(Extra points to those who get the post title reference)

I’m going to start off by saying that this is going to be my only post in reference to the hate-filled, grammar-devoid, temper-tantrum reminiscent, troll-speak filled comments that are beginning to wing my way since my addition to the fat-o-sphere feed.  I refuse to feed into the insecurities of people who feel the desperate need to make themselves feel a bit “taller” by spewing anonymous vitriol in the direction of random others.  If you’re hoping that leaving some sort of nasty comment; which come on I’ve heard them all, at least make them more INTERESTING; will enrage me and spur me into granting you the glory status of “douche-hound” or some other label which will inflate your ego; you’re just sadly mistaken. Others may do so, and very well, but I don’t work that way.  Sorry, but you didn’t make the fat woman cry.  In fact; far from it.  You’ve done something which will likely make you even more frustrated and eager to lash out.  You’ve made me happy. 

Let me explain.  No.  There is too much.  Let me sum up.

By reading what I’ve written here in my blog about self-size-acceptance, which is supplemented by scientific research and a plethora of references to other well written blog posts; you are either looking to see another view of the “Obesity Monster” which is supposedly destroying the world; or you’re crawling through the Internet looking for groups of people you don’t like so you can leave a nasty message.  If it is the former; Welcome!  I hope you find ideas and concepts here that make you, if nothing else, question the whole-hearted, unquestioning acceptance most people have that Obesity and Fat are going to end the world.  If, however, you are part of the later group, (in which highly likely case you’ve already stopped reading and are even now crafting your “witty” comment), maybe you’ve had a bad day.  Some one called you a dick.  Or made fun of you.  Or sneered at your outfit.  Maybe you just woke up cranky.  Whatever the reason, you want to feel better than SOMEONE ELSE. 

Enter the magic of the Internet!  With a few clicks you can gain anonymity, scroll through online postings and then BAM you can find someone that MUST be worse off then you: a fat woman. I mean, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, right?  Just mock that disgustingly lazy excuse for a human being who claims she is somehow “magically” healthy despite looking like a heifer in clothes and then you’ll feel better ’cause damn, who wouldn’t feel better? I mean look at her!  She actually claims that Obesity doesn’t kill; that she can somehow eat the same as a thin person, exercise just as much and yet the fat doesn’t melt away!  She thinks that dieting is just a way to keep women so concerned about their looks that they never raise a peep about other concerns such as politics or discrimination.  What a blazing idiot!  How DARE she lie like that, when it is just common sense that she is fat ’cause she eats too much and just watches TV all day.  I mean the media tells us that all the time.  It can’t POSSIBLY be wrong since it is on TV.  Her saying otherwise makes me angrier than I already am.  I was just gonna laugh at her but now I’m gonna leave her a comment.  Maybe she’ll wake up and smell the lard-filled roses.

Well I’m certainly sorry that your personal insecurities would have brought you to the level described above.  But you know what?

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. 

-Mahatma Ghandi

Right now, whether you are leaving a nasty comment in plain language to laugh at the fat woman, or whether you have couched your angry comment in terms of “for health’s sake” and “if I could do it so could YOU”; I am already to step three.  And then I win.  If I’ve already made you so angry at the concepts and ideas I toss out there; supported by research; that you feel you NEED to fight back, to put me back in my fat-place; then I’m already one step away from winning.  You’re already acknowledging that the ideas here are frightening, that they make you angry, that you feel fed-up with the fat-woman not accepting the “realities” of life. 

Each comment you leave of this nature just makes me grin.  I’m making you angry.  I’m shaking the foundations of your firmly planted beliefs enough to make you want to lash out.  You don’t want to lose those beliefs that you’ve invested your whole life supporting.  How could you want to accept that all you’ve been told was a lie based on shady scientific reports backed by drug companies wanting to sell their products?  Who would want to consider that all those years of dieting or watching others diet for “health” was really causing irreparable damage to yourself and/or your friends and family??

It is frightening.  That’s why it needs to be said.  Anytime that our lives become so filled with assumption, with undeniable “truths”, it is our duty, as thinking beings, to question what we know.  When we find our arguments laced with phrases like “Well everyone KNOWS that…” and “It is just common knowledge that…”; don’t you think it is time to re-assess the basis of our understanding?  After all, it wasn’t THAT long ago that everyone KNEW that folks in Columbus’ time thought the world was flat.  If you are so unwilling to consider other viewpoints, in a desperate attempt to cling to what you’ve always KNOWN to be true, maybe it is time to take a moment and think about why you are acting that way.

So by all means, keep trying to push the fat-woman down.  Keep trying to make the lame stereotypical comments that you desperately hope will somehow put me in my place and make me stop spewing all these scary ideas.  It will not work the way you hope.  Because every single comment of this nature that I receive is like one more little cheer, one more “huzzah”, celebrating my win.