Comments on: Ask Aunt Fattie: How do I talk to fatties in public?

By: Layna

Layna — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:04:07 +0000

For the religious in our midst, a good code word could be “Leviticus 3:16.” Not to be confused with John 3:16, this verse says, “All fat is the Lord’s.”

Leviticus 3:16 — not so good in context:

The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD’s.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:52:35 +0000

It needs to be said. I went to the Big Moves performance and afterwards went up to BigMovesBabe and said, “Hey, aren’t you Hate Harding?” Needless to say, she had quite the laugh.

By: Kira

Kira — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:30:18 +0000

Anna: well, fuck. Thanks, though.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:17:02 +0000

;-0 is, of course, God giving an enormous comedy wink.

By: Miss Conduct

Miss Conduct — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:01:29 +0000

Um, I must have done something odd with my closing parenthesis, because that emoticon is not supposed to be there. Not that Leviticus wouldn’t be TREMENDOUSLY improved by a few strategically placed ;-0 ’s, though.

By: spacedcowgirl

spacedcowgirl — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:58:56 +0000

That is great! I can just see people flipping bewilderedly through the Bible after seeing one of us wearing that.

By: Miss Conduct

Miss Conduct — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:42:05 +0000

Oh, I psychologize all the time, but when you’ve got Prudie actually *diagnosing people with personality disorders*, it’s sort of nice to see someone who consistenly refuses to do that. There should be all kinds of voices in the advice-giving world.

Yes, I am totally serious about Lev. 3:16. I’m doing an extensive Jewish-learning class these days and ran across that one. It’s about how you’re supposed to sacrifice an animal properly, back when we used to do that, (the full verse is “The priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire for a soothing aroma; all fat is the Lord’s”) but I’m all for re-interpreting/appropriating it! It would make a hilarious t-shirt.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:23:39 +0000

This is refreshing, really, in the world of advice columnists

Whoops, you might be a wee bit disappointed in next week’s Aunt F. ;) It’s more in a Carolyn Hax vein.

“All fat is the Lord’s,” are you serious? Handy to know your scripture sometimes! I might have to make a Leviticus 3:16 shirt for the poor neglected CafePress store, I really might.

By: Miss Conduct

Miss Conduct — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:21:06 +0000

One of MM’s things is that she tends to shy away from psychological assessment of her readers or the people that they write about. This is refreshing, really, in the world of advice columnists–but it can be taken too far. It does sound to me as though the wife in that column might be depressed. Suddenly losing the “joy and motivation” to work out when you’ve been working out for many, many years is most likely a sign that something is up. MM should have caught that.

Straight up, though, I sure hope people are discussing MY columns 20 years from now!

For the religious in our midst, a good code word could be “Leviticus 3:16.” Not to be confused with John 3:16, this verse says, “All fat is the Lord’s.” So, the fatter you are, the more God loves you! (I actually think “Leviticus 3:16″ t-shirts would be pretty hilarious to wear in the Bible Belt where “John 3:16″ is ubiquitous.)

By: Jannette

Jannette — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:15:36 +0000

The other week when I had a shopping bonanza at a local outlet store’s “plus size event”, I forced myself to get over my ridiculous Minnesotan let’s-pretend-we’re-all-the-same reticence because I had to tell a two women I work with that that there were bargains to be had on cute clothing. I mean, I would totally want someone to tip me off to something like that; I wouldn’t respond with “Oh my god she realizes that I have to shop at the fat-girl store!” Because duh, my body (and my fabulous clothes) are right there for anyone to see.

So how did they respond? One blinked, like she was momentarily astonished I’d mentioned our shared secret, but recovered quickly and thanked me– and actually went to check it out over the weekend. The other was a bit surprised, but didn’t react as if I’d let some dangerous cat out of the bag, and today she gushed over my cute new dress. Tiny victories, but not everyone is ready for a full-scale rant about how fat is a feminist issue.