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.

I do NOT need to eat less and excercise more!

I've learned a lesson: I will never think I am immune to fat discrimination from doctors ever AGAIN!

Over the past 5 months I have gained 20lbs, have experienced fatigue and hbp. So I went to see my PCP and she asked me about my diet and exercise. I told her I eat healthy and exercise and wanted my thyroid tested. The results came back negative and again she implied it was my lifestyle. I decided to get another opinion. It was the same BS: eat less and exercise more and see a nutritionist. I insisted that it wasn't the case. The look he gave me was priceless! I practically had to beg him to order more tests and he begrudgingly did so. He said whatever is going on with me that I still need to try to loose weight. WTF?! Did you ever think whatever I have is causing the weight gain genius? So I went for the tests last week and have an appt with the physicians assistant next week. Hopefully she will listen and be sympathetic. But I'm not going to hold my breath.