A skier has broken his leg in a brutal fall. He is gravely injured, but unfortunately he lives in a country where he is not only blamed for breaking his leg, he is denied treatment for it and must hobble around the best he can, crutchless and in agony while the limb heals, if it ever does. The general public in his country also deride him for how all this limping and moaning appears, and he is treated with contempt if not outright hostility wherever he goes. He is insulted in restaurants, denied space on public transportation and he finds he cannot even find trousers that fit his swollen leg. Instead of the sympathy and medical treatment he needs, he is told that, if he really wanted to be cured, he could be. He just needs to have the will to be healed. More below.
In contrast, in another country a popular actor with Parkinson's Disease appears on national television espousing stem cell research that will hopefully someday lead to a cure or treatment for his and millions of others' conditions, but in doing so he incurs the ignorant wrath of certain right-wing "experts" who proclaim that he is faking his symptoms. This causes a hail of counter-attacks, culminating in successful elections for some candidates who support stem cell research. The popular actor is viewed with great respect, sympathy and not a little pity by most people as he makes the talk show rounds, and the first thing the newly-elected candidates do is draft stem cell research bills.
I use these two semi-hypothetical accounts to demonstrate how the people of America view certain conditions and diseases. No, we don't as a people refuse to treat persons who have been injured skiing nor do we blame them for their Parkinson's. But we do discriminate cruelly against a group of people whose ranks are growing year by year. I am speaking of obese people.
Since joining Daily Kos, I have noticed that the epithet "fat" gets thrown around a lot, especially when people are talking about Rush Limbaugh or Dennis Hastert. Now don't get me wrong--these two fellows are morally reprehensible individuals with less about them to love than a slick patch of slime mold. But the fact that they are fat should not be used against them because unlike the sheer blackness of their hearts, their fatness isn't their fault.
Let's go back to the skier. His leg is broken. He can be treated by experienced medical personel who can ease his pain, stop any infection brought about by the injury, set the broken bones, assist him with physical therapy, remove the cast when he has healed and send him on his way. But imagine for a moment that skiers with broken legs are universally reviled, so instead the skier is forced to listen to "experts", most of whom have never broken their legs before, all of whom will not help him but who will sell him books to teach him to avoid breaking his leg. There are even 12-step programs that exist to help him stop denying that he has a broken leg problem. For this they charge him untold amounts of money. If his leg doesn't heal he limps about in society, induring toxic looks of seething hatred. If he finds some kind of "cure" chances are it is a scam and he is out several hundred bucks yet again and still has a broken leg.
Obesity is a disease. Its only treatment right now is reduction of caloric intake and increase of physical activity. If you have never been obese you cannot imagine the difficulty of dealing with this condition day after day in a country where you are not only openly reviled but bombarded with admonitions to eat. Rush and Denny are idiots, for sure, but to use their weight against them is like insulting someone who is a brunette or has a birthmark over their left eye or who is tall. Would you yell "you tall sonofabitch!" at someone? Would you say "he's just a brunette so-and-so" or call a woman a "nasty southpaw"?
Research grows year by year that demonstrates that weight is controlled by many complex chemical factors. Certain genetic groups may be predisposed to obesity and we know it runs in families. The hormones leptin and ghrelin have been shown to exert significant influence on the way we eat. There is even some research that suggests obesity may have a bacterial contingent. What is becoming quite plain is that weight loss is not a matter of will power, just like curing an individual's broken leg or cancer is not a matter of will power.
Like it or not we are, as a nation, growing fatter. The sheer abundance of food coupled with almost non-stop suggestions to partake are driving our collective weight ever upwards. I find it interesting that, in a nation where food is both feared and worshipped, body size is the number one obsession among girls as young as four and increasingly among young boys as well. There are many Americans who will never have a weight problem. But it might be wise to explore why, if you are thin and would never hurl an insult such as "stupid palsied bastard" or "dumb osteoporosis-suffering idiot" you would say that I am a "fat bitch". It would probably also be wise to think "there but for the grace of god, genetics and good luck go I".