The Rebellion struggles against an unjust Empire.
Here we are again. it seems that the Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines situation may have brought quite a bit more attention to the bile and sanctimonious hate that's been spawned by the less than warm and fuzzy 'Obesity Epipanic'. Perhaps all it takes is an incidence of, fully public, out-right stupidity for people to start thinking about what their being sold. And, yes, 'sold' is exactly the word I was looking for.
In a post from Confessions of a Fat Femme Stiletto Siren comments on the noticeable change in her self awareness after two weeks without the decidedly non-passive aggressive subtext that runs throughout the tormentainment extravaganza that is The Biggest Loser. It became obvious to her that the guilt, shame, ridicule, and degradation, so eagerly doled out by the 'trainers' and host of this game show (Bottom line? That's all most pseudo-reality TV is; Re-packaged game shows) in the name of 'motivation' was actually impacting her negatively. Despite her ability to maintain a subjective distance from the show, it was causing her to question herself and her state of being. THIS is what's being sold and, by any standard you care to name, it's a hard sell. We are ALL getting these messages 24 - 7 - 365 and it's effecting us ALL because that's what it's been designed to do. Why else would advertisers spend whole truck loads of money to find out what sounds are most likely to grab peoples attention? But like most slight-of-hand illusions, if you know there's a trick behind the gag, it tends to lose a lot of it's effectiveness. Especially when the gag is on the par of a, less than brilliant, moose pulling a rabbit out of his hat.
Scream and holler about how fat people are going to drop dead any second now and you will get a reaction. That is, unless it doesn't start happening, like, soon. You can keep pushing the Doom Date back or use all kinds of nebulously vague 'time of reckoning' language but ultimately, if the Mothership carrying comet doesn't show up to start beaming the faithful up to safety, people are going to start asking questions. And this is not something any cult hierarch self righteous crusader diet industry grifter. . . . . Umm, Obesity Crisis Advocate?. . . Wants. When people start looking around them and observing, 'Kate from my office is actually fat and she's not like what their saying.' 'My neighbor who's fixing up that classic chevy is a pretty big guy. He gets around fine.' 'My friend from High School is large and he/she is a pretty fun person to hang with.' They may even start asking themselves that singularly most critical question-
'Why am *I* so worried about how fat or thin they,
or anyone else for that matter, is?'
Muzak Therapy:
Moby / God Moving Over the Face of the Waters
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