Fat porn.

I watched, first with amazement, and then with growing horror at a show called Half Ton Mum on Channel 4 last night.
It was a programme about a super morbidly obese lady called Renee Williams-weighing over 850 pounds- and her decision to have gastric bypass surgery. Renee, a young woman in her twenties, was bed ridden, had two beautiful young daughters and had not seen part of her own body for years. She did not leave her bedroom. No, she COULD not leave her own bedroom. She had her family video tape her daughters' school plays and activities so that she could watch them in her prison. She could not hug either of her children, she could do nothing for herself any longer.
Except eat.
Renee ate and ate and ate and ate, she was enabled by her family and her friends who brought her eight burgers at a time, endless cookies and fried food. Her eldest daughter said she ate until her stomach hurt.
Renee decided to go for gastric bypass surgery to prevent her from eating, a lot of hospitals refused on the grounds that she was simply to much of a risk due to her great size. One hospital specializing in the obese said they would do it.
We, the viewer, were then able to watch as Renee was hoisted from her bed onto a specially built trolley and got to see acres of her bare and frankly disgusting body, including for some reason unknown her breasts, as the doctors poked and prodded her around. we got to see as the doctor pushed up part of her body like dough, exposing blackened fungus riddled areas normally hidden under her girth. The camera man took great delight in panning across Renee's body, in close up, making sure we understood just how utterly vast this lady was.
She had her surgery-most of which we could also watch- and everything seemed to be going smoothly, she lost 4 stone and was in good spirits and then Renee's heart stopped.
She died, leaving behind a crushed family and two devastated little girls.
We got to attend her funeral, again the camera man stayed on the eldest daughter, capturing her grief and her confusion.
Got that?
The last scene or two was of the fire brigade cutting an even bigger man out of his home and using a special kind of hoist to lift him onto a trolley. They covered this man's private parts with a tiny child's pink t-shirt and wheeled him out-wearing a oxygen mask- to an ambulance.
The gist being that Renee had 'inspired' other super morbidly obese people to take the same fatal path she did.

When it was over I flicked through the channels and landed on RTE where I caught an ad for this bag of shite Operation transformation
I won't go into full rant because I see Twenty has already tackled it this morning. But basically it's just more of the same isn't it?

We're coming back around to spring and laydees and gentlemen, tis the season to start worrying about less clothing, about bingo wings and muffin tops, time to worry, break out a sweat time, time to introduce yourself to guilt, time for Fat Porn.
I've said some very harsh thing on this blog about fat, and the reason people are fat. My view still holds. I have NEVER met a fat person who did not eat too much. EVER. period. However the reason behind WHY people eat too much are myriad and complicated, but the route to great weight is always the same. Too much food consumed.
Now I've noticed that if you say that on a feminist site you will be lynched and asked to return your card. I am not joking. So I don't bother any longer. Let them produce calender after calender of fat women congratulating themselves for being 'fat and beautiful' all they like. I will continue to find fat rather disgusting, but hey, that might just be my problem. ( it probably is) I don't like it, I don't think it's attractive on either sex, I don't like when I put on weight and I don't like being told I must accept fat as the norm.
But one thing I also won't do is poke fun at fat people and turn them into a freak show, which seem to be the latest fad on TV these days.
It seems fat folk are the new circus act. We can gaze upon their rolls and rolls of flesh with prurient interest. We can ooohh and ahh as each fold and bulge is exposed. We can watch as the fatties expose themselves on television, pull faces as experts tear them apart and rebuild them. We can look down on their failings, roll our eyes at their tearful fears and shame. We can feel better about ourselves. Look at them, we can say, how vile. Who would do that to themselves? who would let themselves get like that? Disgusting. We can do all this from the comfort of our own homes. We can watch as embarrassed fat folk stand on scales and look hopefully down. We can be smug. we can be relieved.
We can be whatever we like because at least we're not them.
What wonderful people we are.

I used to be much more of an obnoxious git on this subject. I still firmly believe that a good diet and exercise it the key to weight problems. the physical weight problems anyway. But I am no bloody expert when it comes to the emotional or the psychological. I don't know why Renee Williams ate herself to death and I still don't, because Chanel 4 wasn't interested in that, it was interested in showing us the geek and the freak, the same as Gerry Ryan, the same as every other weight loss show. It's entertainment for the masses, it's showtime.

As Russell Crow roared at the crowd in Gladiator: 'Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?'

No sir, I am not, I caught the opening act and now I see this show is not for me.