April 5, 2013, - 4:30 pm

Here’s a Tip: If You’re Offended by the Color “Manatee Grey,” Lose Some Weight – Fat Chicks Need to Lighten Up Alert

By Debbie Schlussel

If you do a search on the Target website, as I did, for the phrase, “Manatee Grey,” you’ll come up with at least ten different items, from men’s t-shirts to towels to placemats. It’s a color used by Target for a lot of items. But, since we’re in the age of anything goes, including “fat chick acceptance” and the “Million Pound March,” a bunch of overweight women are offended. And since we’re also in the age of political correctness and appeasement uber-alles, Target apologized to the fat chicks, er . . . calorically gifted (or is that, “differently digestive”?) women for using the shade of Manatee Grey for a plus-sized dress.

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It’s absurd. You don’t see men complaining that three different Target men’s t-shirts are also colored “Manatee Grey.” And the plus-sized dress also comes in other colors, none of which is Manateed or Hippo’d, but probably should be. These fat chicks are whining because they know deep down that they are overweight, that they need to eat less and exercise more, and they don’t want to face that. They’d rather turn their rage and despair over never being asked out by the hot guy and take it out on Target. After all, why face facts and do something about the extra pounds? We not only live in the age where even the skinniest TV anchors and movie stars pretend that they think “Plus Size is beautiful” (and they do not!), but we live in an age where store chains like Torrid make gazillions telling these fat chicks that instead of aiming to lose weight they will be sexy as they are while wearing “Cross Your Heart Hammocks” on their giant chests and thong underwear resembling the size and length of the Brooklyn Bridge surrounded by butt cheeks that resemble hot air balloons. People Magazine, in what should have been a parody, tells us that sickeningly, morbidly obese actress Gabourey Sidibe, is one of the “Most Beautiful People.” Um, only to Stevie Wonder and chubby chasers (assuming they are on top). Just sayin’.


Stuff like this is the reason fat people are so up in arms about something that should instead make them want to better take care of themselves. We are a society in which self esteem for every single person no matter how lazy, out of control, and irresponsibile they are, is in horribly excessive supply. And we are setting these fat people up for failure. For disappointment. For depression. Because they will be rejected over and over and over for their weight–in their personal lives, in their professional lives. You don’t see many CEOs who are morbidly obese. For a reason. There’s a reason Gabourey Sidibe has hardly worked in Hollywood since People pretended she was hot. People don’t wanna see that onscreen . . . except in “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo” train wreck kinda way. Yes, we live in a vain society–more vain than ever. But we also live in the most dishonest society ever because we pretend that fat people are right to be indignant about Manatee Grey, when they should frankly be embarrassed about their weight and working to lose it.

Back in the day, Target wouldn’t even have a tent-sized dress for sale. But, today, if Target doesn’t have those dresses, the chain is “intolerant” and “insensitive,” and more important, losing the almighty dollar of the growing population of fat chicks across America, a country where more than 62% of Americans are overweight or obese. Yuck. They don’t care that it is healthier to be thin and smoke a pack of cigarettes a day than be morbidly obese with clean lungs. When you are that fat, you are shortening your life and killing your health.

I think it’s hilarious that Target is apologizing for Manatee Grey, when the chicks protesting should be at the gym or walking outside and eating less ice cream. After all, they aren’t fat because of glands or heredity or other baloney excuses (funny those glandular and hereditary problems weren’t around in Asia, until McDonald’s was and weren’t around in America until relatively recently). They are fat because they let themselves get that way. Because they are lazy. Unless you are disabled and can’t move, there is nothing stopping you from exercise. Sadly, there is apparently nothing stopping you–because you have no self control–from grabbing that pizza and fries. It’s your fault you are that way.

If you are so sensitive about Manatee Grey, it’s because you know that, deep down, you are overweight and excessively large, but you refuse to face that fact, and instead take your anger out on a store for a color it uses for many items. You’ve watched “Shallow Hal” one too many times and actually believe the guy would go for the morbidly obese chick (so obese the fat actress who played her actually had to wear a fat suit). In most cases, he won’t.

I’m not mean to fat people to their faces. I don’t believe in making people feel bad. Their weight is none of my business (until Obamacare kicks in, when it’ll be everybody’s biz). But when they whine about Target’s name for a color of a dress, these slobs need to be told the unvarnished truth about how they look and how they got there. They’re angry at themselves more than Target, or they wouldn’t give a crap about Manatee Grey.

Fat chicks, you need to stop being so sensitive about the name of a color and start doing something about your weight and appearance.

Fat chicks, LIGHTEN UP!




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31 Responses

I agree! by the wat, how much do you weigh? I want to lose weight and I need an inspiration.

Titanic fan on April 5, 2013 at 4:36 pm

By the way* sorry, typing on my iPhone.

Titanic fan on April 5, 2013 at 4:37 pm

I really debated on responding to this, because these types of discussions tend to go certain directions. People chime in with “I have this disease and this problem and that’s why I’m a large mammal, ad nauseum.” I am a large, female mammal and I do have a few issues…both autoimmune and dumbass disorders. I am beyond embarrassed that this has become a national news issue. I cringed slightly when I saw the color name. But, it never occurred to me to start a protest. As for Ms. Sidibe, she needs help. Desperately.

I am ashamed of what I’ve done to my body. I’m slowly changing and rebuilding myself. No one is paying for me, since my family and I are self insured. (Well, until the end of 2013. Thanks, Dear Leader!) I may print this column out and keep it with me. This is a bit more motivating than that typical “you can do it” crap.

cirrus1701 on April 5, 2013 at 5:15 pm

CEOs aren’t obese? What about the current CEO of the State of New Jersey?

Seek on April 5, 2013 at 5:23 pm

Debbie’s wrong.

A century ago, big boned and statuseque was considered masculine and beautiful. Think Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft and similar ladies.

Today its thin and beautiful that’s all the rage.

My point being that our notions of human beauty are changeable. There’s nothing wrong with looking the way you were born.

Being too fat or too thin on the other hand is pretending to be someone you’re not. There’s no excuse for it.

NormanF on April 5, 2013 at 5:54 pm

Oh honey, you’re adorable. But you know, if you could shame fat people into being thin there wouldn’t be any fat people.

AB: But that’s the point. We, in fact, did used to shame that. Now, we have high fashion stores for it. DS

Anthea Brainhooke on April 5, 2013 at 6:14 pm

I’m not saying I find fat sexy but it really doesn’t bother me that much.

It can’t be easy being fat today living in a society that promotes superficiality on a scale probably never equaled in human history.

I think a lot it is just that people have these impossible expectations nowadays that can never be met so they just crash and go in completely the opposite direction.

I can’t help feeling the situation would be vastly improved if we all didn’t care that much.

That would involve laughing at people who complain about Manatee Grey super sizes as well as the people that want to tell them what to eat.

But that’ll never happen.
I don’t often trumpet the French but they don’t have as many fat people in France I think. That’s because they don’t give sh*t in my opinion.

Frankz on April 5, 2013 at 6:34 pm

Then again I could be wrong because like I said I haven’t really given it a lot of thought.

Frankz on April 5, 2013 at 6:40 pm

sorry meant to say “give a sh*t”, not that they don’t donate it, oops

Frankz on April 5, 2013 at 6:43 pm

You forgot to mention that many Black men have a penchant for metabolically-challenged women, especially white ones.

Angelo C. on April 5, 2013 at 6:52 pm

I find it rather odd that everybody is saying that everybody is fat now, but now that’s everybody’s pet hate. I suppose there are so many fat people now VS forty-fifty years ago because, opposed to people back then, is because we are all worthless bastards now. It has nothing to do with the fact that everybody has to cook their own shit now because there are no more families, and if you don’t have the time or inclination to cook everything from scratch, all organic and whatever, you are eating processed foods that they put all these chemicals and crap in it. I can remember seeing fat people back before all this shit started, but we were taught not to insult people because of their appearance. I was taught that way, anyway. I can be a crude son of a bitch, but I would never walk up to someone in public and start insulting them about their appearance. If these fat women are offended by something Target has in their stores, they don’t have to shop there. If Target feels that being cute with a childish insult on a clothing label is more important than keeping customers, they have that right, too. Just don’t ask for a bailout.

RT on April 5, 2013 at 6:55 pm

I think the issue with the heavy women is that the same dress for normal sized women was marketed as “dark heather gray.” I know that “manatee grey” is a legitimate color used by Target, but I think they should have kept the same color description for the extra large sizes as they used for the normal sizes. What was the point of changing it?

L: I’ve bought petite sized dresses from Target recently, and they use different color names for the exact colors for the same dress when it is petite versus regular-sized. So this isn’t the big deal the offended fat chicks are claiming, even with that argument. DS

Lilida on April 5, 2013 at 11:09 pm

I just wish a business like Target had stood by their guns, or totally ignored this idiotic debate. I’m tired of companies apologize and buckle to these moronic complaints. The words “Sensitive,” “Intolerant” and “Unfair” must be struck from the business lexicon. Don’t like something a business does? Go elsewhere. Here’s some ideas for Target’s next group of colors: Porcine pink, Obese Orange, Big Butt Blue, Overweight olive, Gargantuan green, Bust out black, Calorie coral, etc. Try these colors for size. I did not like it when Target banned the Salvation Army Kettle bell ringers, so I just don’t shop there. I didn’t rush home, call the state run media and eat three burgers with fries, a whole large pizza, some fried chicken, a pound of M & M’s and drink a diet coke! Whenever I see one of these bovine beauties, I always think, “All that meat and NO potatoes.” This is a non-issue and Target should have stood tall, instead of folding like John McCain and his sock puppet, Graham.

Victoryman on April 6, 2013 at 9:53 am

Why not just go all the way and have huge signs in the store windows saying that they have clothes for fat sloppy hoes and that they can get their fat asses in there and buy some? And, if it is OK to insult and degrade these people the next step would be to go ahead and beat on them and torture them, right? After all they are just fat pieces of shit, they aren’t people, right? Now, hopefully, we will have a full scale thermonuclear, chemical and biological war, complete with a grid destroying EMP strike, and the resulting famine, starvation and lingering death, so that walking human excrement like some of you people will have worries other than whether other people’s appearances meet your approval. And the bonus will be that there will be no more fat people, but you won’t be concerning yourself with this, other than that you would probably butcher and eat them if you could find them. So, just fuck off for now and go back to whatever you were doing, like pushing cripples out of wheel chairs or something.

RT on April 6, 2013 at 11:48 am

Hopefully the time will come when we will not have to pay increased premiums for those with these disgusting lifestyles. Although a few private plans make these adjustments, most big plans, including Obamacare plans, do not.

Perhaps Mrs. Obama, and Mayor Bloomberg, with their haranguing about healthy lifestyles can encourage the government to allow those with healthy lifestyles to pay less and the heavyset people (including their supporters) pay more.

Little Al on April 6, 2013 at 11:54 am

Now, they have you dumb bastards right where they want you. Lower wages and benefits, jack up the price of health care, make you pay for welfare health care and illegal aliens on top of that, and then keep making you think you are more because other people drink,smoke, are fat or whatever. What a convenient way to control the people and weed out behaviors you don’t approve of in (other) people. You just keep your mind on whether or not your neighbor is getting a little more than you are, you dumb bastards, while the government and the ruling classes are raping you to death in a hundred thousand different ways.

RT on April 6, 2013 at 1:24 pm

That is why I love your work, you always cut through the BS and get straight to the heart of the matter. Could have been worse though, they could have labeled it Battleship Gray.

William Stout on April 6, 2013 at 3:14 pm

If anyone should be offended it’s the manatees. There are just too many people out there with too much time on their hands.

OrlandoRican on April 6, 2013 at 4:13 pm

Outside of the fact that “dark heather” was used to describe the same color for smaller sized clothing, Debbie is right about what she says. I find these complaints to be nothing more than yet another heaping helping of New Age American Selective Activism. Note that Debbie brought up Obamacare. That’s right, one’s weight is going to be everybody’s business when the government has wrested complete control of our lives away from us, which they are a cat’s whisker away from as I type this.

What about the airlines that are now beginning to charge more for people past a certain weight? There’s a BIT of an outcry, but not much.

It is trivial to bring up people like Taft and one of the fathers of Progressivism, T. Roosevelt. I am a former up and coming bodybuilder from ages ago. My ambitions were derailed by a car accident nearly 35 years ago, leaving me with permanent neurological damage, although you wouldn’t know it to look at me, or watch me work out in the fields. As well, my complete insistence on NOT using performance enhancing drugs left me with no competitive hopes. A cousin of mine did become one of the great bodybuilder of that period 30-35 years ago.

My involvement in what was once referred to as “physical culture” taught me principles I use to this day. I have consummate knowledge of the daily care, feeding and training of the human body for optimum health, strength and fitness. It’s very simple. Take a look at pictures of Americans at work and at play pre 1945 and post 1945. VERY few fat people, the Tafts of the world notwithstanding.

Americans pre 1945 came before mass industrialization, automation, and manual labor became a dirty word, and before Americans disdained having their children grow up to become anything but educated professionals. After 1945, manual labor became something to abhor, and Americans found increasing excuses not to indulge in it, nor to tolerate any of their children growing up to engage in it. While Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged people that were street sweepers to become the best they could be, America was well on its way to abhorring such labors, preferring that those jobs be done by “other people.”

So today, we have Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds who don’t want to do anything more strenuous than lift a fork, a remote or a joystick. God forbid just three times a week we engage in REALLY strenuous activity for an hour or so. God forbid we learn how to carry groceries home a few blocks, noooooo, gotta get out the car, or at least a shopping cart, maybe even have them delivered. Blowers have replaced snow shovels, and backpacks have replaced carrying things in your arms.

I’ve read a bit about Debbie’s athletic background, and she certainly speaks volumes when it comes to this subject here. Instead of using selective activism, these Americans need to get a life, a much more active one. Instead of complaining about the price of gas and how out of shape one is, how about walking the five, even ten blocks to the supermarket and carrying those groceries home in a couple of cloth bags?

I do it, right here in the southwest corner of Puerto Rico. I walk to town, hit two supermarkets, and then from a cousin’s house, with the day’s purchases, walk over 2 1/2 miles to my door. I make plenty of altitude as well, as town is well below here in the feet above sea level count. Never mind the neurological damage, all the way up, mostly along a narrow two lane country road which can be quite dangerous at times, through another cousin’s field, all the way to my door. I’ve done it with as much as 50 pounds of groceries. Oh, did I mention I’m asthmatic? Yeah, huffing and puffing, sweating up a storm in the 90+ tropical heat is also good for asthma, no lie. People need to get their motors running hot and high in order to stay in the best shape.

Even back in NYC, I always engaged in plenty of walking, not just for grocery shopping, either. And I eat plenty of ice cream and other dairy products, too. I drink gallons of soda to quench my thirst for the farm work, because I stopped drinking plain water years ago, lost my taste for it. Take that, Mayor Stalinberg, NO OBESITY on THIS fine ass body. Soda is 1/3 to 1/2 the price it is back in the states.

I no longer have any mass, but I still have a great physique, because God gave me a musculoskeletal structure which was made for WORK!!! No one says you need to spend 12 hours a day out in the fields being beaten in to submission by a ‘master,’ but people need to stop making excuses for just plain living the wrong way and do something strenuous on a regular basis. Oops, living the wrong way, did Alfredo really say that? Just offended a whole bunch of OTHER folks, I did. Or do a LOT of walking, if you’re too timid for anything strenuous, and carry something fairly heavy at times.

I have cleared tens of thousands of square feet of farmland that no one worked on for 10-15 years with just two machetes and a hatchet in a little over a year. Then, after going to NYC for work assignments, chiropractic visits, etc., I come back and have to go over certain areas again to keep them under control, and pick up where I left off clearing another section. I dare say many men one-third to half my age would drop doing what I do. I actually know it, because men that age who work for a horse farmer cousin on the larger part of the farm come and see the work I’ve done, and leave shaking their heads.

Would I PREFER to be Jabba The Hutt, sitting around doing nothing and being served all the time? What human being doesn’t have that trait lurking in the corner of their mind somewhere? But it has no purpose, especially when you look in the mirror, the spiritual, psychological and physical one.

Debbie’s right America, get off your FAT ASSES and stop being SELECTIVE ACTIVISTS!!!

Alfredo from Puerto Rico on April 6, 2013 at 8:20 pm

Debbie I keep buying these delectable little mini vats of ice cream at the grocery store for $1.19 and now I feel fat but still look reasonably thin. I’m into cookie dough right now but traditionally consider mint chocolate chip my go to ice cream. Anyway a couple of things I’d like to share with you Debbie as you my favorite person ever*. First I’ve never slept with a fat girl but a couple of times due to circumstances I had relations with Jewish girls who were a bit zaftig. I can tell you I got very little respect from my homies. On the other hand when I had thin, pretty gf’s I got a lot of respect from my people. It was really dramatic how much who I slept with affected my social standing. It was almost like being a mini celebrity at times, I think. Once in my 20’s I was with a very good looking gf outside a club with a line. She walks to the front and they let us in. She didn’t know anybody or even hardly say anything. It was like being part of a secret society. She wasn’t Jewish or well educated and her social climbing was a bit much so that was that. My point Debbie is that although I am older and sicker and eat too much ice cream and violated Passover in an egregious manner I still have value as a friend and a Jew.

A1 on April 6, 2013 at 10:43 pm

    A1, would you shut the ef up?

    skzion on April 7, 2013 at 12:59 pm

Manatee Grey is a pretty mild thing. It is much better than saying that you would fill out a potato sack. Some people spend their entire lives waiting to be offended.

Worry01 on April 7, 2013 at 3:22 am

That’s right, Worry01, your last sentence sums it up perfectly. That’s something I remarked to a few people about during the early 80’s, that getting offended would some day present us with major problems in America. And heeeeeeeere we are, political correctness, selective activism, people LOOKING for an excuse to get offended at anything, with potentially everything being fair game.

It’s OVER folks, goodbye America. Go about your lives, but don’t be surprised at anything, and expect the absolute worst.

Some people need to consider that Target COULD have said ‘whale gray’ or ‘elephant gray.’ How about ‘aircraft carrier gray?’ ROTFLMAO!!!

Alfredo from Puerto Rico on April 7, 2013 at 9:43 am

I was so fat in the 1990’s. I eat like a SEA COW. So, I was a large woman. I enjoyed getting fat. I ate pasta, pizza, chocolate, you name it.
I just went on a diet and lost the weight.
I agree, LOSE WEIGHT FAT chicks

The Mad Jewess on April 7, 2013 at 2:41 pm

Here’s something a lot of you people would like. Walk up to someone who has been on a diet, for, oh, two or three months. They have lost maybe pounds in exchange for months of being hungry and feeling like shit all day. In a loud voice, and with people around (But I don’t need to tell you this, you would have thought of it anyway, it comes natural to you) say: “Wow, putting on some weight lately, eh?”, Or, look them up and down and say, “Hey, I thought you were on a diet?”.

RT on April 7, 2013 at 6:58 pm

    RT, for what it’s worth, not everyone who has been silent on this issue sides with Debbie completely. If the woman in question wants to raise a stink about what seems to have been an insult to fat customers, by all means she should do so. Businesses should not be shaming customers.

    I have no personal stake in this matter, but it does seem that the anti-fat types are sounding a bit shrill. For many fat people, getting thin is nearly impossible. The body starts lowering the metabolism in order to compensate for fewer calories, for example. Fatness is not a moral problem.

    skzion on April 7, 2013 at 8:37 pm

It would be a boring world if we all had the same opinions. And, I agree with Debbie on most things, most of the time. Most of the time, when I disagree it is over something minor. In the context of what is going on in our world, this is kind of minor, but it pissed me off. I think some of the comments on this pissed me off more than what Debbie wrote. Fat or not fat is a very complicated subject, and there are a lot of factors involved in it. Even this particular issue aside, I am not at all impressed by the “customer service” practiced by most business people these days. Most people doing business act like they are doing you a favor and if you don’t like it, get the f__ out of the way, because the dipshit behind you,with the vacant stare, has his wallet out. I read a book by a guy named Napoleon Hill, called “Think and grow rich” in which he described the arrogant attitude of business people towards their customers that prevailed before the great depression. He said that after some lean months and years, everyone was looking for a way to draw customers. Obviously, times have not been hard enough here to produce this effect yet. The system is set up where you can lose your job or run your business into the ground because you were a bastard or just didn’t give a shit, and others will feed, clothe and house you. As western civilization continues it’s fall, this may change. And the big fat problem of fat people will go away, too. In the future, just like in the not so distant past, those who like to make themselves feel good by abusing and ridiculing their fellow man, will be choosing the ragged scarecrow, walking skeletons grubbing through the garbage, sewers and gutters for something to eat, as their targets for abuse. Or, maybe they will be amongst their numbers.

RT on April 8, 2013 at 1:35 am

Debbie, you are an incredibly hateful person. You are as bad as Al-Qaida.

Sarah on April 10, 2013 at 8:24 pm

I don’t normally comment on stuff like this because I don’t normally have a problem. But you know what, Debbie and commenters–SHUT UP. You have no idea what it’s like to struggle with weight in a society that wants you rail thin–to be TRYING with diet and exercise and still not see any results. I’m not offended by the color name, because it’s just a stupid dress. What hurts me is the comments on this post hurling insults. We are NOT all face-stuffing slobs. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Stephanie on May 2, 2013 at 11:31 pm

Oh, come on. Ain’t nothin wrong with a lil’ extra beef on those buns. I know I like em juicy and jiggling.

Now all them skinny girls are disgusting. You can see the bones.

The bones.

Nothing wrong with big women. They’re a lot nicer then all the skinny b*tches. Prettier, too. Got more to hang on to. I like that in a WOMAN.

Don’t like skinny girls. They aren’t Women.

Wigglebottom on July 26, 2013 at 9:29 pm

I bet the author of this blog pukes for a living, Stephanie. Stuffs her face and hurls it like it ain’t nothin at all. Dying to be thin, you digg?

Wigglebottom on July 26, 2013 at 9:31 pm

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