The insult of the negative fat meme

The insult of the negative fat meme


Besides all of the discrimination and efforts to control their weight by non-productive and non-constructive diets and medication (weight loss surgery proved extremely cost-ineffective and was scrapped in most areas early in the rule of the Pro-Health and Diet Administration), the worst thing about being fat, refugees from the Other Side/USA wrote in their journals when they were in FatLand, was being tagged with memes, images and symbols that insulted them and made them sub-human, made them symbols to be ridiculed, harassed and hated and at odd times, pitied.

The worst one, a new FatLand resident wrote, was the one that labeled fat people passive. "Couch potato" was one that was often referenced, as was "piggy lazing in mud." This, the writer wrote, seemed to associate fat people's supposed "passivity" with their being sent to the Reeducation Centers. It seemed to imply that fat people deserved the horrific singling out and mistreatment they received in the Centers and that it was natural for them to receive it because they were passive and "soft" and useless.

"This," she said, "was the worst. "It was bad enough being singled out for your supposed lack of health and unattractiveness, but then to be considered passive and useless, and only worthy of being sent to a Reeducation Center, made me so sick inside that I cried almost every night. It felt as if my own country was telling me that I could do nothing of worth for them, that I was not worthy of being a citizen and living in it."

"That is when I knew that I had to try to get out of there, even if I died in the process. For I was either going to get out or die trying. I refused to be sent to a Reeducation Center."


According to the rest of the account, this FatLander arranged with the FatandProud group in her area to help her transport herself to Canada, to an airport where the then-fledgling FatAir, the airline of FatLand, operated. She took FatAir to FatLand.

And there, she reported, she started to live again and recover her worth as an individual and as someone who had something to contribute to the economy and social wellbeing of her new country.