Meeting Persephone

Camryn Manheim - actress and spokeswoman

Queen Latifah - singer and actress

Mia Tyler - model and daughter of Steven Tyler

Joy Nash - activist

Even within the Pagan community (and those from outside of the Pagan community looking for yet another thing to belittle Pagans and/or overweight people for) there is this rampant 'slamming' of overweight Pagans that I find detestable. In fact, there are tales of old that state Druids would fine anyone in the community that was overweight. Now we choose verbal attacks over fines unless you're in the public eye where the media dictates your actual financial success and could therefore be considered a fine of sorts if you're overweight and the media hones in on you and declares you to be invaluable because of your weight. Do drugs, screw (and screw over) whomever you want, beat your significant other, drive drunk, be uninformed/unintelligent, trampy, nasty in disposition, mistreat your children but by all means, whatever you do, DO NOT GET "FAT"!

Of course many of those who protest fat people want to use health as their excuse. "Fat people are a drain on health care and raise costs". "Fat people are unintelligent because if they had any brains at all they'd understand that what they're doing to themselves is detrimental". It all sounds very legitimate to the rest of the prejudiced folks sitting out there listening to it and then taking up the drum and beating it themselves. What it neglects to cover are things like health issues that cause weight gain, genetics, and the fact that we're all different with different builds and make up and metabolisms. The assumption about fat people is that they always earn their fat by sitting on their asses and stuffing their faces day in and day out with high calorie, fatty, sweet, greasy foods. Health issues, while weight can cause them, can also cause weight gain.

Interestingly, the one oppressed group that doesn't knock fat people is the developmentally disabled. It wasn't long ago that "retarded" was the word used to describe the developmentally disabled and was also used to describe someone who was plain stupid in a derogatory way. Retarded means to cause to be slowed down and was used to describe the difficulty in learning that the developmentally disabled have when it comes to traditional learning. However, I'd more inclined to use the word "retarded" to describe those who are so stunted of heart that to judge appearances before the spirit of a person.

And why is so much time wasted on the size of people when there are more serious issues going on in the world? Pope Benny has just made a trip to tell the people of Africa that abstinence and NOT condoms are the way to prevent AIDS from spreading. Clueless! Absolutely fucking clueless! The spread of AIDS in Africa is caused in large part by the raping of women. In what world do rapists bother to wear condoms? I think everyone should take advice on sex and sexual behavior who is the most recognizable symbol in the world that does NOT have sex himself! While I'm inclined to agree that condoms are not the answer, I'm not blind enough to believe that abstinence preaching will make any difference. Instead I'm thinking something like penis removal for the violators. This makes abstinence much easier to follow for those who cannot seem to keep their penises (peni??) to themselves.

And if the fucking over in Africa is not frightening enough (how can it not be?) there is always the economy.

So when you think about it, is weight really such an important issue? If it is, I question your intelligence. If it's not, move on to bigger and more important issues.