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Fatty, Porker, Chubby, Heifer
By admins | June 18, 2009
Wouldn’t it be nice if name calling and teasing for being heavy stopped in grade school? Unfortunately, that is not the case as we were reminded by the UK’s GQ magazine. Writer Alex Bilmes refers to singer Beth Ditto as a “porker” and a “fat lesbian” in an article titled Fashion’s Biggest Fan. Charming right? His basic premise is that it’s ridiculous how the fashion industry embraced Ditto as a fashion icon. He wrote, “Beth Ditto is a fat lesbian. She’s also a fashion “icon”. Hilarious, isn’t it? I love fashion people, I really do. They’re so… how do I put this? Stupid? Yes, that’s it. They’re so stupid.”
If you look past his vitriol there are in fact some interesting points. Most notably is, that our culture is obsessed with the extreme, be it the severally overweight or the sickly thin. Meanwhile the average woman gets lost in the middle and never feels quite special enough to view her body has covetable. Another reasonable issue is to question what message it sends to our youth by commending images of women who are obese. In the US, where children now have an over 30% rate of obesity and childhood diabetes is on the rise, who do we want as our body image role models?
The problem with Bilmes article is he really didn’t seem to care about actual weight issues but rather enjoyed ridiculing those who are overweight or those who work fashion. Basically, this guy is a bully. The entire piece had an air of misogyny that took away from any legitimate points that the author may have had. Undoubtedly the fact that Alex Bilmes is a man was part of what turned us off. The article is like a flashback to third grade recess where the boy bully is throwing rocks at the chubby little girl. We just want to through a BIG rock back and yell shut up, shut up, shut up! Beth Ditto is a gorgeous, talented women; who is he to publicly ridicule her body? Look in the mirror Alex you are no Brad Pitt! Enough of men writing about our physical shortcomings, where are the magazine articles ridiculing their smelly feet, hairy backs, beer bellies, and bald spots?
Here is more related scoop;
Topics: diet, fashion industry, magazine | 13 Comments » 
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June 18th, 2009 at 12:58 am
I agree that he shouldn’t be ridiculing her, but I never understood the fascination with Beth Ditto. Yeah, she’s kinda talented and pretty, but people seem to like her for the sole purpose that she’s heavy. “Hey, I like fat people! You know Beth Ditto?” Or something like it.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:34 am
“Basically, this guy is a bully. The entire piece had an air of misogyny that took away from any legitimate points that the author may have had…. Enough of men writing about our physical shortcomings, where are the magazine articles ridiculing their smelly feet, hairy backs, beer bellies, and bald spots?”
Brava! And thank you. You’ve managed to articulate what feelings I had when I originally read the piece, but wasn’t quite sure how I was feeling.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Childhood obesity, etc., may be on the rise (although many of the most often quoted statistics regarding obesity and diabetes are dubious at best and out-and-out falsified at worst; check out Sandy Szwarc’s Junk Food Science blog for a lot of discussion of that: http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/). Nonetheless, some people ARE genetically destined to be overweight, if not obese, and ill-advised dieting (or near-starvation, in many cases) only exacerbates that metabolic tendency.
(In my family, for instance, my mother, my grandmother, and my great-grandmother were all well over 200 pounds by adulthood. I’m not, quite, but I’m definitely chubby, and the only reason I’m not 200-plus is the residue of an eating disorder and some remaining slightly unhealthy habits. You can’t tell me that Mickey D’s and convenience food are at fault for my Polish-German great-gran’s 19th-century enbonpoint. Not only that, but my gran and great-gran died in their late 80s, and my mother is over 75, and none of them had or have diabetes, either.)
Historic paintings also show us a plethora of overweight and fat women, and I don’t expect any of them ever consumed a plate of Krispy Kremes, either.
After nearly a century of being shamed or worse, yes, it would be nice to see fat, attractive women getting some equal time as body image role models. Maybe, if they did, then young girls who are just a little bit on the soft side won’t do stupid things to try and get skinny at any cost, wind up starving their metabolisms into the glacial category, then BECOMING obese even when eating the same things as their normal-weight counterparts.
And yeah, I wanted to slap Bilmes. I saw Girl with a Satchel’s post about his article earlier (http://girlwithasatchel.blogspot.com/2009/06/mags-meanwhile-at-gq.html) in which she plaintively said, “back in 2007 he was responsible for a very positive body image story, ‘Critical Mass’, which he penned for UK Vogue.” Yes, right, quite – he wants a girl who’d have a sandwich and a beer like “Cruz or Bellucci.” In your unrealistic DREAMS, Bilmes. They are also very slim women, albeit shaped a bit differently and perhaps with a slightly better sense of moderation. But like any celebrity whose product is at least partly their looks and bodies, I doubt they’re actually scoffing the carbs with much more frequency than those he reviles for being “too skinny”.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thank you for this. There is so much crap out there about our body issues. “We are too fat, too thin, it’s not my fault i’m fault, it’s your fault i’m anorexic, how to look like this or that, loose 20 lbs in a week, embrace your cellulite.. etc..” Blah! I’m sick of all of it.
Why are our bodies such a public debate, why are men not picked apart for all their flaws. God knows they don’t have perfect bodies either but we never see pictures on TMZ of George Cloony exposed for having cellulite! Alex Blimes is disgusting and the perfect example of what is wrong with the media!
June 18th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Firstly, I find it necessary to point out to
June 18th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Arrggh. To ms. vintage that Beth Ditto is loved not for being obese, but for being exactly who she is no matter what anyone thinks of her, much like Karen O., Courtney Love, Roseanne Barr, etc. A quality searched for in many, no matter their dress size. Ans secondly, this guy is a wimp who panders to what his audience of the moment wants to read. I had the urge to email him and have a bitchfest, but why waste energy on someone who doesn’t deserve to lick a sexy big girl’s boots.
June 18th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Some people are just “fattists”. These are mainly people who have never had to struggle with a weight problem and don’t understand what it is like to exist as “average” in a skinny obsessed society. No wonder we have so many young girls with eating disorders!
June 18th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
You know, this is quite interesting. It baffles me how some people can be so negative. For those like me (fat, fashion bloggers) this only fuels my fire to get out there and let people know about the presence of high fashion AND Plus sizes, letting my readers know that they can co-exist!
This is we have Full FIgured Fashion Week, and the State of the Curvy Community panel discussion to face these straight on and move from there…. If we cannot accept these ignorant and foolish stereotypes then how are we to move forward and unite….
June 19th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I find it amusing that right now at a size 10, I am feeling “fat,” yet my sweetie swears that men really want curves.
Men like the man profiled here grew up as bullies from high school (where I was never obese, but as a thick young lady (again, size 8-10 instead of 0-4) calling even average girls names like “thunder thighs.” Unfortunately, it stuck with me for a long time.
Many people ask questions like yours about why men are not ridiculed for their “smelly feet, hairy backs, beer bellies, and bald spots?” They are, just not as much as women. Why> It’s psychology.
Men do this to each other all the time – it’s part of male bonding. It doesn’t bother them as much as it does us. Some are even proud of their flaws (and don’t understand why that may stop them from getting that swimsuit model girlfriend, LOL!), and strut them.
Why are women picked on about such things more often than men? Because we allow it. And even worse, we do it to each other. Until those things change, the rest won’t.
June 21st, 2009 at 3:17 am
So true TheSoMeEx, women are their own worst enemies. Too many of us attack and hate on other women randomly, and even their friends by giving them “friendly advice” out of venting their own internal insecurities. Love not war ladies!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Great read and I fully agree with …Ashe…people in glass houses should not throw stones.
39th and Broadway… you are added to the blog roll!
June 25th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
You have it right on the nose about the extremes. It is really tough for an overweight person to see the skinny role models and think that is a possible goal to obtain. More healthy weighted individuals really need to be represented more in the media.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:04 am
[...] the same vein, I totally agree with a recent article at fashion blog 39th and Broadway, which calls out UK writer Alix Bilmes’ for his cruel [...]