Carbless Happiness

 
02/21/2008
 

How Crazy, Dis-figuration Costs Less

FEB 21 08

What? What did they say? Health costs of the healthy are the highest? How ironic. This reminds me of a passage from a book I’m writing about being fat:

But, fatness or the medical term for really damn fat, obesity, is another excuse for assholes to discriminate.

Short, concise, and true. In a sad way, this study supports my conclusion. Over the last few years, it has been fun to watch the Skinnies try to come up with reasons why they should be able to hold on to their distaste, dislike, and societal disapproval for Fatties. One of the main weapons was “cost”. It became this mantra: look how much fat people are going to cost us, this country, our world! People on the street, when interviewed, would say they didn’t want to have to pay for another’s disease, especially something so preventable as being Fat. While Obesity is something I think is important to discuss, most of these people are not well intentioned. Deep down inside most people find disfiguration so repulsive, it is difficult, if not impossible, not to be biased against it. I wrote something along these lines in my book, but have since removed it…but for your reading pleasure, I was able to resurrect it:

Besides African Americans, Latinos, Arabs, Indians, and those with some mental handicap, the obese are the most discriminated group of human beings. At least in native countries, most of the other groups mentioned above find acceptance. As a whole, while fatness used to be something historians tell us was culturally admirable (the fat ones were the rich and powerful, they had to be admired by their populace!), it is ridiculous to suggest at any time that being fat is something good and admirable. Similar to other functions of the body, obesity is a dysfunction; it is too much of a good thing, and terribly disfiguring. Maybe it is the disfiguration of the human body that is so repulsive. Similar to the clubbed foot, disfiguration of the body outside of what each of us considers normal is grounds for cultural shunning, and the occasional biting joke from comedians who are, in many cases, obese themselves. But wait, you think, handicaps happen, but my fat friends should just stop eating two Big Macs with Biggie Fries and a Biggie Coke seven days a week and they wouldn’t be so grossly humungous and I wouldn’t have to think such terrible things about them. This thought, of course, is your way of justifying your discrimination, because, after all, they do it to themselves! The nerve, our fellow human beings disfiguring their own bodies by their own free will and choice, without even asking for permission, we protest!

While science has helped make myth and prejudice take a back seat over the last few hundred years, I never imagined it would help the obese like this. My great thanks goes out to all of my fellow human beings that spent time on this study. Who would have thought we could lower healthcare costs by all becoming obese and smoking…

 


Comments

Cheryl

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:20:50

Hey Matt,
I keep waiting for Teri to update her blog, but yours is very entertaining, you certainly do have a talent for writing. I was ready to "up in arms" about your post until I read the article. It makes sense that people who die sooner aren't going to cost the government as much. You generalize an awful lot to say that obesity is another reason to discriminate. Though I'm sure there is some of this in the world, I sure hope it is not the norm!

 

Matt

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:27:13

Hey Cheryl!
Thanks for replying, I enjoy playing with words, especially blogging, so I'm glad it is perceived that way. Absolutely, I agree, the article does make a lot of sense, which is why I find it even more offensive that I have witnessed supposed professionals use the myth of Obesity being a great financial burden on society, to speak out against it. Too often, without true investigation, assumptions are made and taught without a basis in truth. And in doing so, minority groups, historically, are marginalized. There are many reasons Obesity is a terrible disease, but the supposed increased financial burden on society is not one of them.

About the quote from the book I am writing, it is a bit out of context for how I used it in this blog (one day if I ever finish the book, it will make much more sense, but I was in a playful/cynical mood when I included it). In the book it is a purposeful generalization, a counter-stereotype meant to lash out at the impersonal "majority" during an angry diatribe I wrote four years ago; however the implication of what I wrote I find to be completely supported by my personal experiences and those of individuals I have interviewed, etc. Discrimination on the basis of weight is something females, even more than males, experience to a great degree. Without experiencing it, it's hard to know whether or not it can be considered a norm, and I completely understand your sentiment, because for a time I like to say I "walked skinny". But, I would suggest that the majority of children that grew up fat/obese in our society would attest to overt and covert discrimination that had a profound affect on their physical and mental health.

 

Cheryl

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:21:27

I'd love to read all your books when your a millionaire author! :) Tis true that without experiencing it, I wouldn't really know if there is discrimination. I thank my Mom for some good genes. LOL.

I like to think I don't discriminate based on weight, so therefore it is not the norm. However, I guess I'm not the definition of normal, am I? It would be interesting to hear more of your interviews.

 

Matt

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:02:38

A millionaire author…

Sorry, lost my line of thought dreaming. Yes, good genes are very helpful. In my family, there appear to have been three distinct genetic lines. Unfortunately, I happened to be one of the two of my six brothers and sisters to end up in the genetically predisposed to getting fat line. Often, I think of my genetic predisposition as a trial of my humility.

I’m not one to judge an individual when it comes to discrimination, although I do so in a general way in the book. I discriminate all of the time…the words, “white trash” come to mind. In the end, no matter how often we justify it to ourselves, it’s not morally right to categorize people with negative stereotypes simply because they look or act different than we do. Sadly, our inborn ability to differentiate (what is or isn’t a risk) is one of our greatest human characteristics and flaws. It’s hard to imagine how many people have been hurt or killed simply because they looked or acted differently than their fellow human beings.

I have completed two or three interviews, and they are what I imagined I would find, individuals that were taught that they were wrong, bad, unacceptable because they were fat when they were children. I will probably include a total of five interviews in the book, if I ever decide to have it published (I have let a few people read what I have written and that has been difficult enough)…now back to dreaming about being a millionaire author…hell, I would simply take published author.

 



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