Recently in Physical Category

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/howard-stern-gabourey-sid_n_492102.html

Howard Stern unleashed a vicious attack on Gabourey Sidibe on his Sirius satellite show on Monday.

"There's the most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie," he said. "She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?"

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/lifestyle/health_and_beauty/health_and_beauty_feature/s/1192482_the_stigma_of_a_size_20

This article doesn't take place in the United States, but I found it interesting because in the US we always talk about obesity and stigmatize against it or discriminate the people who are obese.  saying that its their fault and if people see them eating out in the malls, or shopping, or even going to work out, people give them glares about eating or surprised looks when they are at the gym. 

The lady who wrote the article isn't obese, but for two days, she wore a fat suit, so she went from a size 10 to a size 20.  She then went out to the mall with a man who used to be obese, but recently lost a lot of weight.  They said that there was only one word to describe the way that they felt. Shame. 

I have never been obese.  But I liked this article, and I have seen other tmes when people have put on fat suits to understand what it feels like and the looks that people get.  In this class we talk a lot about race and how we discriminate against each other based on our features, but there is also some overlap with how we think about obese people.  The article quotes that when people see someone who is obese, they think of them as unintelligent, lazy, and out of control.  The article also quotes the man as saying that he wouldn't eat in public, in fear of being stared at and people yelling things, but then once he got home he would not stop eating and that would further his obesity.  So obesity, like related to an article I had read for class, can be a self-fulfilling profecy.

Another article on body image/weight:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/fashion/16DIARY.html


This is report on a runway model that has lost work because of her weight, despite the fact that she is a size 4, which is still considered skinny to most people. What kind of message does something like this send not only to aspiring models, but young women in general? Also, why is it that an issue like this exists when it would seem that most people understand that runway models don't look like most people? I know there are some modeling agencies that support healthier, fuller bodies, but why isn't there more of a push for average looking models when most people (I'd assume, anyway) would accept them just the same if not more than "super"models?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/14/director-kevin-smith-too_n_461803.html

Some of you may have already heard about this, but recently film director Kevin Smith was removed from a Southwestern Airlines flight because the airline personnel claimed he was "too fat" to fit into the seat. Southwestern Airlines has a policy that states that if you cannot fit between the armrests of seat, you must get another ticket for the seat next to you in order to fly. Smith claims that he comfortably fit between the armrests, but was removed from the flight anyway.

I find it interesting that the resolution airlines have for overweight individuals that cannot fit into standard seats is to order another seat. Doesn't this seem wrong to a certain extent? Shouldn't there be better alternatives available for people that cannot fit into the standard seat (which usually are not all that big in the first place)? Doesn't this appear to be discriminatory towards overweight people even though it is part of the airline's policy? Any ideas for a better way to go about situations like this? I also thought it was strange that both Smith and the Airline are communicating via twitter....but that's a whole different issue...