Fat vs Thin Believe it or not, I had a tough time deciding what goes first in the ‘vs’. Does it matter? Is there an accepted protocol? Good guys on the left?

Anyway, that’s an essay for some other time.

Every week there’s another study about how fat America/The Western World is. Children are bigger than ever, airplanes are using more fuel than ever, XL caskets are in great demand.
I’m sure this has to do with the abundance of cheap calories now available. Getting refined sugar, or specially bred beef down our gullets is easier than any time in history. Of COURSE we’re going to be bigger than ever.

But is this a bad thing?

There are studies that point out disease is on the rise. But a lot of these diseases that are blamed on weight, another large risk is always stress. Could the stress of living in a fat phobic world be the cause, not the weight itself? I don’t know, but I can’t tell you that anyone’s actually checked!

So why are fat people loathed so much? I’m sure there are many reasons. So what ones can I pick at?

Well, first off, there’s the obvious: historically, a fat person was a prosperous person. Historically, wealthy people are held in contempt, mostly from jealousy I suppose, but also because some wealthy people will stoop to anything to gain/maintain their wealth. It’s natural to dislike wealthy people, so that might be part of it.

Then there’s the Catholic ‘7 Deadly Sins’. These are all things that can tear apart a community. Of course, they date to the close knit communities of medieval Europe. ‘Gluttony’ would mean eating more than your fair share, meaning someone else has to go hungry. I could eat non stop for 24 hours a day, and no one in my community is going to go without. Further, if I DON’T eat a second Big Mac, it’s not like they’re going to send it to starving children in Rwanda. If anything, increased appetites help create economies of scale: more food consumed means bigger processing facilities means bigger farms, means that it will be cheaper to export food.

There’s a stereotype that fat people are lazy. I won’t deny that. However, I wouldn’t assert that fat people are lazier than thin people. And, quite frankly, since when is someone being lazy a bad thing? Everyone complains about the non-stop lifestyle we’re faced with. Isn’t lazy just… not partaking the non-stop lifestyle?

Which brings me to what I feel is perhaps the REAL reason why people might dislike fat people: jealousy. Sure, every maligned group automatically assumes that their antagonists are jealous of them. Maybe they’re right. I mean… people think fat people are lazy… they’re jealous because they don’t think they can afford to be lazy. People think that fat people are wealthy, of course that leads to jealousy! People deny themselves eating pleasure, and believe that fat people stuff themselves silly. Well… I’d be jealous if I thought someone was having more fun than I was.

Now, the world is populated by fat people, and the world is populated by thin people. Certainly most people probably don’t REALLY care about the ‘obesity crisis’. And certainly there are fat people who hate fat people, just as surely as there are thin people who hate fat people.

There are fat people who started out thin, and grew to be fat for whatever reason. There are fat people who were born that way, and don’t seem to have a choice in the matter.

Many of these fat people don’t give it a chance. They’re fat, and they know they’re supposed to hate it, so they do. They need to try to experience it without prejudice. Go ahead be fat. Feel that jiggle when you walk, feel those clothes cling to your skin.

Being fat isn’t for anyone, just like The Beatles aren’t for everyone.

But I think if more people would just gain 20 pounds, and see what happens, just let it BE, they might find they like it.

If people didn’t worry about fat, there’d be less stress among the ‘afflicted’.

Less stress is always good.
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