Marie Claire writer Maura Kelly has caused quite the stir on the Interwebs after comments regarding the “fatties” of CBS’ freshman sitcom Mike & Molly. Read the full post.
Oct 28
2010
07:00 AM ET
Should 'fatties' get a room? No. But it is time for TV to move beyond fat jokes.
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Who do you think you are to criticize others? Look to yourself first!
many networks are grasping at straws to get ratings. So it stands to reason with most of the country overweight the show appeals to that group – they can relate.
That being said I am not attracted at all to women who are overweight – doesn’t matter if she is the best person in the world – instinctively it is in my DNA to mate with a woman who is healthy and could bear and raise children.
Also, it is flat unhealthy – no matter what you think of overweight. I see fat kids and think they will die 20 to 30 years sooner then if they were fit – it is sad. Overweight people have more medical problems, live shorter lives, and have much more healthcare costs over a lifetime. the show should end the season with them loosing weight and getting serious about being fit.
It’s in my DNA to want to mate with someone who can spell.
i like the mike and molly show
That last paragraph says it all — why the need to put such an emphasis on the body type of the two main characters? Is this really enough to build an entire series around? Why don’t other shows change their premises to “The (Skinny) Modern Family with One Chubby Columbian Kid” or “The (Skinny) Office with Two Overweight People?” By pigeon-holing these characters as two overweight people struggling to find love in a skinny world, they’ve taken away any creative story lines in the future that don’t deal with being overweight.
My issue with her article isn’t that she has an issue with “fatties”… it’s that somehow it’s OK to say “Fatties” but if the title had been “Should Fags Get a Room, Even on TV” or “Should Darkies Get a Room, Even on TV” or “Should Camel Jockeys Get a Room, Even on TV”… then Maura would be hitting the pavement looking for a new job, and Marie Claire would be rolling the heads of 3 or 4 top editors. THAT’S my issue.
Maybe it’s okay because most fat people can do something about being fat, as opposed to the other examples you listed.
nate you rule! you are so right!
Ironic that in a month where the Awareness of Bullying is being promoted, mostly based on the gay lifestyle, that the same type of insensitivity and bully tactics appear to be OK if it is weight based. I’ve seen most episodes of Mike and Molly and find the show funny and touching as these people are trying to break the patterns in their lives. They don’t need some screaming psycho trainer attempting to torture them they need to resolve the insecurities that cause them to overeat and isolate themselves.
You are a ridiculous waste of space.
Again – what’s the difference between saying, “I think I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other…because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything” and substitute “gay”, “lesbian”, “ethnic”? It’s all horrible. We need to support more tolerance and acceptance of everyone – no matter who they are, who they love and what they look like. I hope the writer of this is fired. Marie Claire should NOT condone what this writer has done. I’m all for free speech – but she’s giving Marie Claire a bad name. If she doesn’t like the show – don’t watch it no one’s forcing you to.
EXACTLY Barb. I totally agree!
agreed
Wrong. Your born a homosexual. You make yourself a fatass. Why obesity isn’t treated the same was as other addictions boggles my mind. Do I want to watch two strung out heroin addicts make out? No.
*You’re
@barb. I can tell you exactly what the difference is. “gay, lesbian, ethnic” are all ways that a person is born. People don’t have control over that stuff. People absolutely have control over their weight. I think people are trying to lump in the obese with gays because they want to say, hey I am fat but I was born that way, I can’t change it. That is bs. An overweight person can choose to eat healthier foods and take up an exercise program, but a “gay, lesbian, ethnic” person cannot change those aspects of themselves. That is the difference.
Why does it matter? Who the hell are you to decide who changes what about themselves? Can you change being a judgmental bitch?
Sit down and shut up!!!!
Ms. Kelly’s words were hurtful and probably should not have been published in that forum. However, I recently read this blog post and it make me think of how truly sorry she may be that she posted this that she is not a bad person for doing so. Please read and think about Ms. Kelly as a person.
http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/arm-for-maura.html
We need to quit apologizing to overweight people for negative comments made toward them. I never hear an overweight person apologizing for stealing 1/3 of my airline seat for which I paid the same amount as them.
If we continue to act as though obesity is a medical disease and not an unacceptable life style, how and when will it ever change. Isn’t it odd that these diseases don’t exist in European countries? I just returned from Italy and France. Spent a month there. Saw only one local obese person the whole time! Admit it Americans, you are fat and lazy! Period. You think it is acceptable that your choice causes health care costs to be passed on to those of us not over weight.
Be accountable for your own body and health. Quit being so darn lazy. In fact, I think all average weight people should point out to overweight people just how disgusting they are.
BTW – these comments come from someone who has never been an anorexic.
when i first saw commercials for mike and molly i considered watching. the fatties are my people and i figures i should watch the show since there’s probably not going to be another show with plus size actors in the lead for a long time. but the more i saw commercials the more the show seemed like it was just one bad fat joke after another so i opted to skip the show.
as for marie claire/maura kelly- that article is hateful and i’ve told them so on their site, on facebook and on twitter.
Nate and Naterulz your ignorance is showing.
Not all fat people sit around eating bonbons all day. Some go out and live important, vital, lives and enrich society by their presence.
I used to be a size three runner, then an truck decided to park itself in the back seat of my car while I was waiting at a stop light. I shared the family high metabolism prior to the accident, now after, I don’t.
I put on 150 lbs because I cannot run, I do walk however…I cannot lift weights, I do do isometric exercises…I cannot do pilates, but I do indoor walking tapes. I do what I can.
However, when your thyroid is damaged, you can eat exactly the same foods as a thin person, and gain while they lose. I can cut my food in half from theirs and still gain. This is my life.
So, should I sit at home and hide? NO, I go out and enjoy life and quite frankly if I run into a bigot such as yourself, who thinks they have a right to judge my reality, I tell them to go to hades.
Encouraging a person with a weight issue to hide at home actually exacerbates the issue. Being out in society decreases stress and depression which are contributing factors to weight gain. You should be saying “I’m glad you’re out and around, good to see you!” If you want to encourage weight loss. Quite frankly you’re part of the problem, not the solution.
keep up the good work sorry about the accident
sorry to hear of your accident. i need to lose weight(75lbs) after contracting an illness working at a medical practice, i have had open lung biopsies and haven’t been able to do convential exercising. Best of luck to you!!!
If Maura Kelly had written a blog called ‘Should Blacks Get a Room’, or ‘Should Catholics Get a Room’ and said what she said about them, not only would she have been immediately fired, but her editor would lose her job for allowing it to post, then trying to rationalize it by saying Ms. Kelly is ‘a provocative blogger’. Yet we still allow people to be savaged by a magazine simply because they’re not Size Zero.
Maybe Ms. Kelly and her editor can go share their lunch of a lettuce leaf and a carrot stick with laxative dessert and try to beat each other to the stall to purge their overly-filling meal to avoid becoming the thing that offends them so much, and leave us real people alone. In the meantime, I’ll stop buying Marie Clarie magazine and doing business with anyone who advertises their products with them.
I think equating race with obesity is more offensive than this article.
If you haven’t noticed, you can make fun of Catholics all you want in this society. She would not be fired for that. Plus, offensive or not, if this article substituted Catholics for fat people, it wouldn’t make any sense.
No Bret/Brent/Brut/Burt/whatever the hell you’re calling yourself in this post to spread your hatred, she wouldn’t have been able to write ‘I can’t stand to watch Catholics making out, they disgust me’. She wouldn’t have been able to write ‘I can’t stand to watch (insert race here) making out in public, they disgust me’. She is taking a group of people and is saying they disgust her and they shouldn’t be on TV. What’s the difference?