From ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.uoregon.edu!news.emf.net!emf.emf.net!estephen Thu Aug 24 19:48:15 PDT 1995
Article: 2401 of alt.fan.wednesday
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From: estephen@emf.emf.net (E. Stephen Mack)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.wednesday
Subject: Fat
Followup-To: alt.foot.fat-free
Date: 17 Aug 1995 00:16:26 GMT
Organization: Winter Weather, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 69
Sender: Fat@fat.com
Message-ID: <40u1oq$c38@emf.emf.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.149.0.20
Summary: Fat
Keywords: Fat
X-Header: Fat

Dear EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD:

                                  Fat

It's a word.  (Nothing more.)

Look at your fingers: wrinkle them, flex them, watch how your knuckles
turn white when you clench your hands into fists.

Type, and notice how your fingers are never too crowded together to hit
the key that you want.  That's because your fingers aren't fat.

If your fingers are too fat to type, you may need serious help.  But
for everyone else, here's a rule, a true life-long rule: if your
fingers aren't fat, then your whole body and you as a person -- you
aren't fat.

Look at your fingers right now, and notice that they are long and
healthy and not in the least bit fat.  The same could be said for your
earlobes, your nose, your whole face.  Not to mention your toes.

Stuff around the waist and the thighs and the legs: yeah, that stuff --
it comes and goes.  I was sick once with Rotol, a stomach flu; the
symptoms are vomit and diarrhea [image of burning a candle at both
ends].  I lost 35 pounds in a week.

Get a good haircut and you've lost six pounds.  Spend a day in the
African sun wearing NOTHING BUT Saran Wrap and if you don't die, you
can lose twelve pounds.

What I'm saying is that your body is this ephemeral, shifting,
transforming thing.  (A beautiful thing.)  Don't like its current
shape?  It will change.

Fat.  It's just a word.  (Nothing more.)

                                  Fat

So.........................why do I take it so personally?  I'm not
fat.  My father's fat, yes.  He used to weigh 350.  Now he's down to
250.  I think that will help keep him alive for another 20 years.  But
it hurts me that perfectly normal, healthy people are brainwashed by
anorexic fashion models and 3rd-grade-mentality beer commercials that
their beautiful, ordinary, healthy bodies are

                                  Fat

There's racism, sexism, homophobia.  High time to start including
shapism on the list.

                     Take It From Me, You're Not Fat

__________________________________________________________________________
-- Zeigen (E. Stephen Mack)                               estephen@emf.net
                     Low Cal Dressing for me, please.
        Zeigen's Dilemma Home Page: http://www.emf.net/~estephen/
          Won't somebody please post to alt.usenet.manifestoes?


More realistically, if your current body shape bothers you and you want
to exercise a little each day:  Don't do pushups, just take a walk
down to the damn post office and think up a short story while you're
out in the sun.  Sweep the back porch.  Play a game of volleyball.  Eat
a small lunch tomorrow and re-experience what it's like to be a little
hungry during the day.  (Boosts the immune system and releases
endorphins like crazy.)  Take a self-defense class.  Don't kill
yourself with some Nazi regimen thought up by Richard Simmons or some
other millionaire TV huckster.  Just go easy on yourself, by taking
precisely one step at one time.  And love yourself.