I Get Letters

[Content Note: Fat hatred.]

I just received a missive addressed to "Mrs. McEuwan" (close) which contained the following observation and helpful inquiry:

I have noticed that you write a lot about the negative consequences you experience as a result of being overweight. Have you ever considered that many of these negative experiences would be alleviated if you just lost weight?

LOL FOR FUCKING EVER AND EVER.

My absolute favorite thing about this is that Amy McCarthy and I fat-troll each other on Twitter and Facebook all the time, just to amuse each other, and this email is literally indistinguishable from the fake fat-trolling that Amy and I do to mock anti-fat trollery.


The thing is: People are actually serious about this. They seriously suggest losing weight, and all the various ways that we fatties could totally definitely for sure lose weight if only we tried them—"Have you tried kale and yogurt smoothies?"—as the most logical alternative to fat harassment.

The possibility that maybe people could just stop harassing fat people never even enters their minds as a viable option.

It seems more reasonable to suggest that I try to make my body do something it's never going to do without killing me than to suggest that maybe the people who hate and police my body could simply shut the fuck up.

This is what I mean when I say there is an eliminationist campaign against fat people in this culture. People think it's more reasonable for us to die than to expect fat haters to keep their thoughts to themselves.

And, naturally, no one should have to be thin, even if they can be, in order to not be harassed and shamed. We don't owe anyone thinness, in exchange for basic human decency.

[Twitter exchange posted with the permission of Amy E. McCarthy, Supreme Troll Queen.]