a big fan of PDA from anyone but if I have to watch it I want at least one of the people involved to be someone I find attractive. So that means that if you gave me the options of watching two attractive heterosexual people making out, two overweight people making out, or two men making out I would choose the first. It still doesn't mean I have any hatred for the other groups.

Me, I'd opt for the two sexy guys making out. I'm not that into women. (Sexual attraction-wise, I mean. I certainly like being one!)

I was more offended by the language used in the article, and the "I don't like it, therefore it's disgusting" attitude, than the idea that someone might actually have a personal preference in PDAs/romance/soft-core porn.

 

[NCRedding]

I'm about as likely to take dieting advice from an anorexic as I am an obese person. WTH does she know about being "healthy" if she's dealing with issues herself? She's just the other end of the spectrum of obesity. Neither one is healthy. Her advice may be correct, but don't come off sounding like it's the simplest thing in the world and you can't imagine how people can't see that. Hypocrite!

I agree with this. To me, it would be like walking up to an anorexic and saying "It's easy. You need to start eating and stop exercising so much."

Weight issues are so much more complicated than that. I remember reading a report that said a fairly large number of morbidly obese people reported having been molested when younger. Gaining weight was a protective measure in their minds. I don't believe that all overweight people were molested, but there are complex reasons for human behavior.

 

[RitaE]

I do think it is odd that we let the fashion industry, heavily made up of gay men, dictate what is considered a beautiful woman. Does anybody remember the Ralph Lauren scandal over this picture?

Seriously, her head is bigger than her waist!!!

Yes I do - and this is that model in natural "disgustingly large" state. IE - her real body that caused her to be fired from Ralph Lauren all whopping 5' 10"/120lbs of her. I will personally no longer buy Ralph Lauren clothing and unlike Marie Claire, I actually was a customer of that product. I was also disgusted to see him then given the contract to design the US Olympic Team clothing.

 

[Magpie]

I agree with this. To me, it would be like walking up to an anorexic and saying "It's easy. You need to start eating and stop exercising so much."

Weight issues are so much more complicated than that. I remember reading a report that said a fairly large number of morbidly obese people reported having been molested when younger. Gaining weight was a protective measure in their minds. I don't believe that all overweight people were molested, but there are complex reasons for human behavior.

I have a friend who has battled depression her whole life. She knows more about mental health issues than just about anyone I know. She's always said that you can't ask a person with severe non-medical weight control issues to give up their food, without first helping them find something else to fill that place in their life. And generally, saying to people, "You're a bad, ugly person! Shame!" is not an effective way to get anyone to do anything.

She says for some folks being told to "just eat less and exercise more" must be like being told to "turn that frown upside down!" when you're in the middle of a severe depressive episode.

 

[Nancyg56]

Which is worse? A magazine that apparently "tells it like it is" (well, according to the magazine anyway) or a magazine that promotes "loving yourself" and "every body size and shape is beautiful" while no one over 100 lbs or shorter than 5'9" graces its pages?

I am always amused that even catalogues that are marketed to big girls never have a model over a size 12 or 14. I guess in the fashion world 14 is a big girl. Go figure

Personally, while I abhor the thought that obese people have no place in our society I guess the author has a right to her opinion. I just do nto happen to agree with her nor would I read the article in any magazine.

It takes quite a bit of extra weight to fall into the "morbidly" obese category.
.

Oh dear, then I guess my DH must lose all that excess weight. His new Dr, (a george Costanza lookalike, BTW) told him he was grossly obese, borderline morbidly obese. Buddy is 6'6", has 52 inch shoulders and a 38 waist. I will not say that he did not have a little bit of winter weight but it was maybe 15 pounds. The Dr told him to lose 50 pounds. I was "Seriously??????" Absolutely rediculous! There was no accounting for the muscle mass, just looking at height and weight.

This article really hurts me. I lived for many years with a condition called Cushing's Disease, which is excess cortisol production in the simplest terms. The cortisol makes you gain weight and nothing works to stop it. My disease was caused by a tumor on my pituitary gland. Unfortunately, the only fix for me was having my adrenal glands completely removed because the surgery to remove the pit tumor didn't work.

All my life I've been treated like a second class citizen. I hear the negativity and the comments quite often. Now to protect myself, I strike first with a fat joke because it hurts so much less to hear it come out of my own mouth. I'll even strike out in front of people I know care about me because I've learned to hate myself. I am in counseling now to attempt to fix my broken self image based on what the people around me and the world have told me.

It's kind of nice to see someone who looks like me on TV because as much as the real world wants to try and hide me away, I'm here. As much as you gorgeous people hate to look at me, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere so just deal with it.

I have always thought that it was sad that in some folk's mind it is acceptable to make jokes or cruel comments about fat people yet those same people who laugh would be horrified if those same comments were religeous or sexually orriented.

I guess obesity is the last frontier of social acceptable cruelty.

The bottom line for me is:

You can hate whoever you want, you can say whatever you want.
I can take from that and turn into whatever feeling toward you I want.

So basically you can hate on "fat" people, gay people, mentally handicapped people, brunets, anyone over 5'5", green eyed people, Latinos, Norwegians, people who's name starts with A, G, T, W or Y, etc., all you want. But I can also think of you however I want.

 

[mhsjax]

The lady with the muscles scares me, but I think this guy is actually quite hawt.

I like my men with some meat on their bones!

(Did anyone else think Sean Astin was sexier than Orlando Bloom?)

Orlando Bloom is about the least attractive body type I can think of. He looks like a little boy, in fact my 14 year old has a more manly shape than he does. I like meat on my guy too.

 

[mhsjax]

Yes I do - and this is that model in natural "disgustingly large" state. IE - her real body that caused her to be fired from Ralph Lauren all whopping 5' 10"/120lbs of her. I will personally no longer buy Ralph Lauren clothing and unlike Marie Claire, I actually was a customer of that product. I was also disgusted to see him then given the contract to design the US Olympic Team clothing.

If I remember correctly, there was a really nasty article with him, and he was basically slamming women over size 2. In fact most designers won't design for over size 6. There was a report done about this. It involved the well off Hollywood women, not the plastic surg junkies, but the real women, that had real money. They couldn't find designer clothes and the actually asked the designers why, and they just refused to lower their standards and design anything over a certain size. I think that Ralph was one of the main guys in the article, but I can't be sure.

 

[mhsjax]

Yes I do - and this is that model in natural "disgustingly large" state. IE - her real body that caused her to be fired from Ralph Lauren all whopping 5' 10"/120lbs of her. I will personally no longer buy Ralph Lauren clothing and unlike Marie Claire, I actually was a customer of that product. I was also disgusted to see him then given the contract to design the US Olympic Team clothing.

You mean to tell me that the lower pic of the model is the one that was fired because this was her body and Ralphy, thought she was too fat?

 

[luvmy3]

She wasn't drawing attention to "it", she was drawing attention to herself.

I have the need to draw attention?????

Every person's "truth" is not everyone else's. Like you and "HIM" I post what I feel, do I need permission? what the...

No of course you don't need permission but I simply asked a question about your snarky comment and you gave a snarky answer. I'm just pointing out that you seem to lack the ability to answer a simple question without an apparent attitude, but thats ok its your right. You turned some post about a definition found in a dictionary about you, and it really had nothing to do with your situation, it was just a definition of a word that people on this thread are throwing around. There was no need for you to even comment on it unless you had soemthing constructive to say, but you didn't, all you wanted to do was draw attention to it, and by *it* I guess it was your situation with being the target of bigotry (but of course since all you answered with was snark that is just something I assumed, you could have explained ot a bit more eloquently but you decided not to, whatever). Thats what I got from your post, and posted what I felt about it Not really a big deal but why bother coming to a discussion forum if you don't really want to discuss things.

 

[NikitaZee]

I understand that you have people who you love who are obese, but would you feel any differently if it were two skinny and attractive characters on TV saying "You just might get lucky tonight"?

In all honesty, no, it wouldn't bother me a bit. The little innuendo of the commercial about 'getting lucky tonight' was sexual in nature, and I don't think of obesity and sex appeal in the same sentence.

I don't hate fat people, or say cruel things about them, or think of them as lesser people. I don't really think the author does either. She just doesn't like the looks of it, and she admittedly expressed it poorly.

 

[wvjules]

I guess in the fashion world 14 is a big girl

Isn't it also in the real world?

 

[luvmy3]

Isn't it also in the real world?

Yes, I think it is. NOt all size 14 woman/girls are fat and unhealthy, some are muscular and very healthy, but they can't be called small.

ETA I noticed this when I was on a website for plus size clothing, check out the models, they are not plus size. Even the fashion industry for bigger woman doesn't use big woman. (Not all, but there are a few that don't)

 

[mhsjax]

Isn't it also in the real world?

True, but in the fashion world a 14 is huge and frankly shouldn't even exist, you are worthless. Not my opinion, but the fashion industry. BTW I am a 14.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Here are two morbidly obese people I know.

I find this type of oversized, 'bodybuilder' type to be unattractive and disgusting....
(Okay, everybody can jump in here and start calling me a bigot...)

I find this to be an unsightly and unhealthy problem issue with body weight and body image, just as I do anorexia and morbid obesity. (the true, 100% excess body fat morbid-obesity)

PS: My husband just walked by, heading out to work and saw this.
It caught his eye because he has been improving his diet and working out.
He knows quite a bit about this, and he says that this posters statement (about what is truly 'morbid obesity'), is not true.
Something about the difference in 'weight', 'body fat', 'body mass'.....

EDITED TO ADD: I JUST DID A QUICK SEARCH, AND THIS IS THE FIRST INFO THAT I FOUND:

Who Is Considered Morbidly Obese?
__________________________________________________________
According to the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), the term "morbid obesity" is defined as being 50-100 percent above one's ideal body weight, or 100 pounds above one's ideal body weight.

A person with a BMI (body mass index) value of 40 or greater would also be considered morbidly obese. An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered merely "obese."
__________________________________________________________

Looks like we could use a MUCH better definition of obesity.