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Fatties serving my food? No thanks!

Jill

Just look at this heifer:

fat

Clearly, she is far too fat to serve food to Manhattanites. We have standards, you know. We aren’t like those crazy Spaniards who attempt to lower the anorexia and bulimia rate. This is New York, kids, and if your raging cocaine habit or public eating disorder hasn’t prevented you from eating that salad in the first place, you’d better get your fat ass to the bathroom and puke it up already. If you don’t watch yourself, next thing you know, you’ll end up looking like these beasts:

models

Truly disgusting.

via Gawker.

50 thoughts on Fatties serving my food? No thanks!

  1. Okay, that is completely fucked up. I realize that this is beside the point, but I have to say that my weight gauge must be completely out of sync with what’s considered to be fat or thin these days because, if anything, the women in the lower picture look a bit thin to me. The woman in the upper photo looks completely healthy.

    Again, though, what I think of that isn’t the issue. If you’re doing the job well and you are neat and presentable (like you’d be expected to for any other job), your weight shouldn’t determine if you can serve food or not.

  2. Jesus, Sutton Place???

    That’s not exactly a fashionista bar. More like a glorified college watering hole for former frat boys with jobs.

  3. What the FUCK??? So… um… I pretty much have that woman’s body type.

    Between this and Details magazine, I’m starting to think I’m obese, or something. I mean, I actually have an ass. What the hell am I thinking?

    Better puke up my croissant already…

  4. Okay, I have to put this out in the world in hopes that it will get out of my head. “Hello, I’m Peter Griffin. Welcome to The Side-Boob Hour.”

    Also, I’m with Linnaeus. At least two of the three girls in the lower picture could use a meal.

    Tangential to the topic: Is anyone here masochistic enough to watch the 700 Club? Last Wednesday (Or, as Pat Robertson likes to call it… SKINNY WEDNESDAY!), they did one of their “news stories” on an anorexic 12(I think) year old who went to a christian eating disorder recovery camp. Surprise surprise, she was miraculously cured!!! Praise the lawd, praise the lawd! Anyway… as soon as the segment was over Pat jumps right back into the skinny wednesday theme and warns “Of course, she’d better avoid those sweets and fatty foods, or she’ll balloon right back up again!” Just to be clear, this young lady was never anything that could be considered overweight. Way to go, Pat! Wooo! Asshole.

  5. *headdesk*

    My rule of thumb is as follows: if you are thinner than I was when I had a full-blown eating disorder, you are not obese.

  6. Unreal. Well, that’s one place I know never to go. I hope that they get their $15 Million, and I wish that she’d hit that manager with assault charges for trying to put her on the scale by force.

    I was wondering what could possibly have given the managers the idea that this whole thing was acceptable, but if Zuzu is right about the frat-boy atmosphere, that could explain it.

    Incidentally, I think that she’s stunning, and that, of the young women in the lower picture, only the one on the right with the short, dark hair looks anything but emaciated.

  8. If a boss ever tried to pick me up and force me on the scale, he’d have two bloody stumps where his arms used to be along with a hernia.

  9. If a boss ever tried to pick me up and force me on the scale, he’d have two bloody stumps where his arms used to be along with a hernia.

    Well, at least he wouldn’t have any trouble making weight then, right?

    There was a story a few years ago about a woman who sued because the gym she applied to thought she was too fat to be an aerobics instructor.

  11. Pingback: the oh zone » Finally, fatness in fashion: a blog that hurts

  12. I’m in absolute agreement that the establishment should be sued to the ground. That said, I’m not crazy about the critical comments about the women’s bodies. Saying the Aussies are “too thin” or “need a meal” is problematic. When we equate all thinness with chosen deprivation, we ignore the real diversity of body types. Naturally thin women who don’t starve themselves don’t deserve the critical remarks of others any more than their sisters who carry more weight.

    This reminds me of the whole “but you’re so pretty” discussion that happened around here at the beginning of the year.

  13. Right. It’s in bounds to point out that these women are thin, because (a) they are and (b) they’re being called fat and unfit to model clothing. But “too” thin implies that their bodies are inadequate, merely in a different direction.

  14. That’s a good point, Hugo. The “real women have curves” statement is really just the flip side of the “you’re too fat” coin. Just for clarification, it certainly wasn’t my intent in my post (at the top of the thread) to make a value judgement about the Australian models when I said they looked “a bit thin”. I was trying to make a statement about the abusurdity of thinking they were too heavy. But maybe I didn’t come off that way.

  15. Hugo, I agree with you. I cringe a little at these kinds of posts because I know that in the comments the conversation is inevitably going to turn to how hot the supposedly “fat” women in the photos are and/or how emaciated the supposedly more acceptable women are. I know people don’t mean anything by it and are just trying to express agreement with the sentiment that super-thin should not be the absolute standard of beauty for women, but I cringe at the neverending scrutiny that women’s bodies receive, no matter what.

    I just found this news story after reading this blog post, about a decision by the Madrid regional government to prohibit the thinnest models from walking in runway shows. While I would love to see the fashion world voluntarily embrace women of all body types, the idea that there are now medics on hand taking calipers to models’ arms or legs to make sure they have a BMI of at least 18 (ha!) boggles my mind.

  16. I used to be one of the “too thin” people, and the funny thing about that was that my friends both berated and envied me. “Eat something!” often went hand-in-hand with “I wish I could fit into a size two!”

    It was really confusing and it really screwed with my self-esteem. And you know what? I just want to like myself.

    I know a very beautiful woman who’s a size eight, and she recently walked up to me and started saying how jealous she was of me, because I’m a size four (now that I’ve gained some weight). Once again, this little alarm bell went off. This time, I had some perspective on the issue though. To some, I am now “obese.” To others, I’m a paragon of desirable weight.

    It’s ridiculous. I used to hate myself, sometimes I still do. When I see it in others, I cringe. I know exactly what they’re going through. I wish they’d just enjoy their lives. 🙁

  17. Goddamn those waitresses and their dammable metabolisms! Where are my gyndroids to serve me food and flatter my wit and have five second sexual ramp-up times?!

  18. Jesus, Sutton Place???

    That’s not exactly a fashionista bar. More like a glorified college watering hole for former frat boys with jobs.

    I haven’t been there in years, but that’s about how I remember it.

  19. Naturally thin women who don’t starve themselves don’t deserve the critical remarks of others any more than their sisters who carry more weight.

    Sure we do. Well, okay, if someone thinks I look too thin, that’s a personal preference that doesn’t bother me anymore than if they thought I weren’t red-headed or goth enough for their taste. It doesn’t carry the weight of societal judgment.

  20. I used to be one of the “too thin” people, and the funny thing about that was that my friends both berated and envied me. “Eat something!” often went hand-in-hand with “I wish I could fit into a size two!”

    It was really confusing and it really screwed with my self-esteem. And you know what? I just want to like myself.

    Oddly, overweight people get pulled in both directions, too. One of the things Weight Watchers members encounter a lot is that while they are told they should be thinner, told “you have such a pretty face [but]”, et cetera, when they actually start losing weight, people start trying to sabotage them. People start seeing them as sexual when they saw them as asexual before; other overweight people feel criticized by their success — the former become less friendly and the latter try to pull the person ‘off the wagon’, tempt her/him with goodies, or even claim dishes they are offering them are healthier than they are. In our culture, we are bombarded with contradictory messages whatever our bodies look like. It’s all deeply frustrating.

    I found Hugo’s linked discussion quite interesting. Myself, I’m about 30 pounds over doctor-recommended weight, at last guess. I’m not terribly happy about it, but haven’t been spending the exercise time to bring it down to a more comfortable, less asthmatic number. The weird part about this is that if anyone finds out that I’m overweight, they seem to assume that I’m wrong and have an eating disorder. Umm, it’s flattering that you think I look fine, but this is about my health (and my not having to buy new clothes constantly, which is a frustrating waste of money and time). Your approval is not what I’m looking for. Nor, in the case of fellow Weight Watchers, your generous black-ball from the overweight club. Sheesh.

  21. I want to know what bizarro-universe those people are living in, in which the dark-haired woman in the green shirt has anything other than a completely, 100%, not-fat-not-thin, normal, healthy body. Anyone who thinks she’s fat obviously has a funhouse mirror for a monitor.

    As for the criticism of fat vs. thin bodies – obviously neither is acceptable. But considering how powerful thin privilege is in this society, I would contend that criticism of fat people, especially women, for being fat is more of a pervasive problem than is criticism of thin people for being thin. Both are terrible, but to imperfectly co-opt a construction from critical race theory (I think?): anti-thin bigotry is prejudice, whilst anti-fat bigotry is power + prejudice. My take on it anyway.

  22. As for the criticism of fat vs. thin bodies – obviously neither is acceptable. But considering how powerful thin privilege is in this society, I would contend that criticism of fat people, especially women, for being fat is more of a pervasive problem than is criticism of thin people for being thin. Both are terrible, but to imperfectly co-opt a construction from critical race theory (I think?): anti-thin bigotry is prejudice, whilst anti-fat bigotry is power + prejudice. My take on it anyway.

    I think it’s more like bashing mothers vs. bashing childless women. The former might or might not be doing what the patriarchy wants them to, but they’re still a member of an abject class. While thin women are not subject to hatred because they aren’t fat, they are subject to denigration because they’re women; criticism directed at their bodies is reinforced by the weight of society in that sense.

  23. While thin women are not subject to hatred because they aren’t fat, they are subject to denigration because they’re women; criticism directed at their bodies is reinforced by the weight of society in that sense

    .

    Bingo, Piny. This discussion quickly can lead to the “suffering Olympics.” Comparative oppressions is a dangerous game to play, particularly when discussing women’s bodies. It creates division and hostility rather than empathy and understanding.

  24. Well, OTOH, there is measurable prejudice against fat women as fat women, and some privilege that attaches to being in a non-fat body even if you are the wrong sex.

    We’ve batted around sniping before. While it certainly can contribute to a thin woman’s self-hatred, it isn’t quite the same as telling a woman that her body is subject to your approval and then condemning her as worthless.

  25. Good on the server for fighting this shit. The fuckers at the restaurant will make it difficult for her and her colleagues, no doubt, but they deserves to be dragged through the legal system by their toes – backwards – so I hope the kids persist.

  26. I like the one in the green shirt. She is perfect, Beautiful!. And the attitude makes me want to melt

    I like strong women.

  27. I’ve noticed that many weight related discussions in the feminist blogosphere go something like this:
    1.) assholery oppressing women who are deemed “too fat” (“too fat” meaning anything from Monica Bellucci to Mo’nique)
    2.) feminist blogger rightly derides the assholery
    3.) commenters rush in and say how beautiful curvy women are and how they find heavier women sexier than thin women
    4.) thin women complain that it’s not fair and they get accused of being anorexic, or they have other appearance flaws
    etc.
    I’m not trying to set off a flamewar, but I think the roots of the problem are the existence of a beauty standard, the expectation that women must fit said beauty standard or they are ugly and that ugly women are worthless.
    I used to work at a lingerie store (long story) that used a lot of conventionally sexy women in skimpy outfits in the ads. However, I can’t think of a single worker in the store who *looked* like the models, because it was a competitive job and the managers hired us for our competence not our appearance – we had workers of almost every race and body size. Admittedly, we did have to dress up nice and most of the workers were pretty in an ordinary way and obviously kept up their hair, makeup, nails, etc.
    Then again I’m neither thin nor curvy, so I don’t have a horse in this race.

  28. Yes, even if you’re thin you’re not good enough. I’m naturally slender, but not in the ‘right’ way- my breasts are small and my hips are large. If some other woman is thin, but she is the type that naturally has a more atheletic figure, well, she is anorexic. If a woman is normal, she is too fat. If a woman is fat, she is going to die a horrible death within five minutes, omg!

  29. 3.) commenters rush in and say how beautiful curvy women are and how they find heavier women sexier than thin women
    4.) thin women complain that it’s not fair and they get accused of being anorexic, or they have other appearance flaws

    That’s not exactly how it goes. It’s more like
    3) commenters rush in and say how beautiful curvy women are
    3a) other, or the same, commenters mention that thin people look “too thin” or “emaciated” or sometimes go to “anorexic” or “12 year old boy.”
    4) thin women feel the hate in step 3a) and complain (rightly) about it.
    It’s fine with me if you think women heavier than I are also sexier than I. It’s not so fine when you start criticizing my body for not meeting your tastes.

  30. Frumious B – *I* have never said that curvy women are sexier or more attractive than thin women and in fact I was criticizing the whole phenomenon of saying that. Believe me, I feel extremely hurt when people say things like, as you mentioned, “too thin” or “12 year old boy”, or “real women have curves”. Although I don’t identify myself as thin or curvy, I’m more likely to be identified as thin than curvy (if that makes any sense. Whatever).
    However, I do understand that a lot of heavier women get called fat pigs and worse, and that for the past decades there has been almost no space for them among mainstream images of beauty. So I’m sure it is refreshing to hear that people think their kind of body is attractive.

  32. The woman in the first picture is the average female body type here in Berln… no one would say that it is fat.

  34. I have preferences in regard to what body types and weights I find most attractive, but I often wonder what responsibility I have to overcome the social conditioning that ingrained those preferences within me. Even though I may not have chose to find certain body types attractive, media and other social conditioning helped determine what I found attractive, and it’s possible I could change what I find attractive. Any thoughts?

  35. I am sort of shocked that any of those women (am I allowed to say that I think they ALL are beautiful?) would be considered “too fat” to do anything. Much less “too fat” to work as a flipping WAITRESS.

    I can see–MAYBE–that a business is entitled (again: MAYBE, i t depends) to preferentially hire good looking people for customer interaction. But, um, they ARE all good looking. So i really don’t get it.

  36. Josh –
    Here’s a good place to start. There are also some good links at this site. Some books I recommend that really got me thinking about “beauty” and its social implications are “Autobiography of a Face”, “Fat Girl” (Moore), “Color Stories”, “The Bluest Eye”, “Flesh Wounds” (Blum), “Female Chauvinist Pigs” and “The Beauty Myth”. I don’t agree with all of them, but I can say that they all made me think.

  37. Oh yeah, and visit awfulplasticsurgery.com (probably not work safe, although the pictures are more disturbing and gory) – which shows that the beautiful people do all kinds of weird things to get that way. Then again I might not be the best one to talk about this because my views on beauty are probably fairly radical even for a feminist.

  38. Huh. Guess we never do stop learning.

    I’ve spent a great deal of time resisting the extremely thin beauty ideal – my wife and several close friends, all of whom I find very attractive, sometimes need reassurance that there are, in fact, men out there whose personal preferences fall into the “Real Women Have Curves” camp. It honestly didn’t occur to me that my comments about the models in the lower picture being “emaciated” was the same sort of judgment, coming from the other angle (I won’t say it never occurs to me – I saw a book a few years back with the rather disturbing title of “Thin Women Are Evil”, but it didn’t occur to me now.

    So for the record: I still think that there’s something terribly wrong when anyone accuses the woman in the upper picture of being even remotely close to overweight. I hope she not only wins her suit but slaps the gorilla who tried to physically place her on the scale with assault charges.

    I recant the former judgment I passed on the women in the lower photo, though I remain concerned that they’re considered “normal” or even hefty, when it seems clear to me that, while they may be larger than other models, they’re still extraordinarily thin.

    The picture itself does them no favors, incidentally. It looks like it was taken by some random tourist that they asked to take a picture for them.

  39. Trying to forcibly put the waitress on the scale sounds like an assault to me.

    But is it illegal to have a weight requirement for employees?

  40. There’s a little thing called a BFOQ — Bona Fide Occupational Qualification.

    It was one thing at the dawn of aviation, for example, to have weight requirements for flight attendants, because every ounce counted. Similarly, while it wasn’t an actual job, there was a cheerleader at my college who challenged the weight requirements for cheerleaders — 130 pounds, max, regardless of height. I think she lost, because the weight requirement was reasonably related to the performance of the task — which meant getting thrown in the air and standing on the shoulders of other cheerleaders. I seem to recall something about Hooters waitresses meeting a bustiness standard because they were considered part of the decor.

    Most places like this will hire thin waitresses but not subject them to weigh-ins — they’ll just can them when they start to get too chunky for the manager’s liking, or they’ll be told to go on a diet.

    This place was incredibly stupid for doing this, especially the assault by the manager. Employment is at-will, so they can be fired for any reason, and most people won’t bother to sue because they can’t prove that there was a discriminatory reason (and weight is only spottily subject to protection; I think Michigan is still the only state that includes it explicitly in its anti-discrimination statutes). But once you throw assault and weigh-ins into the mix, you give the waitresses a rope to hang you with.

  41. Interestingly, as liberal as NYC is in a lot of other ways, it seems to be the epitome of the impossible beauty standard (okay, possible if you’re willing to spend an hour getting ready every morning). Is this because it’s the heart of much of the fashion industry?

    I’m fortunate to be in banking, where the “no makeup, ponytail, conservative clothing” look is currently in. But even so, there seems to be an obsession here with looking “perfect” or at least competing for good looks, be it in bars, at work, or wherever else–hair not out of place, clothes perfectly matched/ironed, no mascara smudges, etc. i find myself checking my hair and face powder often at my desk, even though the overall look is “casual.”

    And when going out to bars, I CONSISTENTLY feel inadequate next to the other young women who are there, even if I’ve spent some time getting ready. I feel like I have a bigger gut, wider arms, messier hair, or whatever the prominent feature is in that location. I feel that my husband should be embarrassed to be seen with me compared to them. Also, I’m clearly not wearing $300 worth of clothes, and I think it shows.

    But Jill has seen me personally and I’m not a scary sight, just an average 27-year-old woman. I’ll leave pretty up to others to decide but the point is that it seems that NYC has much higher standards for how you look, dress, weigh, etc. more so than most other places I go. In Hoboken I can go out as I am and not feel so inadequate; in Wisconsin or PA I can go out in jeans and a T-shirt and light makeup and not feel like frumpgirl, etc.

    Here I feel like I need a mascara touchup just for my commute home. And as common as this is to do, I have even been told by some guys that the comfortable tennis-shoes-and-corporate-wear look that helps save my feet for my 10-block walk home from the PATH is “frumpy” as well, so yes, people on the subway are evaluating how perfect you look, and would rather I develop sore arches than look “frumpy.”

  42. Interestingly, as liberal as NYC is in a lot of other ways, it seems to be the epitome of the impossible beauty standard (okay, possible if you’re willing to spend an hour getting ready every morning). Is this because it’s the heart of much of the fashion industry?

    Yes and no. NYC’s a big place, and there are a hell of a lot more people — and a lot more beauty standards — than just the well-heeled, well-shod thin white fashionistas.

  44. At the risk of thread drift, I’ve got to say that living in Los Angeles seems more oppressive from a beauty standard than anywhere else I’ve been, including visits (as a tourist) to New York, London, Paris, Milan and other cities famed for their looks-consciousness. I always joke that I get much better looking as soon as I leave the county.

  45. Yes and no. NYC’s a big place, and there are a hell of a lot more people — and a lot more beauty standards — than just the well-heeled, well-shod thin white fashionistas.

    But why does it just seem like the standards here are so much higher in general? Of course there’s your Greenwich Village look which is decidedly not fashionista, but working in Midtown I definitely feel like frumpgirl even though I’m not. Thoughts?

  46. You’re hanging out in too many middle-class white-dominated enclaves?

    I’m really not trying to be snarky here, but NYC is not all runway models. The people you may be in contact with every day may hew to a higher standard, but that doesn’t mean the folks uptown, or in Queens, or Brooklyn, follow the same standards. You’re viewing a slice of NYC and thinking of it as the whole shebang.

    Try hanging out in pubs or bars where schlumpier people go.

  47. Thanks, exangelena. There’s a lot to this issue I need to do some thinking and reading on. Many parts of the issue confuse or frustrate me.

  48. You’re hanging out in too many middle-class white-dominated enclaves?

    On Park Avenue, that’s entirely possibly the case. I also don’t go “pubbing” as much here as I do at home in Hoboken since I’m not here on weekends.

  49. exangelena – by “you” I meant the generic “you”, not you specifically. Sorry that I wasn’t clear enough.

  50. Josh Says:
    September 13th, 2006 at 8:30 am

    I have preferences in regard to what body types and weights I find most attractive, but I often wonder what responsibility I have to overcome the social conditioning that ingrained those preferences within me. Even though I may not have chose to find certain body types attractive, media and other social conditioning helped determine what I found attractive, and it’s possible I could change what I find attractive. Any thoughts?

    I don’t know how to get you to change what you find attractive, but good for you for being aware of it. I already knew that men were conditioned by society to find certain things attractive, regardless of how “natural” they claimed their preferences were. But I had no idea that *I* was under the same influence, too! I think it was an older issue of Bitch magazine I was reading at the library that mentioned the current style for men is to be barechested. Apparently, there’s lots of waxing going on. I had no idea. I just assumed that these guys just happened to have no chest hair. Duh. Anyway, they had some photos of male ideals from past years, and I realized when I saw pics of Tom Selleck and that famous spread from Playgirl with Burt Reynolds, that years ago I found that type of guy attractive. But today, I find chest hair less attractive than a bare chest. Then I realized that I had come under the influence of culture and media. I was totally oblivious to it, even while decrying the same thing in men.

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