Sunday, September 7, 2008

Dear Prudence: fat and unlovable

I've been reading Dear Prudence for a few years now, back when it was written by Margo Howard. Now its run by Emily Yoffe, whom I am starting not to like very much. In her latest column, one of the answers she gave really ticked me off. A young girl wrote in (her question was even featured in Slate V, "Heavier and Hard Up."- scroll about half way down the page) asking what she should do about her boyfriend, who now finds her unattractive because she has gone up two dress sizes in a year- from a 16 to a 20.

Now my first reaction was she needs to see a doctor, because when you gain that much weight in a such as short period of time, there is probably something going on. But does Prudie think about that? 3 guesses to what her answer was. "ZOMG you has the fatz, you need to stop stuffing your big fat face, you disgusting pig and get off your lazy fat ass and start excercising you SLOTH! Not once does she advice that the weight gain could be related to something like hypothyroidism or PCOS. She just automatically assumes that she eats baby flavored donuts and sits on her butt all day.

I feel bad for the poor girl. She was probably expecting some good advice and all she got was fat hating drivvel. What if she hated herself already and this just added to her low self esteem. What if she now thinks she is so fat and ugly that she doesnt deserved to be loved for who she is. But on the other hand, maybe she is going to take this with a grain of salt and say "fuck you" to her loser boyfriend and find someone who will love her no matter what she looks like. I hope its the latter.

If enough FAers read this column and write to her saying that she is wrong about this, maybe she'll issue and apology. I remember when Margo was writing, she admitted that she was wrong when some of her readers pointed it out and issued an apology (I dont remeber what it was). Maybe Emily will realize this and issue one too, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

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