Professor Lowe's basic message was that we should lighten up on those who are heavy. A lot of them just can't help it, he said, and it's not their fault that society and the media are obsessed with being thin. Roughly 50 percent lambasted me for being mean and nasty because I had the temerity to disclose my anti-fat bias. Another 40 percent blasted me for being too kind and gentle. And the remaining 10 percent complained of being confused.
Some people are fat because they got dealt a lousy genetic hand.
For them, I have great sympathy. But most Americans are fat because they're undisciplined. As one astute reader argued, the United States is experiencing an epidemic of obesity not because of some sudden mutation in the national gene pool but because far too many Americans are eating too much and exercising too little. It's not just a matter of aesthetics. To be granted victim status in America is to have arrived.