Men can be REALLY ANGRY about weight. Like, they're offended I exist. I have no idea how to respond. I think to myself, "I've written two books. One is published. I've had characters named after me on television shows. I've had lunch with a physics Nobel, and hang out with some of the finest scientists in the US. I've raised over 100K for various charities in the last ten years....and really, you wish I didn't exist because I wear size 14 jeans. What the fuck have YOU done with your life?"
In my experience, the men who are douchebags about women's weight tend to not be paragons of male pulchritude themselves.
Alyson, my personal opinion is that the anger that men feel toward fat or otherwise unattractive-to-them women is a general misogyny thing, not just an anti-fat thing.
Some men feel that we, as women, *owe* it to them to look (and act, to some extent) like someone they want to fuck. If we dare to be unfuckable (to them) and seem OK WITH IT, then that ignites the rage. How dare we? How dare we live our lives not according to WHAT THEY WANT and what they desire?
The misogyny, it burns.
Man, I love Nora with a pure white-hot love.