Monday 15 March 2010

Poor example

Oh. My. Word.  I thought this was a joke at first, but I don't think it is. 

How does someone get to be 42 years old believing that being morbidly obese is not only a good thing, but something to be aimed at, an achievement?

The article, for those of you who can't be arsed to read it, says that she weighed 520lbs when she had her daughter (which in itself raises questions I don't want answers to), now weighs 600lbs, and is aiming to weigh 1,000lbs so she can break the world record for being fat. 

"She runs her own website where people pay to watch her eat, or see her wash her huge body. "  Nice.

I could run a website where people pay to watch me eat.  Or doing the ironing.  Or cleaning the windows.  Hot steamy domestic goddess action.  Not sure I'd make much money though. 

Apparently her website* makes enough to cover her weekly food bills. 

I'm trying to understand what she thinks she is doing.  She has a young daughter and a teenage son, she must know that by continuing with this she will probably reduce her life expectancy.  Is she so stupid that she thinks she will break the Fattest Woman Ever record, then magically get thinner so she can have a normal life again? 

Who's going to pay her inevitable medical bills?  Is this self-inflicted injury? Would medical insurance cover it?  I have no idea.  Diabetes, heart disease, arthritits.  All that fun stuff is pretty much guaranteed if she stays that size for very long.

I know I sound like a size fascist, but really.  Christ on a bike. 

I remember seeing  an archive photo from the 1920s or maybe 1930s.  Depression era, anyway.  It showed a "Fat Family" at a carnival.  A mother, father and teenage son, all plump, relaxed, smiling for the camera.  A crowd of onlooked stood looking at them. 

What was striking was that the fat people in the picture looked like "normal" people to me.  You see fatter people walking round town any day of the week nowadays.  The striking thing about the picture was how thin the people in the crowd were.  Sharp cheekbones and clothes hanging off them. 

Times have changed.





*There wasn't a link to it from the Telegraph article.  I looked.

8 comments:

@eloh said...

I have nothing for you here except more crap for you mystery pile and banging your head on a block wall....

So... have you heard how "our" government health care (Medicare and state run Medicaid) is going/is broke....okay

Several years ago... when I moved into town... I had noticed this very new truck sitting outside a house just up the street from me... later, I saw a huge HUGE young man driving the truck that was leaning so that the shocks HAD to be broken.... a county nurse told me that the whole family was like that...HUGE.... and that they were all on Medicare because they were too fat to work.

So.... my question was.... do they have to invest X amount of their welfare money into Twinkies etc each month? because if they lose weight... they would have to work... right? So in essence, they are being paid by tax dollars to get fat and stay fat.

badgerdaddy said...

Being fat is forgivable. I am porky myself. But being fat and fucking stupid? Not forgivable.

If only I were in power. I'd have had the mentalist sterilised years ago.

Spencer said...

Life imitates the Simpsons. My favourite Simpsons episode in fact 'King Sized Homer' where Homer becomes morbidly obese to enable him to work from home. It isn't just her that you have to shake your head in disbelief, it is her husband who wants her to remain that obese and the fact that these nutballs have produced kids! Frightening.

Happy Hour...Somewhere said...

And this is what makes health insurance reform a devilish prospect indeed. If she raised enough money to buy insurance, would any company insure her? I think not. Even if they did, would she buy it? (She doesn't sound like the sharpest crayon in the box.) If she goes uninsured, the rest of us pick up the tab in some form or another. I sure as hell don't want some pencil neck bureaucrat regulating life style though.

What people will do for money is amazing. Did you read about the fake game show in France where you could shock people and win money? Yikes.

Anonymous said...

I a way I see this as a perverse form of natural selection.
Whether we thinks she's deluded or mentally ill or just plain greedy we should let people like her follow their chosen path.
Her genes get eliminated from the pool. Everybody's happy.
Obviously she should be written to by a health authority or equivalent withdrawing any further new medications or treatments for conditions she may develop in the future. No-one else should have to fund her selfish and self- destructive ambition.

livesbythewoods said...

Eloh, you have to wonder if they get any help other than the money to buy more food.

Badgerdaddy, exactly. I'm on the wrong side of chunky, but can't understand how somone would want to become a circus freak.

Spencer, I had that "I wash myself with a rag on a stick" quote in my head as I read the article.

HHS - tell me more about the game show. It sounds interesting.

nottwitter, she's already had offspring. Her genes are out there.

I'd be interested to see what happened if she were not given any medical support, as she has elected to do this to herself. I bet there'd be a lot of "human rights" pleading.

Bender's Better Brother said...

Yes, but we can make sure no more get out.
Huh, listen to me, voice of the death squad, ultimate arbiter of life and death. Like I have a say in these things.
Send her to North Korea. They're hungry.

badgerdaddy said...

Just reading all the comments, and one thought came to mind: imagine how much soap you could make out of her!

It is for this very reason that me no longer blogging is a good idea for the rest of humanity.