Star letter - Leave the fat alone for once
I was shocked to read in your last edition the comment piece entitled, ‘Stop eating, do some bloody exercise, and stop moaning’, finding it’s use of utterly appalling language at best offensive, and at worst, vile and disgusting.
Throughout my life I have had problems with being overweight, which I have only recently been overcome. Sufficed to say the words of your writer did not fill me with the self confidence that I have long sought after.
This image of a ridiculously obese person who spends their life stuffing cakes from Betty’s, and massive meals at McDonalds is patently false. Being overweight is a serious condition, which can result in serious psychological and physical difficulties. Typecasting them as comedic food gorging fat people in no way helps to deal with their problems.
Nor does it present a positive image for those who consider themselves overweight. Knowing that the society your writer represents will always see them as that fat person that was always an embarrassment to themselves and their classmates at events like school sports day.
Maybe your writer is correct in asserting that there “is no excuse for excessive weight gain”, but it would be interesting to see what perspective he would take on the issue if he gained a few pounds through one too many drunk student nights out.
It simply isn’t something that can be controlled easily, and I certainly never thought for one minute that fair trade chocolate was devoid of calories. Are we to assume that all your readers are unbelievably dumb and don’t realise certain foods are fattening.
Perhaps he would have liked to go even further than your publication allowed. Channelling the fat of the land into ‘thin camps’ perhaps. Or sending them to special lessons taken by your writer, who can explain to them what they can and cannot write.
To some extent I would agree that this is a subject in which we should be able to laugh at ourselves. But let’s face it – sometimes a point can be taken to far. For God’s sake stop attacking innocent, and for the most part intelligent, people.
(S. Smith - Derwent College)
