Marie Claire Stands By 'Should Fatties Get A Room?' Blog Post By Maura Kelly

Marie Claire blogger Maura Kelly has caused a stir online this week with her post "Should 'Fatties' Get a Room? (Even on TV?)" She writes about the CBS sitcom "Mike & Molly," a show about a couple who meets in Overeaters Anonymous. Kelly wrote:

The other day, my editor asked me, "Do you really think people feel uncomfortable when they see overweight people making out on television?"

My initial response was: Hmm, being overweight is one thing -- those people are downright obese! And while I think our country's obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy, I also think it's at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity! Yes, anorexia is sick, but at least some slim models are simply naturally skinny. No one who is as fat as Mike and Molly can be healthy. And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for, by way of our insurance, than any other health problem, even cancer.

So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room -- just like I'd find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

She added that she has "a few friends who could be called plump," but that she thinks, "obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It's something they can change, if only they put their minds to it."

Fashionista called Kelly's post "an unabashedly mean spirited piece and we're kind of shocked that it's attached to such a reputable ladymag, one, no less, with a feature series called "Big Girl in a Skinny World" by 5'2″ 220 pound stylist Ashley Falcon." And Jezebel wrote, "how could she not know this would happen? How could she think this was acceptable? It's that, as much as anything else, that's worrisome: that at a mainstream magazine with a wide reach and an ostensibly progressive outlook could think, in 2010, this was okay to write and implicitly endorse."

But the plot thickens -- Kelly has issued an apology and revealed that she was previously anorexic, writing:

I would really like to apologize for the insensitive things I've said in this post. Believe it or not, I never wanted anyone to feel bullied or ashamed after reading this, and I sorely regret that it upset people so much. A lot of what I said was unnecessary; it wasn't productive, either.

[...]

To that point (and on a more personal level), a few commenters and one of my friends mentioned that my extreme reaction might have grown out of my own body issues, my history as an anorexic, and my life-long obsession with being thin. As I mentioned in the ongoing dialogue we've been carrying on in the comments section, I think that's an accurate insight.

Marie Claire's editor-in-chief Joanna Coles spoke to Fashionista, who stood by the post:

"Maura Kelly is a very provocative blogger," Coles told us. "She was an anorexic herself and this is a subject she feels very strongly about."

Coles said the mag has received over 28,000 email responses to the piece, and that Kelly was "excited and moved by their responses."

While Coles made clear that she hasn't actually seen Mike & Molly, she added "I'm concerned about a show that makes fun of large people."

What do you think?

Comments

[carolryann]

01:10 AM on 11/24/2010

Well Maura, we "fatties" can always lose weight, sadly for you, stupid is a permanent condition. I have to agree with "ALSmith68" and what he wrote in his comment, though it makes me sad that people like you get paid for your empty headed fluff brained opinions. Equally that any magazine would allow something like that to be connected to it, even if it is a "fashion" magazine.

[ALSmith68]

04:55 PM on 11/15/2010

If this blog had appeared in something a little more cerebral than "Marie Claire," it might have upset me. But this magazine is really all about vapid little clotheshorses who are desperate to match their tampon strings with their handbags. I couldn't care less about this stupid woman or her comments.

My heart breaks, however, for the women who may be plus-sized and reading the blog, but hopefully they've long since realized that "Marie Claire" is not a magazine for ladies living in the real world with real concerns. (Unless their "real concerns" are no more stressful than finding a stylish pair of shoes that look nice pointed toward the ceiling at the end of a first date.)

[Theresa Ruth Howard]

10:36 AM on 11/04/2010

WOW! this so interesting considering that the actors on the show look more like "average" Americans then any others on television. The other thing that I find ironic is that fact that Kelly comes out and admits that she was anorexic - then acts out- in a bashing, high school bullying sort of way towards what she feared being most. With words like hers it's no wonder young girls would want to starve themselves in order to avoid the onslaught of unnecessary nastiness that she dished out. The other thing that I find interesting is the fact that she thought it all right to actually post it- "Journalist" I suppose she thought that she was just being "Salacious" but where do you draw the line, especially when you say you have suffered from body image issues yourself.
The bitchiness with which she likens her distress of seeing a fat person walk across the room, to a heroin addict is just excessive and uncalled for but I think that she thought that she could get away with it because- well - everyone else does- Howard Stern does, Imus does... besides just being a decent person- when does personal responsibility start? when young people are killing themselves because of being treated badly, being talked about and bashed do we really need to as more venom to the pool of intolerance and ignorance?

http://mybodymyimage.com

[Tracey Harrison]

12:44 PM on 11/01/2010

fthi....research like I did 1% is 100% accurate. You may check or just continue to call me names without doing your homework.

[ftsihy]

07:21 PM on 11/01/2010

The percentage of obesity that can be attributed to genetics varies, depending on the population examined, from 6% to 85%. [Yang W, Kelly T, He J (2007). "Genetic epidemiology of obesity". Epidemiol Rev 29: 49–61. doi:10.1093/epirev/mxm004. PMID 17566051.]

[ftsihy]

08:48 PM on 10/31/2010

When I leave this world, people aren't going to remember what size jeans I wore or how fat my tummy was. They're going to remember that I was a kind person who loved making others laugh. That I raised 3 wonderful children and raised them to look inside a person instead of judging their appearance. That matters so much more to me than what this "journalist", or anyone else put off by my "rolls and rolls of fat", thinks when I hug or kiss my husband (or walk across the room apparently).

[vegalili]

01:26 PM on 10/30/2010

Girlfriend has a point. Being plump, curvy or thin is ok... being obese or anorexic is not. It's a health problem. I can't stand it when I see an obese person scarfing down two big macs or using a wheelchair instead of walking! Just like it sickens me to see an anorexic person period. It's not pretty. It's actually kind of scary.

[peamac]

09:39 AM on 10/30/2010

Well what happened to freedom of speech here? They ARE obese there is no argument about that. You may not agree with her but she has a right to say what she did. I will watch the show if it is funny because their weight does not bother me - I'm not the one who is 100+ pounds overweight and has to worry about heart disease, high blood pressure or joint pain! That's on them...

[SethBLiNK]

11:40 AM on 10/30/2010

I wish people would understand what freedom of speech means. It means that she is free to say what she wants. She is. She did. Freedom of speech means the government can't persecute her for what she said. They didn't. They won't. As far as anybody knows, nobody from the government has even read this post.

Freedom of speech doesn't mean she can't be fired for writing something that offends her employer or her employer's readers. They can fire her for that and as long as the government didn't pressure them to do so, they would not be violating her freedom of speech.

But guess what. Her employer isn't firing her. They are standing by her. So, this in no way even resembles a freedom of speech issue.

And guess what else? All the people who are responding are protected by the first amendment too. So, when we say that her statements were ignorant and intolerant, we are free to do so.

Did you read her blog? In it, she questioned whether this show should be on the air, because it shows fat people being physically affectionate with each other. Now who is trying to abridge the free speech of others. CBS should stop showing Mike and Molly smooching because it makes her uncomfortable. Only in the apology do we learn that the blogger has a history of anorexia and her discomfort has as much to do with her body image problems as it does with the actors' size.

[kendahke]

12:42 PM on 11/01/2010

they can fire her or keep her... and people can stop reading marie claire if they're that mad, but the small numbers who will stop reading that magazine as a result of this blogger's thoughts aren't enough to shutter the magazine.

[VeririaisME]

08:49 PM on 11/01/2010

Yes, we have freedom of speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of our Constitution -- but there is a difference between hate speech versus freedom of speech!

[ljstat]

09:37 AM on 10/30/2010

I agree with Lexy that if she really was concerned with healthcare, she would have writting an article that was not so hateful... and it really was. I also have a problem that she's never even seen the show before. The best way for me to make an impact I figure it, I will be canceling my subscription, and will go monthly to a Barne's and Noble that has a Starbucks, grab a large coffee and Marie Claire, sit down in one of those comfy chairs and read Marie Claire FOR FREE; never giving them my money again.

[ruthinking]

03:52 AM on 10/30/2010

We are fat ... just look at photos of Americans up through the 50's,they were skin and bones. That was before fast food and TV. They were skin and bones. These two in combinations have made us what we are today.

[LaLaLand1973]

11:50 PM on 11/25/2010

Not so...many of the sex symbols of the '40s and '50s - like Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell - would be considered too fat for Hollywood today. The "Jell-O on springs" look that so besotted Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in "Some Like it Hot" (and Marilyn looked smokin' hot from head to toe) would be considered icky in today's skin-n-bones-n-breast implants-obsessed celeb world.

[Mark Santeramo]

03:33 AM on 10/30/2010

Okay, I can't stand this country if we are going to have a double standard between weight and sexuality. For example, based on this article,

"She added that she has "a few friends who could be called plump," but that she thinks, "obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It's something they can change, if only they put their minds to it."

Ahh, thank god, some honesty within a news article. I would love to see those criticxs of gay marriage also read this writeup as well because maybe they would learn the differences between food being a choice and sexual preference NOT. Sexuality and who you are attracted to is something you are born with; it's practically genetic because even if at birth and early childhood you are raised as a boy/girl .., if you in your youth feel lost and confused and as though you are living another person's life.., that is something that should be accepted instead of ridiculed because IT IS NOT A CHOICE, and especially if said child has incredible ability to succeed in school and later on in a field of difficult expertise.

Sure, if people want to be HONEST instead of politically correct, things would be night and day better, however, the persistent lying to the public through the media makes us all look like jackasses.

P.S.- our nation is on the path to ruin cuz the 2 party system we now have represents NO ONE.

[kendahke]

12:43 PM on 11/01/2010

I agree. Well said.

[Kelly12]

12:08 AM on 10/30/2010

People who think all you have to do is stop eating and work out and you'll magically be a size 4 annoy me. I eat healthy, exercise daily, have a BMI of around 20, and wear a size 12. My cholesterol is fine, my blood pressure is low, I have no problems with my back or knees. My doctor says I'm healthy, yet friends tell me if I'd just lose a few pounds, I'd be so much happier.

Get a grip. There are a lot of women who wear something larger than a size 6 who are perfectly happy -- or would be if people like Ms. Kelly would stop telling them how worthless and miserable they are. I don't think we should celebrate fat, but I do think we need to acknowledge that not every can -- or should -- look like a stick figure.

BTW, Ms. Kelly, I'd rather not see you or any other skinny person making out in public, either. It's generally unappetizing no matter what the people look like.

[stevedooley55]

10:18 AM on 10/30/2010

Excuses, why are people so much more obese now then 30 years ago. People don't need to feel good about everything they are, and do. I'm overweight and all my bloodwork and stress statistics are still good, but if you have excess cellulite and shoulders are smaller then waste it's not good, even if it's genetic. Being happy isn't being healthy.

[ALSmith68]

05:06 PM on 11/15/2010

Read closer. Her DOCTOR said she's healthy. A professional opinion is usually pretty sound.

[gmbty]

09:07 PM on 10/29/2010

Critical or even harshly critical is not the same as hateful

Fat is not the same as being Asian, Black, White, Male, Female

Hope that helps.

[washDCgurl]

07:33 PM on 10/29/2010

I think if this writer had written something equally judgmental about anyone in the LGBTQ community or in the black, muslim or hispanic communities he or she would have been immediately terminated. I think MC should seriously consider sending Maura Kelly a message by firing her. Let her know that these hateful opinions towards overweight individuals will not be tolerated at a magazine that is supposed to promote positive and healthy body images for women. If she is kept on I will not be renewing my subscription and I sincerely hope that other readers also stop their subscription.

[redpanda]

06:57 PM on 11/01/2010

Are you seriously equating being willfully obese with being Black or Hispanic or Gay? I'll agree the article wasn't a nice one, and you're entitled to cancel your subscription, but get a grip. Equating somebodies weight with skin color or sexual orientation minimizes and demeans the entire struggle for civil rights and you should be ashamed of yourself for doing so. Equating it with religion is fine since believing in nonsense is a as much of a choice as deciding to eat pizza three nights a week for dinner and to take the elevator instead of the stairs, but being fat is not the same as being black. I also fail to see how endorsing obesity would be promoting a positive and healthy body image for women. The best way to have a positive and healthy body image is to have a body that is indeed, healthy and you aren't doing an obese person any favors by telling them they look fine.

[cplKlyde]

07:13 PM on 10/29/2010

That was some cold blooded shiggity.

[FabulousPoodle]

06:32 PM on 10/29/2010

Obesity is a symptom of something else going on in a person, that they are seeking comfort in food, trying to self soothe. We're a nation of fractured families, with high rates of substance abuse and child sexual abuse. I've known far too many sexual abuse survivors with food issues to think that it's just a coincidence. Trauma and obesity are linked. But we'd rather talk about corn syrup and treadmills and tell people they're gross and don't have any will power than have an open discussion about how sexual abuse impacts people long after they grow up, because that's uncomfortable.