I found myself watching an episode of “Hell’s Kitchen,” which was reasonably entertaining. But I hated that a fat kitchen staffer was berated for being fat by the host, Gordon Ramsay: i.e., “get your lazy fat ass in gear,” “you fat jerk,” etc. (I’m paraphrasing, but I think I’ve got the gist right). I tried to imagine the popular revulsion if the host had berated a Jewish worker in the same way – “get your lazy Jewish ass in gear” and so forth. Is there any question that the host would have been fired?
Looking online a bit, I find that Ramsey also constantly referred to contestant Sara Horowitz (pictured) as “a fat cow,” “a bloody cow,” “a stupid mouthy cow,” etc. (Ramsay did this so often that another contestant bought Sara a toy cow as a gag gift). Unlike the fat man Ramsay berated, Sara isn’t fat. But she’s not skinny, and on TV all non-skinny women are considered fat.
(The final two contestants were both model-thin. If Ramsay had called Sara “a Jewish cow,” and if all Jewish contestants were cut before the final round, wouldn’t people be questioning whether or not Ramsay’s judgements were unbiased?)
Anyway, what the hell, at least fat people appeared. On TV, that’s a pretty rare thing.
In other news, I took this “Rate Your Life” quiz (via Melancholy Revolutionary). I understand that quizzes like this are just fluffy entertainment, not to be taken seriously. Nonetheless, I was struck by the fact that three of the opening questions asked me to put myself into categories that I just don’t fit clearly into.
Am I overweight, or healthy weight? The question implies a contradiction between being “overweight” and being “healthy.” And the answer to this one question made a very large difference in the results (see below).
Am I straight, or undecided? Nowadays I self-identify as a straight-leaning asexual, but that option isn’t included. There’s not even an “other” option – I’m either straight, gay, bi or undecided.
Am I married? Not legally, and not in the sense that the author intends. But I have two people I share lives with; we’ve lived together since the late 80s, and it’s a lifetime commitment. In terms of rating the quality of my life, my relationship with my life partners is as relevant as another person’s relationship with their legal spouse.
(There are other implicit assumptions in the quiz as well – for instance, the only choices for “sex” are male and female. But the above three were the ones that applied – or, rather, failed to apply – to me).
(Click below to see how my results changed depending on the above assumptions.)
Here’s the results when I describe myself as straight, single, and very overweight:
| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: |  6.5 |
| Mind: | 7 |
| Body: |  4.7 |
| Spirit: |  6 |
| Friends/Family: |  4.6 |
| Love: |  0.8 |
| Finance: | 6.9 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
And here are the results when I describe myself as undecided, married and of a healthy weight, but otherwise answered everything the same (insofar as the quiz allowed – a few of the follow-up questions change based on how you describe your marital situation and sexual orientation):
| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: | 7.2 |
| Mind: | 7.1 |
| Body: | 7.1 |
| Spirit: | 6.2 |
| Friends/Family: | 6 |
| Love: | 6.7 |
| Finance: | 6.7 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
What puzzles me is the slight change in my finance score. (It’s possible that I made a typo – answering “4” instead of “5” for a single item could have caused such a small change).
[Cross-posted on Creative Destruction. If your comments aren’t being approved here, try there instead.]
I just took the quiz twice, and the only variable I changed was weight. All my scores stayed the same except for the body score, which was 6.6 when I said I was “very overweight” and 8.2 when I said I was a “healthy weight”–which actually only affected the final score by 0.3 points, which appears to be calculated by a straight average, with no weighting.
So make of that what you will.
Huh. Weird. I have no clue why there’s such a big difference in our results.
i also had trouble with several of the questions. when i’m forced into a male or female classification, i usually go with female as that is my legal sex. but in fact, i’m a trans woman, and there’s some question in my mind as to what “sex” i actually am.
further, i believe that in the context of transsexuals, traditional meanings of sexual orientation pretty much lose all meaning. i’m married to a cisgender man. am i gay or straight?
i also had trouble with the body weight question. i’m tall and skinny. i’m off the “charts” in both the male and female columns – below “healthy” weight, but much closer to “healthy” on the female column. again, going back to that gender thing.
i’d also be curious to know how “traumatic experience”, “major illnesses”, and “non-major, chronic illnesses” are defined. is a diagnosis of gender identity disorder and subsequent gender transition traumatic, or an “illness”? if so, is it major, chronic, etc? and would that be considered in the “non-illness disabilities” category?
there were a few others too. my spiritual faith brings me peace, but it is not without conflict. are those two aspects mutually exclusive?
and what are “good grades? and what if i did merely average in high school, but made the dean’s list in college?
and what if i believe that only some things happen for a reason?
and how are “great literature” and “holy text” defined?
and for what it’s worth, your life score was about twice mine. should i add depression to that list of things i think i have?
have i mentioned how much i dislike these kinds of quizzes?
This is a major reason why I’ve stopped watching TV. This garbage pretending to be entertainment is a real turn-off for me.
On a related subject, though, I’ve started watching the first season of Lost on DVD, and one thing I like about the show is that very overweight actor Jorge Garcia is probably the most likable person on the show.
What startled me was that my “love” score was very low. I’m happily single, after recently (a few months ago) ending a very upsetting relationship, and I wouldn’t change a thing about my relationship status.
More than anything, I guess this says a lot about how other people perceive your happiness, and how very inaccurate that can be.
I am not so sure I want to eat meals made by an anorexic looking cook – not exactly a good advert for the product.
Should be called the how socially acceptable are you quiz? 50 years ago such a test would have taken points off for being gay or black or a woman with a career. I’m sure the deaf community will love the points off for hearing impairment.
I actually got a ten on my love score, regardless of the fact I mentioned one of my parents was downright frightening. I think it is flawed, but I didn’t have much problems with my weight being a major factor…hmm. Anyway, it is a quiz and I didn’t take it too seriously…