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| The Fabulous Tess Munster |
So, I have to tell you a deep dark secret about me - I'm a TLC near-addict. Not a total addict - I don't watch Kate + 8 or Honey Boo Boo, but yes, I watch a LOT of their shows. Don't Judge!
So last night, I was watching the end of Sister Wives - yes, I watch that. I find polygamy interesting. Again...don't judge! :-) And right after that was a program called Fat and Back. I thought it might be interesting until I "met" the star of the program.
Most of us fat chicks have probably heard of Katie Hopkins. This is the British woman who goes around being cruel and horrid to varying people that she finds disgusting - like fat people. People either hate her or love her for "telling it like it is." Personally, I don't believe she "tells it like it is." She basically uses a public forum to spout insults to people. Kind of like Ann Coulter.
So anyway, I planned to switch the channel and call it done. I figured this is the kind of person who will learning nothing from what she planned to do. And what DID she plan to do? One of her favorite homilies is that fatties wouldn't be that way if they'd just quit eating and exercised more. That's ALL they have to do. (Editorial comment: HA!) So her plan was to eat an insane amount of food and put on 50+ pounds in three months and then diet and exercise for three months to get back to being her perfect thin self.
Everyone she talked to told her she was nuts - doctors, friends, family, etc. I think she was nuts too. So I wasn't going to watch this - but as I was channel surfing I did find myself returning to the channel to catch a few minutes here and there. At one point, she was whining to her diary camera that mean fat people MADE her do this. Um...no. I'm sure there were fat people that told her to put up or shut up, but she decided to eat 4000 calories a day in order to gain all this weight so she could "prove her point." This woman started out eating 2000 calories a day and didn't gain weight because of genetics and metabolism, so she jumped to the 4000 calories a day. Yes, I did say 4000 calories a day.
Most fat people don't do that. There may be a few people that do, but by and large most fat people are trying to eat less and exercise yet they still find themselves fat at the end of the day/week/month/year. There was one point where I thought she might learn something.
She went to talk to a therapist and the therapist called bullshit on her and explained (rather patiently, I thought) that Katie was emotionally attached to her exercising and didn't she think it was possible that a fat person might be emotionally attached to food? Ding, ding, ding! Therapist is a winner. Katie didn't like that and reluctantly admitted in the vehicle as they were driving home that yes, she could see that if someone had an emotional attachment to food, it might be harder to lose weight.I thought - OMG - she finally understands. No such luck. Later in the hour, she was back to calling fat people disgusting and repellant. All through the episode it was like one step forward, two steps back.
Today I googled this to see if I could find out whether she managed to lose her weight. There was an interview with her and it was patently obvious she learned little to nothing. She was still talking about the disgusting lazy fat people. It made me think about how she affects the people around her - friends and family - as well as total strangers.
First of all, she has a platform and a certain sort of celebrity so that people listen to her. What comes out of her mouth is pretty much bullying. It's the kind of thing I heard as a teen that made me suicidal. Nope - not being melodramatic. I often considered killing myself because of being fat when I was a teen. I felt bullied because of my size. I hid it. I'm sure that if you ask my high school friends if they thought I was depressed enough that I might kill myself - most would say no. My mom worried about me though and with good reason. So I watch this program and worry that her attitudes are being given credence by people she doesn't know. People like the teen I was who would internalize that kind of crap.
And just for my own curiosity I wonder even more about her and people like her, too. If someone like that has a fat child, do they say, "Mummy doesn't want to look at you because you're disgusting. Lose some weight and then I'll love you again." Would they tell a spouse, "I don't want to touch you because you're ugly. Lose weight and then I'll make love to you again." Would someone like this tell a friend, "I can't be your friend anymore because you won't take care of yourself. If you lose weight, then I'll be your friend again. Otherwise, don't bother me."What does that say about them? Who would treat a loved one that way? And god, who would WANT the love of someone whose love is so incredibly conditional? Doesn't anyone else find this attitude abusive?
There was a time that I might have been desperate enough to have a life partner that I might have fallen for the abuse. Now, thank god, I'm not like that. Anyone says shit like that to me now and yeah, I'll lose weight. I'll lose THEM because they don't f-ing deserve me.
I hope for the sakes of those around her, fat never enters their lives. I hope they are able to lose the baby weight. I hope if they're related to her, they have her genetic makeup and metabolism. I wish the best for them, because she won't learn. Think of all the awesome people she'll never meet. And why? Because she refuses to judge them by the content of their character, instead she judges them by the size of their body. How very sad.
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