rakstā par to, ka patiesībā vīriešiem nav pofig par savu resnumu (un protams, kā gan lai viņiem būtu, dzīvojot mūsu 6pack-ideāla sabierībā) atrodas visādas smieklīgas un ne tik smieklīgas, un brīžiem šokējošas lietas

(..) a study by Ferraro and Holland (2002) shows that women are much more likely to be evaluated as obese by their doctors than male patients – even if the women do not actually have a Body Mass Index over 30. Similarly, in their study of obesity and stigma, Joanisse and Synnott (1999) note that the women they interviewed were more likely to recount stories of abuse and bullying by medical professionals than men. These women were often lectured about weight loss, even when their medical complaints were clearly unrelated to their weight: such as bladder infections, nosebleeds and broken arms. Interviewees also recounted instances of callous jokes and comments doctors made about their weight:

One woman was asked by her gynaecologist how many chairs she’d broken in his waiting room that day. Another woman’s complaint that her medication made her nauseous was greeted with indifference by her doctor, who remarked that at least that way she’d lose weight. Gina and Mary Lou were warned by their doctors (both male) that fat was not attractive to men. (Joanisse and Synnott, 1999: 57)

A tendency to actively dismiss male concerns with fatness becomes more prominent in the work of Kim Chernin (1981) – who was strongly influenced by Orbach’s writings. While Chernin acknowledges that there are men who wish to lose weight, from her description it appears that ‘men’ positively revel in their fatness. It is worth quoting at length from Chernin to give some sense of her perspective on the male relationship with fat. She writes,

By now it must be evident that the fat man has been spared this burden of negative symbolic meaning [attached to fatness] only because the fat woman has taken it on. One of the great advantages to men, in a culture they dominate, is the ability to assign to those they oppress whatever it is they wish to disown or ignore in their own condition. It is because the fat man believes the imagery his own culture has created that he can gorge himself with impunity andstrut about the pool with his bulging belly, while the fat women are all wearing blouses in the water. Because his wife has agreed to carry the general shame our entire culture feels about the body, he can proudly walk up to the younger women who are absorbed in one another’s company; and now he insists upon opening conversation with them, his belly neatly held between his proud hands, as if it too were an estimable possession. (Chernin, 1981: 124)