5 Things That Make Me Sad

In no particular order...

1. The Arkansas law that makes it illegal for gay and unmarried couples to adopt or become foster parents (NY Times article).

2. Ann Coulter.

3. The press felt the need to report on the backpack that Sasha Obama carried on her first day of school at Sidwell.  Reporting on their first day of school is okay, but detailing what they wore is so highly unnecessary and possibly detrimental.  I don't want these two young girls to spend the next four (hopefully eight) years having their every possession detailed and analyzed.  (Thank goodness for the details, though - I feel SO  much better about national security knowing that the President-Elect was wearing a "pressed white shirt" and "black wristwatch"... and, what, Malia and Obama were spotted "smiling"??  Hurrah!  Happiness must be "in"!)

4. As I best understand it, sometimes cancer medication is given in a dose intended for a person's "ideal" weight instead of their actual weight.  This then skews cancer survival rates because, obviously, if fat people aren't given meds appropriate to their weight, they have less of a chance to live.  I can scarcely believe that this even happens. (Salon.com article by the awesome Kate Harding).

5. Anything Ricky Gervais has to say about being fat (Huffington Post).  Fat is not a choice like hair color is a choice.  I will freely rip into someone (in my mind, to myself) about a bad hair color (okay, and maybe I'd say something to my husband if he's nearby) but in the end I would also applaud their ability to do what they want with what nature gave them.  When someone gets bad plastic surgery, I feel bad that they felt they had to alter their appearance to fit some kind of created ideal.  When someone has corrective surgery, I do NOT feel bad.  Wanting to feel normal is not bad.  Wanting to feel like you can blend in is not bad.  Some people will choose to try and blend in by losing weight.  Others will try to make the crowd accommodate them (cheers to the fat acceptance community).

Gervais said, "I heard someone on the radio once say that they were tired of the prejudice aimed at the overweight. They said something like 'you're not allowed to make fun of gay people, so why are you allowed to make fun of fat people? It's the same thing.' It's not the same thing though, is it? Gay people are born that way. They didn't work at becoming gay. Fat people became fat because they would rather be that way than stop eating so much. They had to eat and eat to get fat."

We all have to eat and eat; it's a key part to survival.  I can't stop eating any more than a gay male could stop liking other guys.  Yes, I can work at monitoring what I eat and the amount of physical activity I do and work to avoid OVEReating, but to say that the key to stopping being fat is as simple as putting down a burger and going for a run is ridiculous and insulting.  Why was I fat at five years old?  My parents were certainly aware of my health and our family history so they were careful with my food intake and I wasn't tall enough to reach my own food, so I clearly wasn't "eating and eating".  Just like some people are born gay, some people are born (to be) fat.  It makes me SO very sad that certain aspects of human life need to be "proved" by genetics before it becomes acceptable.  "Oh, you were born gay?  Well, nevermind trying to change you, then."  Maybe YOU, Mr. Gervais, are overweight because you eat too much and sit on the sofa, but it's a pretty elementary idea that you can't take all of the circumstances from your life and apply them to humankind overall.  Simply wanting something isn't always enough.  Yes, we can always try harder to "put down the burger and go for a run" but that will never be enough for some people.  It's a shame that you only have your own self-hatred to turn into a comedy routine.