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Are fat people actually fat? Or, more to the point, is being fat unhealthy and unattractive?

Admittedly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, sociologist Samantha Kwan states that the so-called “obesity epidemic” is not an objective reality, rather it “has been constructed to the benefit of the medical industry”, which increasingly makes a pretty penny providing obesity-related services. (Let’s not forget that even if a patient never seeks treatment for obesity as such, they often end up seeking treatment for an illness wholly or partially caused by obesity. I’m not saying doctors are conspiring to make you fat or anything, of course…)

First off, I do agree that calling “obesity” an epidemic seems silly to me. Does obesity have medical consequence? Yes, it does. Guess what? So does driving — drivers are much more likely to end up in a hospital with traumatic injury. Still, if this was the year 1910 and the Model T sales were accelerating faster than the car itself could, I wouldn’t approve of calling driving a medical epidemic. (Sure, you say, but obesity is an ongoing condition of the body rather than a dangerous activity. But come on: the plague, that was an epidemic — a fat butt simply is not the stuff epidemics are made of.)

However, I take issue with the sociologist on two issues. Firstly, and less severely, the author states “while there may be a rise in ‘obesity’”, it has been overblown. I think there is little doubt that the rise in obesity has been quite substantial.At least she was circumspect: this is a case where the quotes on “obesity” are meaningful. Many people take obese to mean “severely” overweight. That’s a relative term, of course, but many people think of people who are at least 50 pounds overweight. 20 pounds over the top of your “normal” range is all it takes to reach the threshold for obesity.

Second, and worse, Samantha Kwan states that “Fat does not, in itself, signify unhealthy and unattractive. These are cultural constructions…right now cultural discourses say it’s ugly and unhealthy to be fat.” OK, it’s true that aesthetic considerations are never objective. We can look at art of the past and see many pieces that were created with a significantly more Rubenesque, an aesthetic outlook that was prevalent for much of the pre-modern period, when excess weight signified wealth and status.

The author, though, went one step further. Fat isn’t, “in itself”, unhealthy? Really? Who says? Did sociologists become public health specialists or MDs, or at least DOs? Where did she come up with this?

Here’s one obesity study that drastically contradicts the author. Obesity (more than 20 pounds overweight)costs 7.1 years for a 40-year old female, and 5.8 years for an obese male. Overweight women lost 3.3, and overweight men lost 3.1. These were the nonsmokers. Obese, smoking women, e.g., lost 13.7 years!

Fat does signify a lack of health, at least in the aggregate… I don’t see any refutation for this fact. The best bet? Unless you look really, really good fat, I suggest that you buy an extra 5 years or so of living — and who knows how many more “good” years — and invest in getting healthy.