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When I have dinner at a nice restaurant, I can reasonably expect that people at neighboring tables will not be blowing cigarette smoke at me. When I buy a ticket on an airplane, I should reasonably expect to have a seat — a whole seat, without somebody else’s flesh crammed against me.

I have some little stack chairs in my kitchen. They’re not fancy, but they do the job and are easily moved around the house. There is no harm done if a black person, or an Hispanic person, or a Catholic sits on these chairs. Nothing bad will happen if an elderly person or a man or a young child sits on them. However, these chairs would probably break if a 400 pound person were to sit on them. That’s not because they are bad people, it’s just that the chair isn’t designed for them.

Differences in access to the health care system notwithstanding, being a different religion, nationality, gender, or having a different marital status does not automatically put someone at risk for heart disease, dementia, high blood pressure, cancer. None of these things is a leading indicator of diabetes risk. Obesity is a risk factor for all of the above. True, race can be a risk factor for heart disease and cardiovascular disease among other conditions, but some researchers feel that other risk factors (including income) are also at play. Weight loss  in the overweight and obese reduces the risk of heart disease, osteoarthritis, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, some cancers, incontinence, infertility, and diabetes almost universally. This holds true regardless of whether it is done with “diet and exercise,” or more radical interventions such as gastric bypass surgery. 

Yesterday I read two items on civil rights. The first was Sojourner Truth’s brilliant speech on women not being inferior to men, usually known as “And ain’t I a woman?” The other was a Reuters item entitled Obesity becoming U.S. civil rights issue for some.

A civil rights issue? How? I can’t become a man without surgery, I can’t become black, I can’t become Asian. I can learn foreign languages but that will never change my national origin. However, I can control my weight, and I can do it without surgery. I can gain weight; I can lose weight. One is harder than the other I confess, but yet I can.

The only way I can possibly rationalize being overweight or obese as some sort of civil rights issue is if we are going to say that obesity is in fact a handicap, covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even then, ADA says “reasonable” modifications, and that often modifications must be paid for by the disabled person effected. Why do I have the nagging feeling that won’t be acceptable to the “fat acceptance” crowd?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not “just bagging on fat people.” There are two points in this article on which I can agree. First, “promoting health at every size” is a good thing. However, every doctor knows that “healthier at a normal size” is a better thing. I reject the idea that “fat is my normal.” To accept that means you accept that humans are rapidly evolving to be heavier, with weaker hearts, brains, joints, and pancreases. You aren’t going to get Marcus Welby to “tolerate” the fact that these people are more likely to get chronic illnesses — don’t even get Dr. House started (no really, I can’t stand him). Granted, the medical community often has not done a great job helping these people, but the “fat acceptance” crowd doesn’t want them to do a better job. They want medical professionals to tell them it’s ok to be fat.

Second, of course everybody should be able to buy clothes that fit and look good on them! Believe me, I know a few things about the difficulties of buying clothes when you don’t perfectly fit the fashion industry’s ideas about your body. Short people and tall people have understood for years that there would be times they had to order things from catalogs, get things altered, or even have things custom made. Welcome to my world, Big Girls! If the fashion industry thinks that the one in 5 American women who are under 5’2″ are not a viable market, I don’t know what makes them special. Clothes are not a civil rights issue.

Over the years, I have known many overweight or obese people who were smart, hard working, funny, and great to be around. But if they are on a plane next to me, they had better stay on their side of the armrest. And when they visit, they better not break my kitchen chairs.

In Closing: HFCS; B of A’s Judgement Day; the first swine flu death was a tax inspector who probably knocked on 300 doors while ill; huh, Reagan thought torture was a bad thing (an inconvenient truth indeed); oh no, Steve Jobs is too sick to attend a hearing regarding his property;  and maybe the bank’s pain should be spread around.