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The Stranger is close to us, insofar as we feel between him and ourselves common features of a national, social, occupational, or generally human, nature. He is far from us, insofar as these common features extend beyond him or us, and connect us only because they connect a great many people.--Georg Simmel, 1908
Mia Amber Davis, touted by some as the first plus-size supermodel, died on May 10, at age 36, of complications from knee surgery she had the day before her death. Her short life was full of accomplishments beyond modelling. She was well-known for the part of Rhonda in the 2000 indie film, Road Trip. She produced several shows. She was an advocate for plus-sized women and representation of women that went beyond the usual narrow depictions found in most media. Her efforts included a well-regarded appearance on the Tyra Banks Show.
The cost of war is worth the peace.
Her death was sudden and somewhat mysterious at first. It now looks like she died from a blood clot, a known risk that all surgery carries, though it is rare. This did not stop a horrific blowback in the comments on a number of popular websites reporting her death. These trolls will not be dignified with quotation here, but to characterize them as racist, sexist and fatist is being too gentle. This is not uncommon in our culture and seems to be on the rise. Most fat people who do anything online face being told that they are going to die, that they should die, that they would be better off dead.
I experienced this personally. In my personal blog, which I've kept for 9 years now, called FattyPatties, I took about a year off in 2006-07. When I returned, I found a thread in the comments that basically speculated on how I died and seemed delighted that I had stopped writing due to this alleged death. It was unsettling. I now moderate comments.
Of course, fat celebrities who die young are legendary. Mama Cass, John Candy, Tim Russert, Charles Kuralt, and, even Jim Morrison have been used as dire warnings of the dangers of fatness. Nevermind that one could name a number of celebrities who died from eating disorders and a number of fat celebrities who lived long lives without losing massive amounts of weight.
Mia Amber Davis was an athletic and healthy young woman who was having knee surgery to correct an injury from playing basketball (something skinny people have suffered as well) and she died from known complications of surgery (something that people of all sizes risk). This, of course, means nothing in a culture that celebrates the death of its enemies.
Yes, that's what I said. Enemies. This is a war declared by our governments and policymakers.
Ragen Chastain is a beautiful and graceful dancer who blogs regularly about her experiences as a dancer and a fat woman on Dances with Fat. She also speaks and performs publically.
In a recent post, Ragen shared some of the comments her posts and her videos have received, including some violent ones:
- "Fat people should all be killed. Fact. Deal with it, stretchmarks."
- 23 commenters (with different e-mail and ip addresses) said "f**king fatty, I hope you die"
- "I want to punch you over and over in your fat stomack [sic] and watch you die landwhale"
- "If your doctor killed you it would've been a good thing, it would have improved the gene pool. Kidding of course, there is no way any man would ever f**k you"
What makes posting these kinds of things in public spaces okay? Of course, Ragen moderates these comments and deletes them, but the same kind of comments can be found on TMZ, Huffington Post (though they do a better job of removing them), CNN, and almost any newspaper website that writes about fat people, obesity, celebrities and so forth.
Schadenfreude is a German word that essentially means to delight in the suffering and pain of another person. I cannot help but think of this word when viewing comments like the above and what I've seen in response to Davis's death. I also could not help but think of the word as I watched the celebrations regarding Osama bin Laden's death (just 10 days before). That got me thinking of another parallel.
In 2006, then Surgeon General Richard Carmona called the "obesity epidemic" the "terror within":
Unless we do something about [the obesity epidemic], the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist attempt.--CBS News
Of course, describing a part of our population as an internal threat has long been a part of government rhetoric, but describing over half the population as a national security threat is unprecedented. The "threat" is that no one will be able to be a soldier because it is "obvious" that fatter people cannot be healthy enough to fight in combat.
I find it telling that eating disorders are on the rise in the military as they crack down on weight:
Men and Women in the Military. Studies also show a higher-than-average risk for eating disorders in men and women in the military. A study of eating behavior on one Army base reported that 8% of the women had an eating disorder, compared to 1 - 3% in the civilian female population. (from Eating Disorders--Risk Factors)
Like all wars, the War on Obesity has become a drain on our society. It is creating more problems than it is solving. Rather than encouraging healthy, it is killing empathy. The war on obesity is encouraging schadenfreude.
Empathy is an essential component of human social life. Empathy tells us that a child's cry means discomfort or hunger. Empathy allows us to relate pleasure to a small and pain to lament. Empathy permits us to come together and communicate. Empathy requires personal effort. p 238, White Racism by Joe Feagin and Hernan Vera
Governments discovered some time ago that calling a social program a "war" has the rhetorical advantage of raising resources and encouraging sacrifice. We're at war. No time to worry about mundane things. Time to come together and defeat the enemy. But using this rhetoric in the context of social problems has consequences, not least of which is the alientation it causes between those who suffer at the hands of the so-called "problem" and those who consider themselves fighting it. In an atmosphere of panic and urgency, words turn to extremes. Panic is encouraged. And in panic, there is no room for empathy. And without empathy, we start delighting in other's pain. And without empathy, we become less of a society than we could be.
The war on obesity has become the war on fat people, pure and simple; and that war is costing us plenty. I could make moral arguments at this point and talk about social justice and love and human rights, but as Feagin and Vera point out in their book on racism, there is a practical side to this. There is a cost to systematically degrading and discounting a significant portion of our population, limiting their life chances and preventing them from contributing to their fullest potential.
Schadenfreude is a symptom of a social illness in American society (and probably other societies as well). Here it comes from our war mongering, especially our use of war rhetoric to address social problems. It is not surprising that it is on the rise surrounding fat people. This war isn't working. It is wasteful. It is impractical. It is harmful. It must stop. End the War!
Peace!
