I dearly hope that when they hit their mid-thirties they look back and cringe. And that then, as they're in mid-cringe, some twentysomethings driving past decide to roll down their windows and shout something fake-polite to them.

Little bitchcows.

Seriously, WTF. And not to be both sexist and agist, I can imagine that coming from 16 year old boys more than adult women.

No, I get comments from 20-somethings all the time.

I think part of it is a class issue. Oveweight is something those nasty poor or working people do. So someone fat, and in a suit -- well you are faking. Because now that I think of if, I get my worst comments wearing a suit. A fat guy or gal wearing a suit: we are fat trash faking being professionals. We need to be put in our place.

Ugh, Sophia. May an anvil fall on their heads.

More amusingly, I think the only thing anyone's ever shouted out of a car at me was one time in high school someone called me and my mom "Lesbos!!!" when we kissed goodbye on the street.

The part that GF loves to tell is that I kept saying to her, "Don't say anything. Just ignore him." He kept hurling insults until I totally lost it and started screaming at him, "SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"

OK, that's awesome.

t hearts GloomCookie

Also changing subject: Unfogged has this very amusing short review of Dragon War:

I did go see Dragon Wars today and it was really just an extended metaphor for The Academy: A tenure-track position for dragons opens up only once every 500 years and last time around the hiring committee defunded the position instead of awarding it. The two candidates were pissed. This time, neither of them was going to let anything stand in their way.

As a fat person I think it is simply that being chubby is seen in the U.S. as a moral failing, so strangers on the street feel free to say randomly nasty things to chubby people.

I know I am fat, and I do understand that people think it is a moral failing, but the thing is, even if you think it is a moral failing, do you yell at people on the street for it? I rarely comment on anyone's moral character unless asked, and even then, I am pretty circumspect! What makes people do this? They are grown-up versions of kids who used to yell out the bus at me-- "Hey, do you know you are ugly?!?"

ETA:

I think part of it is a class issue. Oveweight is something those nasty poor or working people do. So someone fat, and in a suit -- well you are faking. Because now that I think of if, I get my worst comments wearing a suit. A fat guy or gal wearing a suit: we are fat trash faking being professionals. We need to be put in our place.

That makes a bit more sense of the comment? I couldn't quite figure out what they were trying to say-- I thought maybe they were using "professional" in the hooker meaning, or something!

I comfort myself with the knowledge that these people must lead really empty, horrible lives if that's how they get their kicks. Fuckheads.

Steve Blair, for instance, a University of South Carolina exercise scientist and a co-author of the AHA-ACSM guidelines, says he was “short, fat, and bald” when he started running in his thirties and he is short, fatter, and balder now, at age 68.

I don't know whether this makes me feel better or worse. I gained weight when I was training karate six days a week and the guys around me were all plotting ways to get more calories into themselves or they'd lose weight. One guy drank sweetened condensed milk. When we went out to eat after training, I had a plain hamburger and they had "supersize the whole menu."