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That’s it. I’ve had it with the fat-shaming craze. I keep seeing these rotund gaggles of women who tweet angry messages to companies like Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, and now Dillard’s for supposedly making light of larger women who are proving to everyone with their own angry responses that they obviously hate the way they look and feel. Excuse me for being politically incorrect, but when people are as big as a tank and they say they are “proud of their body” they’re undeniably lying to themselves. Most recently, a Dillard’s department store in Florida has taken heat from these groups for displaying this sign in the store:
The sign reads, “Dear Santa, This year please give me a big fat bank account and a slim body. Please don’t mix those two up like you did last year. Thanks.” It was placed in the children’s clothing section, and that’s where the outrage is stemming from. The protesters are claiming that this is a bad message to send children and adults who are sad about their bodies:
“It’s time for retailers to stop making a joke out of women’s body image. If it was placed there by mistake, that’s a really big error. When a sign is posted like that it sends the message that this would be an appropriate thing to wish for, so much so that someone wrote it down, posted it and made sure that they could see it.”
I will say that although this is hilariously true and something we all want for Christmas, the good folks at Dillard’s probably should have seen this coming. Again, let’s kick political correctness to the curb and be honest with ourselves. Can you imagine anyone who would be pissed off if he or she woke up with a bigger bank account and a slimmer body on Christmas morning? Abso-fucking-lutely NOT. I’d be tickled pink! The reason people are mad is because Santa Claus isn’t real and he can’t magically undo the years of abuse they’ve put their bodies through by eating unhealthy foods and failing to exercise. That’s the truth, no matter how much it hurts.
Since when did being fat become something to be proud of, or even something to accept for that matter? When did we decide that we should no longer strive to be healthy and want to be happier? When did the word “fat” become a bad word? The word “fat” is not a slur, and just because a lingerie store comes out with an ad that has “the perfect body” written across a bunch of women with a great bodies, it does not give these angry “activists” the right to create another new group of people we have to be careful about pissing off. Oh, and for the women who are saying they refuse to shop at Victoria’s Secret ever again? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you probably aren’t a very important part of Victoria’s Secret target audience anyway, but I’m sure the VS marketing department really appreciates the frenzy you’ve created that gave it millions of free dollars in advertising. Bang up job, protesters.
Here’s the part about this that pisses me off the most–and to those of you who are ready to hang me for speaking my mind, I really want you to focus on what I’m about to say here. There are obese women who are teaching their kids that it’s okay to be as big as mommy, and the truth is, it’s not. Forget about appearance for a second and remember that obesity is the number one killer of Americans. Last year, more Americans died from obesity-related deaths than from cigarettes, alcohol, drug abuse, murder, car wrecks, lighting strikes, and shark attacks COMBINED. Before these women start getting mad about a sign that promotes a desire to be thinner, maybe they should get their priorities straight and protect their kids from the real killer, which is the ridiculous notion that being fat is not dangerous. If these women want to be fat because they think it’s sexy, then by all means, they should keep supersizing their fries. They shouldn’t push their own children to embrace the dangers of obesity and shorten their lifespan by taking on deadly lifestyle habits, though. They might as well push their kids to be heroin addicts. Statistically, it’s safer.
[via Yahoo!]
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Cody Sutton
Cody Mack Sutton is a born and raised Texan that only took five and a half years to proudly graduate from Texas A&M University. If he had a resume, it would probably be long and distinguished. Often referred to by his family as a "Renaissance Man,” Cody is currently holding out for a Senior level management position with a corner office.
@codymacksutton
Fat chicks need love to…just not from me
Whoa dude. They’re not fat, they’re just all big boned.
#yesallrationalpeople
This is your doctor speaking, please put down the pitchforks and signs, and pick up a salad
A solid contribution, sh*t made me laugh in my cube.
You’ve been putting in some real solid effort here with your articles cody. I think you’re gonna go far with grandex. Keep fighting the good fight kid
“Can you imagine anyone who would be pissed off if he or she woke up with a bigger bank account and a slimmer body on Christmas morning?”
Yes, I can. People in Zimbabwe definitely don’t want to wake up to that.
#fattiessuck
Good job, Cody 🙂
I have a friend who lives a healthy life. She eats right, exercises, and she is even a lifeguard and trainer but, without being unhealthy, she will never have a thin looking body. She has normal healthy habits (besides a little too much liquor on the weekends) but at 5’1″ with XL hips will always read “fat” to most people and she still gets harassment calls in the middle of the night from people calling her fat and worthless . Random strangers think they can just give her diet advice when she eats a normal amount of healthy food and exercises 4 days a week. Clothing stores don’t carry her size and all of this behavior is dehumanizing and discriminatory. Not everyone who is fat has unhealthy habits. It is a fact and the reason fat shaming is bad is because some people will always look fat no matter how healthy they are and fat people are people too and deserve respect like everyone else. Except Nazis. Nazis never deserve respect.
Hey, Cody.
I am a fat shamer, but I think you have your terms incorrect. There’s an online battle going on right now, including many subreddits into it. Fat-shaming is what they say we do when we tell them being fat is disgusting and unhealthy. Skinny-shaming is when fat women talk shit about skinny girls. What the people in your article are doing is called Fat Acceptance or HAES.
You are totally right, but you got your terms backwards. : )
Good article though!