Cartoon: They Will Never Be Shown

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky writes:

I often choose which cartoon to draw based on personal grievances—I mean, I carry my wealth of life experience into my art. I worked as a cruise ship musician for a few years, and the work environment had all the fatphobia of the entertainment industry combined with the international pastime of mocking American tourists. Once, I interrupted a fat-shaming session to say “Hey, a bunch of my family looks like that.” My coworkers swore up and down that they’d never make fun of my family—that would be mean!—They only make fun of lazy people who deserve it…which they can tell by looking, apparently.

Barry recently got into a long internet debate about whether it’s broadly possible for fat people to become not-fat over the long term. By “debate,” I mean Barry presented study after study showing that weight loss almost always plateaus at a certain point, and the stranger kept saying “Nuh-uh.” This person confidently explained that someone of [coincidentally my exact height and weight] could permanently drop one-quarter of their weight by making some simple lifestyle changes, like exercising a few days a week and not eating meat every day. Both of which I already do. I’m not saying this to get a Virtuous Fattie Award. Just pointing out that people’s assumptions can be SO OBJECTIVELY WRONG and they use those assumptions to justify being jerks.

Barry writes:

My experience is that when someone plays “let’s interrogate the fatty” – discovering what it is we’re doing so wrong that explains the fat – there is no possible right answer.

How often do you eat fast food? Maybe once every two weeks. Well, what’s your most frequent meal? A spinach salad. Do you put dressing on that salad? Yes? Ah-HAH!

How often do you exercise? Daily, usually six days a week. What kind of exercise? A walk around the block? HIIT and shadowboxing, enough to be sweating and panting, and lifting dumbbells every other day. How many hours a day? Thirty to forty minutes a day. Ah-HAH!

No matter how allegedly “virtuous”* one’s exercise and food habits, it won’t matter to this type of person. They already know you’re doing something sinful and wrong – just look at your fat! The only purpose of the discussion, for them, is ferreting out exactly what our sin is.

*It’s worth repeating that no one is obligated to exercise, to eat “healthy,” or to make being healthy a goal. It’s fine if you want to, but it’s also fine to have other priorities, and screw anyone who says otherwise.

Interestingly, their sudden strict standards when they find out a fat person does exercise and doesn’t eat at McDonalds every day shows that they don’t genuinely believe the pro-diet ideology that says that all fat people have to do is make a few tiny, easy lifestyle changes and soon we’ll be skipping through the gates of Holy Thin Land.

Not even losing weight satisfies these people. You could lose fifty percent of body weight – an incredible amount – but if you’re still fat, then they still consider you weak and assume you eat nothing but ice cream and bon bons.

For the people interrogating fat people, nothing will ever be good enough. Therefore, the only solution is to not give a fuck what they think or say.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has five panels. All feature the same woman, a fat woman with neck-length blonde hair.

PANEL 1

A fat woman has just exited a grocery store carrying a bag of groceries. A thin couple, walking out behind her, looks at her scornfully. The fat woman doesn’t turn to face them, but we can see in her expression that she’s overhearing their conversation.

THIN MAN: Oh my god, just look at her! Does she ever exercise?

THIN WOMAN: She must have zero willpower.

FAT WOMAN (thought): I’ll show them!

PANEL 2

The fat woman is seated in a diner, looking at a little book entitled “My Daily Food Journal.” In the foreground we can see a juicy burger and a slice of chocolate cream pie, both delicious looking. A waitress is taking the fat woman’s order.

CAPTION: NEXT…

FAT WOMAN: Could I get a half cup of oatmeal instead of a full cup? No butter.

PANEL 3

The fat woman, cross-eyed with exhaustion, is in a gym, using a stationary bicycle.

CAPTION: She does this for an entire year

FAT WOMAN: Puff… puff…

PANEL 4

The fat woman, wrapped in a towel in a locker room, is standing on a scale and looking very pleased.

CAPTION: Until at last…

FAT WOMAN (thought): Wow! I’ve lost thirty pounds! “Zero willpower.” I’ve certainly shown them!

PANEL 5

The fat woman is walking out of the grocery store and the same couple walks out behind her. The fat woman facepalms.

CAPTION: VINDICATION!

THIN MAN: Oh my god, just look at her! Does she ever exercise?

THIN WOMAN: She must have zero willpower.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

Panel 1: The posters in the supermarket window say “seasonal meat” and (with a picture of an apple) “Doctors HATE this one weird trick.” The beer the thin guy is carrying is named “bière.”

Panel 2: The posters in the background are all about how great the food at this diner is. A first-place ribbon is framed next to an article with the headline “Local Restaurant Named Best In US” and a photo of an adorable chef captioned “Proud Chef Grandpa.”

Panel 3: The brand on the bike is “Belleville,” a reference to the movie The Triplets of Belleville.