The Big Answer
By PlumcakeFrancesca threw down the BQ gauntlet with a short but deep (i.e. not unlike Francesca herself) fill in the blank. “I would rather be fat than…”
Frankly, I was a bit flummoxed.
I can’t help but believe that “Fat” and “Thin” do not have inherent worth. Just because Anna Wintour’s and Rachel Zoe’s eyes bleed in disbelief, it doesn’t make it any less true.
Sure we project a whole mess of values onto them (I had to present the results of a full blood chemistry test to one 96 pound woman who maintained that there was no way my blood sugar, sodium and cholesterol could possibly be lower than hers) but the words themselves, the states themselves, are just…there.
One is not, all things being equal, better than the other anymore than blue eyes are better than green. An underweight person might be viewed through the lenses of western culture as superior to an overweight one, but frankly I find that messed up and honestly pretty insulting.
Not insulting to me personally –I don’t care if you take a look at my size 22 self and swear to never eat a carb again, just pass me your muffin and scoot away with a quickness– but insulting to the people who are …what’s that thing?…when you don’t eat?…oh yeah, dying.
So to answer the question, “I would rather be fat than….”
Be one of the 854 million people who go to bed hungry, and not by choice.
Be one of the 16,000 children –one every five seconds– who will die from malnutrition today.
Be one of the 1 billion people living below the poverty line who survive (or very often don’t) on less than a dollar a day.
One dollar a day. Do you how long it would take to buy these redonkly fabulous and unsensible shoes from Georgina Goodman?
A really long time.
October 5th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Gawd bless ya ;)
October 5th, 2007 at 1:24 am
P.S. In case that wasn’t clear: Hear, Hear!
October 5th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Well said Ms. Plumcake! I had a very strange day today and it was good to come here and find this lovely post. Thanks for reminding me of what is important.
~Kim
October 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
So being overweight isn’t a health risk? It isn’t bad for you? I think you’re lying to yourself. Rationalize all you want but fat isn’t a good state for the human body. And I’m no fan of the skinny size 0-2-4 whatever types either. They’re just as repulsive as the obese. Here’s the thing, there’s this whole range in the middle.
You want to live your life fat, so be it, but don’t tell me it’s perfectly “okay” to be that way. It’s not.
October 6th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
oh, mark, thanks SOOO much for letting us know you don’t want to screw fat girls, because, really? We were wondering, because we care. A lot. About whether some random idiot on teh internet finds fat girls attractive. Really.
October 6th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Thanks, Plumcake. I couldn’t figure out what it was about that post that was nagging at me.
I think there’s a lot of unnecessary “us vs. them” thinking going on in Western society today in general, and this was kind of in that vein. I’m a devoted Francesca fan, and I think I know what she was going for (”think of how much better it is to be fat than…”), but it was headed in that adversarial direction. Mostly in the comments, now that I think about it.
I had still made up a good list before I stopped, though. SO enlightened, I am. ;)
October 6th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
It’s okay Jez, bypass the points made and shoot the messenger, that’ll help.
FWIW I’d take Kirstie Alley (as she is now as opposed to 75 lbs ago) over SJP (I’m with the Manolo, she looks haggard) any day. I *like* my women with curves. But when the curves turn into rolls of flab, when you look pregnant when you’re not, well, there’s a line that’s been crossed. I don’t know where the line is, I’m sure it varies by individual, but I’m thinking women’s size 20-22 is over it in most cases (and that 0-4 is under it).
And that’s my real point, there’s a line where it’s really not “okay”. I don’t know any other way of putting it, but overeating isn’t okay and overeating to the point of obesity is obnoxious (especially to the millions of people that go to bed hungry). Just because there’s an epidemic of gluttony going on in our country and you have plenty of kindred souls, it still doesn’t make being overweight “okay”.
In short, frankly I have a problem with this whole “I’d rather be fat than starving to death” line of thought. Being at a healthy weight *IS* BETTER than being underweight/overweight. There is a value there. So instead writing about feeling sorry for those starving masses why don’t we all pass on some of those muffins and send the less fortunate the money we saved.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Dear Plumcake:
I heart you.
Dear Mark:
Piss off.
Signed,
Size 0-2 Petite