When I read the story about the pundits going after Meghan McCain calling her a “plus-sized” model and basically to fat to talk about politics, my first reaction was to say get a life you are NOT plus size by my definition, but then I thought about it for a moment and changed my position. This debate that started from Meghan voicing her opinion about Anne Coulter only to end with radio host Laura Ingraham making personal shots at Meghan which have absolutely nothing to do with her opinion in the political arena. The offensive comments are yet another example of how deeply size discrimination is rooted into the American psyche.
Meghan’s response in the Daily Beast as well as on Twitter show that she is not afraid to take on the Republican pundits and is willing to fight back against the size discrimination problem in this country. It is a shame that some of the worse critics in the area of size discrimination are women. The thought that just because a person is fat they are not intelligent and their opinion does not matter is ridiculous but still happens.
Let’s take my personal story to show how silly this situation is. I am a recent graduate of Ashford University. I graduated with a 3.91 GPA to earn a BA in Organizational Managment. As a result of my academic success, I have been recruited to start graduate school to pursue my MBA. I am also a fat man weighing in at 275lbs. Did I mention that I am also black?
My political expertise is not that of Meghan’s, so does that mean that I can not have an intelligent conversation about politics? If I buy into the Laura Ingraham’s and Meme Roth’s then the answer is yes, but as the author of a successful blog that covers size discrimination as well as other topics in addition to being a reasonably intelligent man I can talk about any subject that I put my mind to and refuse to be discounted just because I have a beer belly.
The last time I looked at Barney Frank he looks like me and when he calms down he can talk politics with the best of them. I am sure that of the 538 members of Congress there are more than a few that would be considered morbidly obese yet they still can talk politics. Basically, conservative radio hosts do a great job of being entertaining and they also do a fantastic job of insulting the average persons intelligence with silly notions like the one involving Meghan McCain.
If we are to believe that Meghan is to fat to talk politics then why are people listening to Rush Limbaugh? Is it becasue he is a man that he is given a pass or is it that Laura Ingraham was upstaged by Meghan so her only response was to resort to childish name calling? To those that think that fat people should shut up and not discuss politics or living get a life, but then again if the critics didn’t exist then there would be no need for people like Meghan and myself to speak against you.
I thought the whole skit was an immature blow by Ingraham. While it’s raised a good discussion on the voice of women in politics it’s unfortunate that it has turned into a weight issue. There are so many other things they could be talking about.
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Love your article. The good news: the whole Ingraham comment is a great opportunity to have this discussion about fat discrimination!