Jerry Doyle is a radio host in Las Vegas.
Posted on 05/09/2014 8:05:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The imbroglio involving TNT NBA analyst Charles Barkley’s comments about obese people is one of those incidents that you find it hard to agree with either side. Barkley — once known as the “round mound of rebound” should be the last person making fun of fat women. His fellow analyst Shaq O’Neil looks like he’s been packing on the pounds himself since he retired.
You have to imagine the TNT studio guys sitting around, mouthing off as guys might do in a locker room or a Man Cave, giving their opinions about how some women look, how ugly or hot they are. Except these guys are on national TV with a couple of million people tuning in.
Barkley was prompted by co-host Kenny Smith, another retired NBA player, who asked, “what kind of women are in San Antonio?”
“Big old women down there,” Barkley replied to extensive laughter from his fellow hosts on Tuesday, who aside from Smith include Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson. “That’s a gold mine for Weight Watchers.” (Barkley himself is a spokesperson for Weight Watchers.) He later added, “Victoria’s definitely a secret. They can’t wear no Victoria’s Secret down there,” and “they wear big old bloomers down there, ain’t nothing skimpy down in San Antonio.”
Barkley went on and on as his co-hosts egged him on, asking, “they have spandex down there in San Antonio?” and “it’s a gold mine — it’s a gold mine.”
Quite insensitive, no? But the reaction from a “fat acceptance” group should put America on notice that the next great drive for victimhood status is going to come from the BBW crowd.
Talk about a “gold mine” — imagine the smiles on the faces of the big, beautiful women who are working to make criticism and mocking of obese people something akin to racism:
The statements are not sitting well with the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance which is now calling for Chuck to apologize, ASAP.
“Making slurs about body size is just as offensive as making comments about body color,” spokesperson Peggy Howell tells TMZ Sports.
“One would think being a black man, he’d be more sensitive to having his physical body criticized. It’s totally out of line. He should absolutely apologize.”
What’s frightening is that she’s serious. The NAAFA says this about the affects of obesity:
Size Discrimination Consequences are Real!
Creates medical and psychological effects
Results in wage disparity
Affects hiring and promotion
Affects academic options and advancement
Affirmative action for people who are weight challenged? Why not? Every other “victim” of white male privilege wants it. Why should obese people be any different?
And victims they are, according to their “Mission”:
To eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment though public education, advocacy, and support.
What’s the best way to “eliminate discrimination based on body size”? Piggyback your grievances on those of other oppressed minorities of color, or sex, or sexual orientation.
Fat people are discriminated against in all aspects of daily life, from employment to education to access to public accommodations, and even access to adequate medical care. This discrimination occurs despite evidence that 95 to 98 percent of diets fail over five years and that 65 million Americans are labeled “obese.” Our thin-obsessed society firmly believes that fat people are at fault for their size and it is politically correct to stigmatize and ridicule them. Fat discrimination is one of the last publicly accepted discriminatory practices. Fat people have rights and they need to be upheld!
NAAFA’s message of size acceptance and self-acceptance is often overshadowed by a $49 billion-a-year diet industry that has a vested economic interest in perpetuating discrimination against fat people. Without active financial support from people like you, NAAFA would not exist and could not fulfill its crucial role defending your rights. While it is an uphill battle to achieve our goals, together we are making a difference.
In other words, you, too, can become a protected class under EEOC, affirmative action, and — the jackpot — the Americans with Disabilities Act. All it takes is money to hire a bunch of lobbyists and to contribute to the right political campaigns.
And Barkley, O’Neil, et al just gave the NAAFA and other like minded groups a powerful fundraising tool.
It’s one thing to act like a jerk when you’re alone with your friends making cracks about various women’s anatomical shortcomings. But doing it on national television takes a special kind of insensitivity. Not akin to racism, to be sure. But the simple, empathetic recognition that remarks like that are hurtful of other people’s feelings should have zipped Barkley’s mouth shut — especially considering his own weight problems over the years.
There are many factors that go into obesity and not all are controllable by the individual. Many men and women suffering from thyroid disease are obese, and some adrenal conditions also lead to medical obesity.
But the vast majority of obese people get that way from overeating combined with lack of exercise. When I was 285 pounds and headed for an early grave, I made some very basic, simple changes to what I ate. I didn’t starve myself. Just ate more of some things and less of others. I also made an effort to exercise a little bit.
That was 4 years ago. Since then, I’ve lost 60 lbs. and continue to lose a pound or two every few months. I have no claim to superior “will power” or anything else. It’s just a matter of making smart life choices and sticking with it — without the drama often associated with formal dieting.
Fat people don’t deserve to be ridiculed on national television. Neither do they deserve the protections offered by the federal government for “oppressed” groups. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that groups advocating “fat acceptance” will become as whiny and demanding of special treatment as any other “civil rights” group in Washington.
When I call a woman an amazon, I’m complimenting her. :-)
But bald can be cool ( See Yul Brynner or Telly Savalas ).
***
The first irresistible bald man who comes to this woman’s mind is Sean Connery. (Broke my heart to find out he’s a stupid lefty.)
IMO, most women over 25 are not so shallow as to be turned off by baldness. Being well-groomed trumps any hair or lack thereof on a man.
Overeating and eating bad stuff is a sin problem that totally gets a pass in just about every church. The government is going to step in with their solution, and it’s going to suck.
Sorry..I miss the /s. :o...
Never Mind.
Patrick Stewart, Jerry Doyle, Dick Cheney ...
Sorry missed the /s..but truth is its getting harder ever day to spot sarcasm ..the world is so crazy
I missed the /s..and dug a hole :/
Yipes! I recognize only Cheney in your list.
Another guy comes to mind, but I did not put his name in because I honestly can’t remember whether or not he is bald: the “Most interesting man in the world” from the Dos Equis (sp?) beer commercials. That man makes me swoon.
No matter how much food I ate or beer I drank, I could probably never weigh more than about 210 pounds, and there are some people who could never weigh less than 210 pounds no matter what they eat or drink.
The laws of physics apply to everyone. However, I agree that some people are more inclined to be inactive (perhaps for medical reasons they can’t help) or to eat more (also possibly for medical reasons). But that doesn’t mean that will power and discipline can’t overcome those reasons, and those people can eat and exercise normally to maintain a normal weight.
Then again, there may be some people who excreting calorie-rich poo or pee, and these folks would be unnaturally skinny. However, it doesn’t work the other way.
Men like this view women as existing either for sexual stimulus - “eye candy” - or sexual use. Women who don’t “serve” because they’re fat, old, disheveled, or handicapped, or because they’re modest, chaste, ladylike, or mothers, can be openly ridiculed like this.
Jerry Doyle is a radio host in Las Vegas.
Nonsense. The last thing they want is women who have babies.
A search on “Dos Equis Man” revealed Jonathan Goldsmith, age 73. He has a full head of hair and a fine silver beard.
According to the CDC about 1/3 of US adults (over 18) are overweight. Another 1/3 are obese. Obese is a “medically defined term” to mean at increased risk of serious health issues. Traditionally, within the USA as people age they get fatter. We have a baby boomer demographic that is likely to cost (in terms of medical care) due to obesity more money than the government can afford.
One of the ACA (ObamaCare) core concepts is preventive health care. Having the elderly loosing weight if it could be “mandated” by the political elite would be a potentially inexpensive way to reduce health care costs. That is why I see the stars lining up to do all kinds of things to get people to loose weight. That is why I envision public health ads to “shame” people and get their peers to pressure people into loosing weight.
As such, I don't think that “fat” will become the new “black” instead “fat” will become the new “smoking.”
I read awhile back that food was the number one addiction in this country, more than all drugs and alcohol combined. They got the number from counting the number of obese. We seem to be moving in a direction that treats the obese like we do drug addicts and I see many links between food addicts and drug addicts. If the Gov can regulate drugs, what is stopping them from doing the same with junk food? You don’t need junk food to survive nor does it provide any nutritional value.
I wonder how many drug war pimps would support the same treatment and classification of taco bell or candy. Can you imagine Nestle being shut down and treated like we do drug dealers? If the costs we pay as a society for the obese are equal to or more than that of drugs, what really is stopping the war on food?
Extremely heavy people are extremely heavy precisely because of what they do. When they liberated the concentration camps at the end of WWII, you didn't see any fat people.
I think ignorance accounts for most obesity. There isn't any way that you can eat a lot of fast food or junk food and remain healthy. Fat people are people who have developed the habit of eating garbage. Most of them then exacerbate that problem by avoiding any physical activity. And, then there are a lot of folks who reinforce those bad habits by pretending that obesity is some kind of a modern expression of human liberty rather than just ignorance and sloth.
Typically, obese people are ignorant people. Most of them wouldn't do that to themselves if they knew more about their alternatives. They shouldn't be encouraged to poison themselves.
So you read something and you believed it?
Personally, I don’t care who is obese and who is not. My husband’s family has some fat people and all of them are hard-working, decent members of society. Much better than a lot of skinny marathon runners who are always dropping dead from heart attacks at 45.
It’s unbearable to me that Conservatives buy into these obviously Left-wing concocted factoids. The Left is on the warpath about food and health because - as at least 3 other freepers have written - they want to control the food supply.
Yes, and they should also purchase special sections of extra narrow seating for the lightweights
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