Supersize Everyone, Especially the Babes

I was in Las Vegas recently on business. No! Really! I don’t even like gambling! And one afternoon I was walking through the MGM Grand on my way to a meeting at the Convention Center. There may be even more to it, but what I saw in the ten minutes or so that I required to traverse the building was a casino, a bar, several restaurants, a hotel and a shopping mall.

Anyway, as I walked through the shopping mall section, I noticed a very sexy little nightgown hanging on a mannequin in the display window of one of the shops. But it was not really the nightgown that caught my eye. It was the sign next to the nightgown. The nightgown itself was a pink, frilly, gauzy little thing clearly meant to be alluring. But the sign read, “available in plus sizes.”

Plus sizes? How plus? And more importantly, why?

I was working my way through a fairly large crowd. And so I thought that I had a fairly representative sample for drawing conclusions about what proportion of the population might look at home in such a garment. I didn’t see anyone who could hope to squeeze into that outfit.

And so, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before similar nightgowns that the average American could fit into were put on display, and the sign next to it would read, “available in minus sizes.”

I bring this up, because Washington State University is once again recognizing National Eating Disorders Awareness Week by telling women that it’s okay to be a “plus size.” This is known as “body esteem.”

The obvious goal of WSU’s “Women’s Body Image Support Group” is to convince women that it’s more important that they focus their thoughts upon feeling good about being fat than trying to lose the weight. The group tries to convince women that the body ideal portrayed in the mass media is an unworthy goal and that they should not feel ashamed by being chubby.

I fear that the group has already enjoyed too much success in that arena, judging by all the heavy set girls who parade around wearing low cut pants and shirts that fail to cover their belly button. It’s not a pretty sight.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is a promotion of the National Eating Disorders Association. The NEDA website reveals that the group is worried about such dietary disturbances as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, along with a few other associated problems. But, not listed as a problem anywhere on the site is the most lethal eating disorder of all – overeating. In fact, as far as I can discern, the website almost encourages overeating.

Last year, deaths attributable to obesity nearly overtook smoking as the leading cause of premature death in America. By the same token, the number of women who succumbed to anorexia was a few dozen.

Nevertheless, such disorders as anorexia are the focus because it and similar disorders are supposedly the result of pressure applied by society, in other words, men. And the last thing any woman should want to do is to live her life according to what men want.

Americans have grown so comfortable with their fat, that department store circulars routinely portray overweight models. Airlines have had to cut down on the baggage they will permit to accommodate bigger passengers. The amount of food energy required just to maintain the excess weight that Americans lug around could supply the electricity requirements of most major east coast cities if it could be burned in power plants.

Liberals blame pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies for rising health care costs, but the biggest reason for the nation’s skyrocketing medical bills is obesity.

To encourage women to feel good about their blubber is no less irresponsible than encouraging cigarette smoking.

And why shouldn’t we treat obesity like smoking? Smokers are treated like lepers these days. They are made to feel like outcasts. Would anyone in their right minds try to convince smokers that they should feel good about their habit, or that they should rise above society’s expectations for them?

Of course we wouldn’t.

Shaming smokers into quitting is a central element in the anti-tobacco drive. And, it’s working. Smoking is less and less common every year. It wouldn’t hurt if more Americans were ashamed of being overweight.