Land whale

Apparently that's what I (and a lot of other women) are, according to an animal-activism group that shall not be named. (They are the same allegedly-animal-welfare folks who came up with Sea Kittens).

I hate this. I HATE this. The implication of the campaign is that if we all became vegetarians, *poof,* we'd magically become thin (and, apparently, not-disgusting for these types to look at).

Well, the argument is that it's "good" for us - the campaign is called something like "Save the Whales" (That's so cute I just threw up a little).

Here's the crux of my problem with a lot of what these so-called progressive groups do: telling someone they're disgusting (and that's the implication of the ad campaign; I don't care how beautiful REAL whales might be) and that they "need" to change for their own good is not a useful way of promoting your cause.

Because people like me will feel both anger and alienation - not that I ever supported this group that shall not be named to begin with - and some people will feel sad.

Here's a clue, for those of you who have never been overweight:

We know we're fat.
Telling us how much we disgust you does not help.
Terms like, "lardass," "whale," "fatso," "blubber-butt," "fatty fatty 2 by 4" - they DO NOT HELP.

The same people who would be aghast at calling a developmentally disabled child a "retard" (and rightly so) see nothing wrong with using pejoratives towards fat people.

(I use "fat people" as a neutral term. I know some people might see it as a pejorative but I'm not gonna go down the PC road of "people of size" or some other lunacy)

Even if you think it's a moral issue (and I know some people who do. And it makes me crazy, because you hear people spouting crap like, "If you just stopped drinking sugary soda" - well, I don't drink sugary soda NOW. Or "if you just got your butt off the sofa" - I work out an hour a day PLUS I am on my feet a couple other hours teaching) demeaning someone in that way does not help.

Even telling us "It would be good for you to lose some weight" is not that helpful - unless you are my doctor or spouse, you don't have the right to say that to me. YES, DAMMIT, I knot it would be "good" for me to lose some weight. Don't you realize I've been working on that, with limited success, for ten years or more?

Seriously? I wouldn't be at all surprised if a fat person went on a shooting rampage, and in the note they left behind, indicated how very sick they were of being judged by people who didn't even know them, of being told how they're lazy and greedy and lack self-control and on and on.

And even beyond that - this alleged animal-rights group is known for not caring much about people. So why are they even meddling? If they want to save the whales, they should do things like, I don't know, go after the Russian and Japanese trawlers that are actually killing actual whales. But of course that's hard, and it's a lot easier and more fun to be rude to overweight women.

(And of course it's WOMEN. I'm not even going to rant about the insane standards-of-beauty that exist for women in our culture, where it's considered correct in some circles to rip a certain patch of body hair out by its roots, so you're bald as an egg in that area and happen to look like a pre-pubescent girl)

I don't know. I'm bracing for a lot more hatred towards people whose BMIs are greater than 22 (as mine is) as the health-care-insurance reform plan drags on. Because "everyone knows" that all fat people cost so much in medical care.

Well, except for folks like me. Who just made her $500 annual insurance deductible last week, and that only because I need expensive vials of allergy serum made up a couple times a year.

I have to say, I now apologize to any smokers I may have vilified in my younger and stupider days. It's really irritating to be declared An Enemy of the People based on what might otherwise be "neutral" personal choices.