tyra banks of supermodel fame, has said that she's gained 30 pounds since her modelling heyday, putting her 5'10" frame at 160 pounds. while she feels comfortable at this weight, now that she's in "retirement", she says she is hurt by headlines from recent photos of her on the beach: America's Next Top Waddle and Tyra Porkchop. she says "I get so much mail from young girls who say, 'I look up to you, you're not as skinny as everyone else, I think you're beautiful,' " she says. "So when they say that my body is 'ugly' and 'disgusting,' what does that make those girls feel like?"
honestly i don't really like tyra banks and i'm not usually one to defend supermodels, but i do find it alarming that the word fat carries the same level of hate as the n word or the f word (you know which one i mean in this case). except that it is socially acceptable to call someone fat. words like fat and thin are supposed to be just adjectives. like tall and short or even red and blue. but the word fat now connotes so much more. it's an ugly jab people use to demoralize another person. and most people think that's ok.
the fact that the word fat carries so much hate and weight in our society disturbs me more than the statistics about obesity. you can have your opinions on how much responsibility people have over how obese and unhealthy they get, but that doesn't give anyone the right to call other people mean and hateful names.
2 comments:
Amen.
I am most bothered when someone of a very healthy weight, like Tyra, is denigrated. It's a fucked-up world we live in when women who look like her are called fat.
Didn't she dress up as a fat woman on her show and say it was a humiliating experience? Meanwhile, Oprah's shrinking before our eyes again. I smell another E! True Hollywood Story in the making.
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