Fat Is the New Black!

You no doubt remember Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live classic line asserting why more and more women were saying they would vote for Barack Obama. It’s because, Fey opined, Hillary is a bitch. She then declares herself a bitch and gleefully adds, Bitch is the New Black!

Female bashing was disgustingly rampant during the last election, but women (and some good men) took notice, so it’s getting just a little harder to be openly sexist. But another group remains fair game for open ridicule and worse.

Obesity appears to be the only remaining socially acceptable condition to openly deride. Sexism, of course, is still with us, as is racism, ageism, and prejudice against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals as well as the physically disabled. But these groups have been making some pretty powerful strides by getting their concerns heard and changing laws as they go. Whereas we will always have bigots who spew ugly slurs until death shuts them up, even they have to now be more guarded, more aware of where they are when they spit out hate.

As Denise Winterman writes in a BBC News Magazine, “Fattism is an acceptable prejudice.” She reports that overweight people are often taunted as they walk down the street. She relays accounts of women being beaten for taking up two seats on the subway (even when empty seats are available) and having beer cans and stones thrown at them by children. Verbal attacks from complete strangers are part of the daily life of obese people.

A while back I did a toon about heavy individuals earning less than their skinnier colleagues (and being less likely to get the job in the first place). But, there is more. Now it turns out, according to a recent study at Johns Hopkins Medical School published in the November issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, that doctors have less respect for their heavy patients; the higher the BMI (body mass index) the lower the respect. Obesity does carry a higher risk of disease and other health problems, so one has to wonder if this attitude negatively affects the care heavy people are getting.

Ironically, Tina Fey’s now classic line about sexism totally slams heavy women in the very same skit!

So, what’s going on here?

One culprit is surely the media and advertisers that keep women, especially white women, feeling “less than” unless they conform to an unreasonable stereotype of what constitutes attractiveness. (Pulling that off sells lots of stuff!) Heavy characters on TV are usually in more minor and subservient roles and played for laughs (although shows with mostly Black characters can be an exception—Black people seem far more tolerant of those who have some meat on their bones). On the other hand, “Berta” on Two-and-a-Half Men is the potty-mouthed housekeeper who is often the brunt of blowback when she asserts her own sexuality. It is apparently amusing to think that Berta thinks she could actually get laid. “Garcia” on Criminal Minds is brainy and sits in front of a computer all the time, a conduit for the thin ones doing all the action. However, one episode was about a handsome man pursuing Garcia. Alas, his motives were impure, and he ends up shooting her.

The women who recite the news are all slim with the exception of Candy Crowley who stands out like a bright red marble in a gravel pit. (We don’t see her much any more though.) Men have it easier (especially with comedy, and sometimes the news), although no contemporary dramatic main male character I know of is other than svelte (well, except for maybe James Gandolfini ’s eerily likeable portrayal of mob boss, Tony Soprano).

The other big factor is, of course, “control,” or the perceived lack of it. Skinnies think that fat people cannot restrain their eating, don’t care about themselves, and are probably lazy and therefore less competent. However, I have never heard anyone say that their goal was to become fat. Fat creeps up on you, and once there taking it off and keeping it off is extremely difficult. I mentioned to a friend, an endocrinologist specializing in obesity, that I thought I would look better weighing 10 pounds less. He said, “Good luck! That won’t be what your body wants to do. It will want it back again.” Yep, he nailed it. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to dump 50 or 100 pounds.

But bashing fat people may have a price. John Corzine (soon-to-be-ex Governor of New Jersey), in an unsuccessful attempt to smack down his portly opponent, put out a last minute ad featuring Chris Christie’s girth struggling to get out of a limo. Corzine’s team may have gotten some bad advice because we aren’t talking about a small population of voters here. The Center for Disease Control reports that 68% of non-institutionalized adults over the age of 20 are either overweight or obese. This is not a cohort anyone running for office should want to piss off!

So, what do you think?