In response to columns by gay sex writer Dan Savage in which he pointedly criticizes obesity, Seattle writer and gourmande Lindy West wrote an article titled “Hello, I Am Fat.” Lindy goes on to whine about how hurtful it is when people like Savage characterize obesity as unsightly, saying that “shame is a tool of oppression,” diets don’t work, etc.
Ms. West’s column, followed by the inevitable irresponsible comments about how beautiful she is, is a pretty standard example of denial and defense of her food addiction. Alcoholics and other addicts will behave similarly when cornered or called out. Overcoming an addiction can be a daunting task, so it’s no wonder people lash out when faced with the frightening prospect of having to give up a crutch. In some ways a food addiction may be one of the most difficult of all, because you can’t just give up eating forever, as you can with booze, junk or cigarettes, so the temptation is always going to be there every day. Imagine telling a hardcore alcoholic that he can’t get buzzed any longer, but must take sips of booze throughout the day for the rest of his life.
Lindy West’s denial in action:
This is my body. It is MINE. I am not ashamed of it in any way. In fact, I love everything about it. Men find it attractive. Clothes look awesome on it. My brain rides around in it all day and comes up with funny jokes. Also, I don’t have to justify its awesomeness/attractiveness/healthiness/usefulness to anyone, because it is MINE. Not yours.
Rather than call obesity what it is – the result of an eating disorder – feminists have embraced “fat acceptance” as a means of ignoring the real problems it causes. This makes it easier for the obese to deny any responsibility for the problem, and in fact to deny that there is a problem at all. One might ask why feminists in particular, and why this particular issue? Well, the reason feminists care so much is that food addiction has a consequence that goes beyond the “mere” health problems — it makes women sexually unappealing to men. A woman can smoke cigarettes, drink martinis and even snort coke and still be desirable to many men. But once she starts to look like a marine mammal, she’s going to find suitors to be rare indeed. Because feminism is so concerned with leveraging female sexuality, this presents a conundrum. So how do they deal with it? In the usual manner, of course: by blaming men for not “accepting” them and demanding that men make concessions. “Fat acceptance” is an almost entirely female movement. Fat men – and there are plenty – do not benefit much from these delusions. Nor do they go to anywhere near the lengths women do to make excuses for it.
Time and again throughout my life I’ve heard fat women say that they don’t eat more than ordinary people. If you were to take what they say at face value, you’d think they were on a constant diet of rice cakes and diet soda. But we all know better. My first high school job was at an Italian bakery, and in addition to all the olive oil, bread, pasta and such we sold pastries. Donuts, to be precise. Every weekday morning at about 10AM, when the local businesses had a coffee break, a herd of fat women would come rumbling in and line up at the counter to bark orders at me like angry walruses as I frantically boxed and bagged donuts. Some would make excuses such as “I need two dozen donuts for all my coworkers,” but for the most part they’d stand there and harangue me until they got their sack of goodies. Fat people may be jolly much of the time, but when it comes to food they sure don’t mess around.
Gay men, who have a tendency to be very aesthetically aware, have very little use for fat acceptance. Although gay men can leverage their sexuality, they can’t pull the same sympathy con that women do. Other gay men simply won’t fall for it to nearly the extent that straight men do where women are involved. For these reasons, fat acceptance is never going to be popular or effective for gay men. Savage, as one of the most popular representatives of gay men in America, is simply calling it as he sees it. His erstwhile feminist allies, however, are outraged by his common sense approach.
Here are a couple comments from feminist blogs:
Over time I have come to loathe Dan Savage for his racist, ableist, fat phobic and sexist language. Though Savage is oppressed as a gay man, he seems to forget that he has plenty of privilege. Not only is he White and male, he is also able bodied and cis gendered, has class privilege, western privilege, thin privilege, etc and etc. For all of the oppression Dan Savage faces as a gay man, he certainly exists with enough power to make the lives of others a living hell. There seems to be this need for marginalized bodies to find someone else to oppress, in an effort to avoid becoming the bottom tier of the social hierarchy.
Even though Fillyjonk posted about it here and I got involved in comments, I deliberately did not post about the last asshole thing Dan Savage said about fat people, because dude is obviously way too invested in defending his right to hate teh fattiez, and at this point, far be it from me to try to take that away from him. For some reason, he really, really seems to need it. I guess maybe that’s the compulsive self-comforting behavior he found to replace eating (see below). Poor bunny.
Pretty angry, these feminists. Not much solidarity with a gay man — actually looks like the same language they usually reserve for us here at The Spearhead. Although I’m not sure we can draw conclusions from these little outbursts, it does at least demonstrate the fragility of the coalition built around left feminism. Their alliance with ethnic minorities and gay men is probably a lot more tenuous than most people might assume. All that’s held it together, really, is that they’ve been able to extort goodies from the system set up long ago by straight white men, but that system is breaking down.
This is something we have to keep in mind: there is no consensus amongst the new left that arose in the wake of the West’s sexual revolution — it’s all about the loot, and the loot’s running out. I expect to see the left begin to fracture along its fault lines of race, sex and class as people realize there’s nothing left in it for them. This isn’t to say the traditional right is the answer; they’ve long since been discredited and their efforts are largely useless or outright damaging to our interests. But the political reality is shifting, and I think it will be in our favor.
Finally, I’m going to end with a little excerpt from one of Lindy West’s restaurant reviews:
Now, either I’m totally good at being blind or OH MY FUCKING GOD IT WAS SO OBVIOUS. First of all, let me say that both burgers were excellent. Nothing wrong with relatively well-off suburban cows. Painted Hills, A+. HOWEVER. The Wagyu burger was a revelation. I mean literally like the book of Revelation, like eight flaming man-goats descended on fiery Segways and beat me in the face with their righteous swords of deliciousness.
[...]
The Wagyu patty was soft without being insubstantial, drippier, darker, and beefier than its counterpart. The Wagyu burger made you forget that ketchup exists. Seriously, it was so good. If my mother were a cow, I would still eat this hamburger. If I were a hamburger, I would eat this hamburger. If I were this hamburger, I would eat myself.
[...]
Oh, and also, aside from the chocolate milk shake (AWESOME, even though it was technically a black-and-white, which I usually do NOT condone), everything else was kind of legit gross. Onion rings ($4) were battered so thickly they resembled Krispy Kreme doughnuts with a fryer-fat glaze of visible grease. And a small Cobb salad ($5)—despite a promising abundance of hard-boiled egg—was weirdly both sweet and bitter, with a dressing reminiscent of frozen Minute Maid lemonade concentrate. We picked out the bacon and left the rest. But you know what? Guess how much I cared? Zero. Zero much. I am smitten with another.
The love of Lindy’s life:
Lindy:
