Offending The Fat. I Mean, Obese.
April 04, 2006, Andy Marsh

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/04/122448.php

I've been reading a lot of stories lately about obesity and how the
rest of the world is picking on fat people. Poor babies!

Look, I understand that in some instances obesity can't be helped. I
also don't believe that the majority of obese people fit into the
category of "it can't be helped." I just don't get it. I mean, I'm not
very active. I eat bullshit snack foods all the time; it's called the
munchies. I don't exercise very much. Ok, I play golf, so I don't
really exercise at all. I even have an electric bicycle. Even with all
these things going against me, I'm still only a few pounds overweight!
How the hell do you get to the stage they call obese?

When I looked up obesity on Wikipedia, it told me that this "disease"
is very rare in wild animals and pretty common in domesticated animals.
The reason? Domestic animals tend to be overfed and under exercised. In
other words, if obesity is a problem, try eating less and exercising
more. Sounds pretty simple to me.

A couple of weeks ago at BC, I read an article about fat people having
trouble getting hired. The way I read the article and the comments that
went along with it, the writer got on his tilt because his mother told
him that fat people couldn't get hired for good jobs. Of course, the
discussion that followed brought up smoking and every other thing that
employers should be using as hiring criteria, but really didn't discuss
the problem of hiring the obese and the associated costs.

Today I opened the editorial section of my paper, like I do every day,
and read a letter from someone whining because their feelings were hurt
over a picture in the paper last week showing two therapists sitting in
one oversized wheelchair. The person that wrote the article whined
because it sent a negative message. What was the message, you ask?
According to the letter to the editor, the message is that two normal
sized people can fit in the same space as one fat person. Somehow the
person that wrote that letter doesn't realize that I don't need a
picture to figure out that two of me can fit where one of her can fit.
I usually get the picture when he/she walks by my table at Quizno's and
blocks out the sun for a minute or two.

Why is calling attention to the obvious politically incorrect? Why is
saying things like, "You should have to pay for two seats on the
airplane if your a.s takes up two seats," a bad thing? I've noticed
those wide-load wheelchairs at the airport too. You know what that
means to me? It means that some poor sorry bastard (possibly me) is
gonna get cheated out of half his seat on the plane because someone
else needs two and a half seats. I'd bet that if they just showed a
picture of that wheel chair without anyone in it, none of us would have
known that the thing was designed for someone with an a.s two axe
handles wide. Maybe they should have just put a really, really big
person in it instead. Then all the fat folks wouldn't be offended by
it. I'd think they'd be more offended by the normal sized wheel chair,
saying things like, "Why do they make these chairs so small?" or "Don't
they know that us 'normal' sized people can't fit in those child
seats?"

Maybe it's not the big seat that's really offensive. Maybe it's the
little seats that are offensive. Think about it for a minute. If
medical supply companies knew the size of Americans, they'd naturally
make bigger chairs to accommodate all the fat a.ses in this country.

The person whining in the paper asks, "Would you similarly insult a
gay-lesbian group in a photo?" Maybe they were really trying to! Maybe
the two therapists shown in the picture were lesbians? But they were
skinny lesbians!

I'm here to say that from now on, PC is forever BS! No more PC BS.
Ever! We're gonna call fat people fat, lazy people lazy, stupid people
stupid. We're gonna include religious whackos and secular shitheads in
this group too. When we do this, there will be no return name-calling,
no playing the race card or the PC card anymore. The PC card has been
removed from the deck and has been burned at the stake.

I usually try to be a nice guy. I've tried to learn that thing they
call tact over the years. I'm getting better at it, but it still really
kicks my a.s sometimes. I mean, I've never made a comment to anyone in
front of me at Burger King that ordered two Whoppers and a diet coke.
I've never made a comment when I heard one woman ask another, "Does
this make me look fat?" I have made a comment if I've been asked myself
(yes it hurt), but never to anyone I didn't know. I yell through my car
window at idiot drivers. Sometimes I even roll the window down. But,
for the most part, I try to behave. It's just sometimes I get so tired
of listening to anyone other than me whine, it just drives me crazy!
I'm here to tell you, I have some comments to make, too.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/04/04/122448.php