... you make the rockin' world go 'round

On my way home from work this evening, the radio's "Big News At 6" feature was about the NAAFA conference in the Bay Area. Almost as an aside, the "hard-hitting reporters" also discussed some social and health issues realted to obesity.



However, the piece was introduced with a voiceover stating (lightly paraphrasing) that "From all over the US, fat people are rolling into the Bay Area! Apperently, they have some weighty issues to discuss!"

The emphasis is not mine.

Now, even if it were patently obvious that they were making fat jokes during this "Big News" event, they had to push the envelope by playing Weird Al's "I'm Fat" in the background.

(As an aside, I should mention that "Big News" is a daily feature on KGO AM, and not yet another fat reference.)

Can you imagine if the headline broadcast had stated "From all over the US, Mexicans are squeezing 15 people per Datsun hatchback to attend this year's Caesar Chavez Jamboree!"

Or perhaps "In every corner of this great nation, homosexuals are sucking dick for bus fare to attend this year's Gay Pride Parade!"

Am I ignoring a line in the sand? An obvious distinction between fat people and any other minority, whether "colored" or gay? I guess I'm not sure...

Are all fat people lazy slobs that eat ham for breakfast and can't be bothered to walk the dog? Are fatties all brazen meat-sucking, dairy-mainlining, cholestorol-inhaling "drug addicts" that have no control? Are all fat people in bad health, and costing Paris Hilton dozens of dollars in taxes each year?

On the flip side, the NAAFA representatives that they interviewed mentioned several times that America is growing fatter, so we should keep Twiggy out of the fashion magazines. I interpreted this as "we're all going to hell in a handbasket, so let's make sure that we at least accept our fate."

Yet, really, who's a size 6 or less? When the NAAFA representatives applaud "plus" size models, it seemed that they were not talking about land-whales, but "average" women. There's a hell of a lot of leeway there, and I refuse to try to define a universally accepted "healthy body". Actually, I prefer a woman with serious curves. These stick-figure anorexics with their sharp hips and bruise-inducing elbows can sleep with some other, shallower, man.

Cutting the subject short, I guess that I am surprised that on the Left Coast - the Bay Area even, there is a whole "class" of citizens that obviously are not recognized as a minority. It's weird to me that we can't make fun of Aztecs, "Little People", transgendered people, blacks, Asians, Mexicans, retarded people, people with a cleft pallete, people with club foot, people that have been brainwashed by third-tier religions, "handy-capable" persons, drug addicts, alcoholics, ugly people, left-handed people, Pollacks, Italians, the Irish, the French, Bible thumpers, atheists, OCD's, poor people, "transients", illiterates or even Helen Kellar - but there will always be a warm spot in our hearts for fat jokes.

I guess that even the far-left has its limits. "Ewww. Vote Republican, Fatty McFatt Ass.. Eww."

naafa