Althouse: "Gainer blogs are an offshoot of a fat-pride movement..."

June 27, 2010

"Gainer blogs are an offshoot of a fat-pride movement..."

"... that has bubbled up in response to what its proponents consider to be a pointless and hysterical national fuss over obesity. In this view fat is a form of social protest, an outcry against the manipulations of a diet-industrial complex."

18 comments:

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Wow. More self justifying bullshit.

You can always find an ideology to excuse you from whatever you were going to do anyway.; 6/27/10, 9:49 PM
Pastafarian said...: Fat pride movement...you know, it's 10:50pm here, and I really shouldn't go downstairs and eat 5 or 6 chocolate chip cookies before I go to bed...

But it's my pride. I'm just bursting at the seams with it. I must strike a blow for portly gentlemen everywhere.; 6/27/10, 9:52 PM
Pastafarian said...: Jesus, John, why do you have to be such a downer? They're not very big cookies. And they have walnuts in them -- that's Omega-3 fatty acid. It's good for my brain, John.; 6/27/10, 9:54 PM
David said...: "I eat, therefore I am."; 6/27/10, 10:04 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I have no problem with cookies. I won't pretend that consuming them has any purpose other than my desire.

I like oreos.; 6/27/10, 10:06 PM
Unknown said...: Ann Althouse...

"In this view fat is a form of social protest, an outcry against the manipulations of a diet-industrial complex."

Sure it is. And you're protesting yourself to death. Mind you, nothing makes me smile more than a woman with a little more bounce to the ounce, but there is a cutoff point.

PS Diet-industrial complex?; 6/27/10, 10:15 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: There is a analog to this in smoking. Smokers very often are saying "fuck you" to authority in general. Not that it helps them.

In fact, I think this gainer thing is an attempt to make eating too much as cool as smoking. Good luck with that.; 6/27/10, 10:23 PM
traditionalguy said...: This movement will not do well in Texas. Most of its member will have to come from Georgia. It is a shock to spend a week in Texas where nobody is fat, and then get off the Delta jet at ATL airport where fat people seem to be everwhere you look.; 6/27/10, 10:55 PM
Donna B. said...: Grow More Fat and Improve Metabolic Health

It's not how fat you are so much as it is how you are fat that predicts health.; 6/27/10, 11:05 PM
themightypuck said...: I stick to my theory that people have a deep need to rationalize their existence. Shaming doesn't always work no matter how good it feels.; 6/27/10, 11:37 PM
Kirk Parker said...: If Eisenhower is listening in on our current conversations, I'm sure he deeply regrets ever having uttered the phrase "military-industrial complex". It's gotten as bad as "[Water]-gate". Sheesh!; 6/28/10, 4:25 AM
Skyler said...: One thing I like a out being a Marine is that they make no bones about shaming and kicking out fat people. And what we call fat is an old sensibility that most Americans would not even notice.

Such people are put in the fat body platoon. Everyone from the commanding officer and down will describe such people as disgusting and as moral failures. I'm fine with that, but you can imagine our reaction to obese people.; 6/28/10, 5:22 AM
MadisonMan said...: I've lost six pounds this year. My goal is 1 pound per month. In the words of the Gainer Blog: FAIL.; 6/28/10, 6:58 AM
Edgehopper said...: I'm surprised no one noticed the fact that the paragraph about "gainer blogs" has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the review? There's nothing about gainer blogs or feederism in the show they're reviewing, just like the gainers aren't actually part of fat acceptance. But NYT and others like to conflate the two, because it's easier to look down on the somewhat disturbed gainers than on ordinary fat people who are sick of the insults, abuse, and discrimination.

It's like tarring civil rights movements with Eminem's antics, or feminist groups with the actions of militant drag queens.; 6/28/10, 8:49 AM
Shanna said...: Yeah, I have to say a gainer blog (which I've never heard of before), doesn't really sound anything like a "fat-pride" movement. That's just weird.

And I'm not sure what that has to do with that new show about fat camp, which from the previews (I haven't seen an episode yet) seems to be about people who simply are fat. And the mere fact that this gainer dude is TRYING to gain weight and having trouble tells you something about the other side's struggles, because they are NOT trying to gain weight and have gained it anyway.

What a mess of an article.; 6/28/10, 8:53 AM
Trooper York said...: Fat-pride is of course a mystery and a threat to so many people. I don't really want to put people down or suggest that they shouldn't have pride if they feel that way. That is for each person to decide for themselves. You would be arrested by the thought police if you attacked black pride or gay pride or whatever other kind of pride that they are pushing this week. They only two kinds of people who are supposed to sit down and shut up are old white guys and fatties.

Two short words. Fuck you.

I do know that many people have been devestated by the attitudes spouted by some of you in these comments. You know a person might not be fat because of choice or because they are lazy. They could be taking steriods for a medical condition or not able to lose the weight gained during pregancy or they might just naturally be a bigger weight than the BMI chart calls for in the view of the weight Nazi's who are so quick to tell you what to do with your life. Or they could have a lack of self control that leads to a weight gain. There are a lot of different reasons why someone is fat.

The one true thing that I know from reading the comments here is that haters hate. Enjoy your tofu and your six hours on the threadmill. Me. I am having a couple of beers and a meatball hero.

In the words of the Vice President of the United States: Bite me.; 6/28/10, 4:47 PM
Mike Hunt said...: Gluttony is good but most fatlings today still will not embrace their gluttony but instead deny it or are apologists for it.; 7/2/10, 9:55 PM
Fat Bastardo said...: EAT!; 9/18/10, 12:52 AM