Let's start our morning with some bigotry, shall we?

This is one of the most disgusting, hateful things I have ever read.  And since I will in NO WAY be signing up for a Marie Claire ANYTHING to leave a comment, I will leave mine here:

I am fat.  I didn't get fat because I am the most disgusting person in the world, though I do like potato chips very, very much.  I got fat because my thyroid is wonky.  I got fat because of genetics.  I got fat because some people are just fat. 

No, I was never a big fan of organized sports.  Yes, I do like butter.  I can point you to about a dozen people I personally know who can say the same thing, and are not fat.  I am fat because I am fat.  I'm done blaming anyone in the world for that, including myself.

I am healthy.  Sure, my allergies act up, and I carry all my tension in my back and hips (as my massage therapist can tell you), but I live in a city where the only real way to get from A to B in a lot of cases is WALKING.  I take the stairs.  I move my body more than a lot of people.  I love plenty of vegetables and eat them regularly.  My cholesterol is fine.  I'm not diabetic.  All those HORRIBLE DISEASES that fat people get blamed for bringing on themselves?  I don't have them. (And if I did, studies linking my fatness to those diseases have been correlative (not causative) when they show any real link at all.)

I've worked really hard to like myself more over past year or so.  And part of that is trying to get past the awful stereotyping that this (horrible) woman at Marie Claire just dumped on the internet, yet again.  No matter how many times she attempts to justify her statements (in comments, never amended to the article itself), she never apologizes or admits that maybe, possibly, someone like me could actually exist without being ashamed to be seen in public. 

Fuck you, lady.  Just like you can't see inside my head to know exactly who I am and what I struggle with and what I DO NOT struggle with and how I'm not the awful person you surmise that I am from the fatness on the outside, I bet if I saw you cross a room I wouldn't know that inside, you are way more disgusting than any of the fat people you condemn.

*

I don't watch Mike and Molly for the exact opposite reason that Maura Kelly does - fat jokes are not funny to me, and this show hasn't found a tone I like yet.  But if they are showing fat people making out?  (Like the adorable and too-quickly-canceled Huge did?)  I might tune in.

I like traditionally hot people on my TV as much as the next guy or gal.  (Have any of you seen the new Hawaii 5-0?  Hot damn.)  But I think the word "traditionally" is key there - plenty of people are hot who we almost never GET to see on our TVs.  The couple in Mike and Molly may be fat, but they are also pretty damn attractive, and variety is the spice of life!

One more note:  If you took Ms. Kelly's article and substituted "gay" for "fat" ("I have a few friends who are gay", or "Those people aren't just gay, they're downright faggy!", or "I'm happy to send you some literature from my church group if you need it") would anyone other than right-wing nutjobs EVER think she was anything but a homophobe and a bigot?  Would Marie Claire have published this piece of hateful trash?  No.  And for a lot of people, being fat is as much of a lifestyle choice as being queer - that is, it is NOT.  It is who they are, and not all that changeable.  And, like queer kids, fat kids (and grownups) spend a lot of time hating themselves for who they are, dealing with a society that demonizes them, and doing really dangerous, self-destructive things to try and force themselves to be someone they are not.

This is an uphill battle folks.  But there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Skim the article at MC if you want to, but then go check out the comments.  Nearly all of them rip Ms. Kelly a new one, and let her know that we're here, we're fat, and we're not about to put up with uninformed bigoted crap anymore.  Well done, ladies.  Well done.