Fat Shaming

Many overweight people are shamed into thinking they are not good enough to be around thinner people. You hear “I wish I could lose 10-20 pounds” more often than “I wish I could gain 10-20 pounds”. Can’t remember the last time I heard a ‘skinny joke’, but there are plenty of ‘fat jokes’ to be found. There is roughly a 25-minute video on YouTube with apparently every fat joke from the classic television sitcom, The Honeymooners.  The television show Friends had a main character, Monica, dress in a fat suit for flashbacks and would bring up her weight during various episodes. One showed an old prom video the friends had discovered and one of the characters, Joey, exclaimed, “That girl ate Monica!”, as she was shown inhaling a sandwich while in her prom dress. She even managed to get some mayonnaise on her friend while hugging her. It’s like they are trying to show that a fat person cannot stop eating no matter what the event, and that they’re slobs. Friends wasn’t the only popular television show to have negative connotations toward people of size. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ‘s Will Smith, the main character, started to like a plus-size girl played by Queen Latifah. However, after teasing from his friends, he withdrew from her. As in true sitcom style, by the end of the show they were close again, but nothing more than friends. However, that character never showed up on another episode.

As recently as September 2019, Bill Maher, on his show, stated “Fat shaming doesn’t need to end. It needs to make a comeback. Some amount of shame is good.” For someone that never had a weight problem, I’m sure it was easy for him to assume that weight is always put on just due to overeating. He doesn’t mention in his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, that there are other causes of weight gain. In my experience, I have gained extra weight due to all the steroids I had to take to help control my asthma. Weight gain is a side effect of many medications. It also can be a result of a thyroid issue. Bill Maher didn’t use any scientific facts to back up his claim. A few days later, James Corden from the Late, Late Show responded to Bill Maher’s statements. After identifying as a subject of Bill Maher’s rant, James Corden went on to say, “Let’s be honest, fat-shaming is just bullying. And bullying just makes the problem worse.”

Fat-shaming doesn’t do anyone any good. It causes depression and isolation. Rather than helping address the issue of obesity, shaming makes it worse. With the self-loathing can come self-destructive behaviors, which include overeating, so it turns into a vicious cycle. If more people thought like Bill Maher, the world would be a much sadder place. Who would want to live in a world where we cannot accept people as they are? Of course, we need to take steps to be healthier, but without the shaming.

References

Bill Maher Says Fat Shaming Needs to Make a Comeback. TMZ. (2019). Retrieved 21 September 2020, from https://www.tmz.com/2019/09/07/bill-maher-fat-shaming-obesity-real-time-video/.

Cipriani, C. (2020). The best and worst episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Looper.com. Retrieved 21 September 2020, from https://www.looper.com/223583/the-best-and-worst-episodes-of-fresh-prince-of-bel-air/.

James Corden Responds to Bill Maher’s Fat Shaming Take. YouTube. (2019). Retrieved 21 September 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax1U04c4gaw.

Kent, C. (2019). ‘Fat Monica’ is the ghost that continues to haunt ‘Friends’ 25 years later. EW.com. Retrieved 21 September 2020, from https://ew.com/tv/2019/09/04/fat-monica-friends-25-years-later/.

The Honeymooners Complete Compilation of Ralph Kramden Fat Jokes from the Classic 39 Episodes. YouTube. (2019). Retrieved 21 September 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C3MwuhK09M.