Comments on: Rotundity Revealed!

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 04:52:18 +0000

So all of this guessing suddenly made me remember today that I once had a doctor doubt my HEIGHT. She asked me how tall I was, and I said 5’7″, and she said “are you sure?” Then she actually measured me with the height attachment on the big doctor’s scale! I was 5’7″. (I think I look taller, but jesus, when’s the last time you were MEASURED at the doctor’s, even if you look a bit taller or shorter than you are? This is the same doctor who later sent me a note telling me to LOOSE WEIGHT, AVOID FRIED FOODS.)

By: Swistle

Swistle — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:28:53 +0000

That is a wicked bitchin’ chart you’ve got there.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:32:08 +0000

“(One of the ones who did was Paul from BFB. :) )”

Well, being married to a fat girl helped me make a bit of a better guess, I’d say. But I’m still Really Bad at guessing this stuff in general.

By: kateharding

kateharding — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:45:38 +0000

Roberta, I was thinking that the men just didn’t have the same baggage about possibly being insulting by going over. (One of the ones who did was Paul from BFB. :) ) But Jon B. also got pretty close, as TR said above. So maybe.

By: Roberta

Roberta — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:40:16 +0000

It’s so interesting, all of it. Asking people to guess a fat woman’s weight is so confrontive; on par with asking a fat woman to reveal her weight.
And the high-end guesses from men? Very surprising. True FA’s who know their shit?

By: kateharding

kateharding — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:37:25 +0000

Roberta, a lot of people had the same train of thought, and The Rotund has promised to post on it — I can’t wait.

There were VERY few guesses that were too high, and the majority of those came from men. Interesting.

Also, when making the graph, I rounded up any number ending in 5, ’cause it would have gotten too unwieldy otherwise. Below 300, that wasn’t much of a problem — the vast majority guessed a number divisible by 10. But above 300? There were a BUNCH of “305″ guesses. People didn’t want to risk going 5 lbs. over, apparently.

By: occhiblu

occhiblu — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:36:08 +0000

The lowest weight guesses were almost all from men. Yeah, after reading a bunch of the answers, I really wished I knew the gender of the guessers. Because I would see really low numbers and think, "OK, obviously a man," but I couldn't really tell how much of that was selection bias. But what a neat project!

By: Roberta

Roberta — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:28:53 +0000

Here’s what’s sad, TR… your actual weight is approximately what I would have guessed. But I didn’t want to ‘insult’ you by going too high. Now I know full well that a higher number is not intrinsically an insult; that is the point of this entire discussion/ excercise/ activism! But I stopped myself.
Doesn’t mean I don’t still think you’re a knockout.

By: The Rotund

The Rotund — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:35:21 +0000

Jon B, it was really interesting to me that you, as a guy, got so close. The lowest weight guesses were almost all from men. The two highest weight guesses were also from men but one is a fat guy himself and one was going high because he knew I wasn’t going to be insulted and everyone else was going low! I’d have to double check but I think you are the male who guessed most closely.

By: Marle

Marle — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:10:15 +0000

Julie, I saw that Ugly Betty episode too. The weirdest thing was that that episode only took place 3 weeks after the previous one, so we’re supposed to believe she gained, what, 50+ pounds in 3 weeks? And that would be funny instead of a serious problem? Ugh. I usually like Ugly Betty but this season’s premiere started out pretty terrible.