the fat rant again

On my mail welcome screen this morning, there was a link to a picture of Fergie (the pop singer, not the former British royal) claiming she looked "chubby." I wish I could have captured the photo for you all, but it's in flash and my computer wouldn't let me do it and I'm too technologically stoopid to figure out how to get around that. But let me assure you, Fergie does not look chubby in this picture; she looks like a woman with huge boobs in a tank top and not-supportive-enough bra. Her upper arms next to her huge breasts look like toothpicks. If we can use your malevolent correspondent as a guidepost for chubby, Ms Fergie's arms are probably two inches smaller than mine.

So my rage is engaged. First of all, it goes to show that anyone can have a bad candid photo taken and have it used as "evidence" that OMG, they don't look the same as when they're airbrushed on a magazine cover. Shocker, that. Secondly, what if she really was ten pounds heavier than normal because she's not touring (I have no idea, having zero knowledge of her career) or because, like most of us, it's March and there's winter insulation there? How would her "chubbiness" if it in fact existed be newsworthy? So fucking what.

The only purpose of this media toxicity is to make teenage girls and young women feel bad about their own bodies because they look, or think they look, that "chubby" or ::gasp:: moreso, and obviously if it's being poked fun at in public, it must be something you need to be filled with shame over, OR to make teenage boys and young men even more critical of what a real non-airbrushed woman looks like because obviously if you think Fergie looks hot in that picture and it's giving you a boner, you're wrong wrong wrong and you need to retrain your erotic brain. Or something. Gah.

Then, separately, there was the study that's been in the news about how teenage girls who think they are fat, whether or not they actually are objectively overweight by any standard, are more prone to suicide. And the "brilliant" authors of the study reached the conclusion that this was an example of the obesity epidemic causing more healthcare dollars. What, what? Your research proves that it's the perception of being fat that causes the suicide attempts, not actual obesity, but yet it's still the fat people's fault? Excuse me? How about all the harping about being overweight being the absolutely worst thing that could ever happen to anyone and unrealistic standards of appearance being toxic to young women as a cause for depression, huh? Might that be a little closer to what your study really proves, you stupid stupid fucks?

Okay, I'm done. I'm getting dressed and going out for the day and ignoring the interwebs till I calm the hell down.

xoxo