i've given it much thought and have concluded that there is no defensible position one can take on why we should't make the obese the butts of our jokes, the targets of our teasing, so to speak. the main reason why people look down upon the playfully (or even maliciously) critiquing of fatties is the fear that we'll hurt their feelings. it's not an unjustified fear. inevitably, we will hurt their feelings, and they may become sad (worse case scenario: depressed) or may develop an eating disorder. my response to that is, "so what?" i base this on the premise that it is easier to cure a psychological complex or an eating disorder than it is to cure our nation of obesity. to support my point, let's look at some numbers here. Out of the top ten leading causes of death, 4 of those are obesity related. 3 out of those four are the top three leading causes of death. There is only one psychologically related cause of death in the top 15. this is free information made available by the cdc, fyi. just suffice it to say that we can help, even cure, the depressed and anorexic/bulemic persons. they get better. how many people have you known to be cured of obesity?
then we have economic issues on the table. have you ever wondered why as a nation we're spending more and more on healthcare? it's due in part to our unhealthy population. just listen (or simply read) this: 33% of west virginians are obese, and there are 4 other states with obesity rates greater than 30%. let me take a moment and clarify a couple of concepts for those of you who don't know the difference between overweight and obese. overweight is your friend and/or relative who you think is a little chubby. obese is your other friend/acquaintance/relative who is just flat out fat as hell. statistically speaking, over half the states in america have a population that is over 25% obese. that's 1 out of every 4 people. absurd. there has been a trend over the last 20 years of increasing numbers of fat people. coincidentally there have also been an increasing healthcare costs. thats not to mention the new numbers coming in about people who are normoweight obese (people who are normal weight but have a high enough body fat percentage to be considered fatties). but let's not get too bogged down in mathematics.
getting away from numbers altogether (or maybe not so much), how many times have you waken up next to a girl who you remembered looking like halle berry but now who more closely resembles kelly price (before the lipo)? how many times have you gone out to a club, before you've had enough to drink, and wondered, "where did all these fat girls come from?" how many times have you, by an odd occurrence, just happened to catch glimpse of a girl from the neck up, thinking, "wow, this girl is cute," to then only later see the rest of her and be surprised at how a girl who looked like she was hiding a couple of farm animals in her clothes could have such an attractive head? same question goes for ladies, applied with fat guys of course. so you see, obesity is not only killing everyone, it's even taking a toll on your sex life. it's horrendous. there's only one way to solve it, one way for you ladies to get your fat boyfriends to put down that wendy's triple cheeseburger and force him to satisfy other appetites which he claims to be too tired to fulfill, one way for you guys to ensure that when you're done busting one and rolling over that you don't end up still on top of ol' hog mauls, and that is to ensure fat people know that they're fat. poke fun of them. hell, actually poke them if you have to. make them feel small on the inside so that they'll be inspired to be small on the outside. make fun of fat people. you can, and you should.
