Stay Fat Say Mainstream Media, Enabling the Obesity Epidemic

It is happening more and more. Mainstream media exposes how an actress, model or athlete was “fat shamed” producing an “eating disorder” and physical and emotional stress. The latest examples are runner Mary Cain who the New York Times reports was fat shamed and model Cleirys Velasquez whom the Daily Beast reports was fat shamed. Next we will hear about how a female jockey was fat shamed for her weight.

Attention future actresses, models or athletes – if you want to carry excess fat on your frame, don’t go into those fields. Isn’t that kind of a no-brainer? Look at data entry and phone room sales for other career options.

It is a sad but undeniable fact. The mainstream media has proclaimed the opposite of obesity – the average U.S. woman now weighs 166 pounds – anorexia and is blaming “fat shaming” for “eating disorders.”

obesity fat shamed
obesity, fat shaming. Photo, Tania Dimas

Average Weight

People, if the average American woman’s weight is almost 170 pounds there is another kind of eating disorder going on and it is not anorexia!

News editors, no doubt appealing to their overweight readers and colleagues, now assure everyone that you have the right to be double your correct weight and anyone who tells you differently is abusing you. Heck, you have the right to be a fat model, actress or athlete and if those industries disagree they are fat shamers and sexist!

Who remembers a few years ago when singer Jessica Simpson who ballooned in size to the point she was actually as wide as she was tall, called her gigantism “a decision not to make myself anorexic.” What? Women under 30 have become so huge that those who are what used to be called normal sized are now called thin, slim and yes, anorexic.

Taylor Swift is a great singer but let’s face it, she has gotten fat. “She looks more like me,” post her followers. Yes, that’s the problem!

Fat Shamed

“Fat shaming” is not about women failing to adhere to fashion standards, male desires and male approval. It is about nothing but health and Big Food. While the tremendous weight most people are now carrying puts them at risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, joint degradation and early death, it is not entirely their fault. It has long been the goal of Big Food – manufacturers of ubiquitous, aggressively advertised junk and fast food – to get people hooked on their products. In laboratories all across the world food “scientists” toil to develop junk and processed food with the precise look, taste, smell, texture and swallowing experience to get people hooked. It is clearly working.

Instead of fat shaming, people should shame Big Food and the USDA for enabling the outrageous worldwide obesity epidemic. According to astute food reporter Tom Philpott the USDA gave the green light to fattening high-fructose corn syrup, corn-based ethanol, partially hydrogenated corn oil and corn- and soy-fed meat when it began to phase out supply management in the 1970s. Now the USDA even helps farmers dispose of junk food – in the mouths of people – and even helps junk food sellers develop and market their fat-producing products.

Sorry New York Times and Daily Beast: We need more fat shaming not less.

Kathy Sheridan is an old-style independent investigative journalist who covers a wide range of issues, taking some of the wild heat out of what partisans say to make their point. She uses in-depth research combined with common sense, a healthy dose of skepticism and critical thinking to get to the heart of an issue, to inform readers.