By Debbie Schlussel

Nobody said America wasn’t a nation full of utter contradictions and hypocrisy.

And so it goes, today . . . with a huge dose of political correctness favoring the, um, “calorically-gifted.”

Scene from “The Fat-chelor” a/k/a “More to Love”

Today, on the cover of USA Today (and inside many other newspapers of record, including the Wall Street Journal), the headline warns:

“Obesity is a key link to soaring health tab.”

The article goes on to note that healthcare costs related to weight (heavy weight, not anorexia)–which thin, healthy people help shoulder–doubled to $147 billion for the year 2008.

And while the headlines scream that, tonight FOX is debuting a show that screams something else:  that it’s okay for these fatties to wear a size 24 and cost Americans gazillions in extra medical bills.

I nickname the show,  “The Fat-chelor.”  But, in PC-victimhood style, it has a far more sympathetic, compassionate, sensitive name:   “More to Love.”  More like, More to Laugh At.  ABC’s “The Bachelor” is bad enough.  But now the producer of that show, Mike Fleiss (cousin of hooker Heidi) brings us this “bigger” version.  A guy who weighs 330 pounds “dates” several women, all of whom are fat, er . . . “plus-sized”–and all but two of whom weigh over 200 pounds.   (The show would be far more interesting if they made the Fat-chelor and his weighty concubines get in an elevator to see if they exceed capacity and find out what happens. )

Yes, we’re supposed to feel sympathetic that these women ate and ate and ate, and sat and sat and sat.   We’re supposed to have compassion and saw, “Aww . . . isn’t that cute and nice.  Finally a show for them.”  Uh, no.  Sorry, but in a society–ours–in which 34% of adults are obese (as of 2006, the latest year for which such numbers are available) and growing (according to the National Center for Health Statistics/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we need LESS shows promoting that it’s okay to be sickly and in a poor health condition of your own doing.

It used to be that our society frowned on fat people.  And there were less of them.  But, as I’ve noted for the last decade on this site and elsewhere, we now whine endlessly about thin models and the alleged “pressure on girls to be thin,” and open one retail chain and pop cultue phenomenon after the other to cater to the ever growing fat portion of society.  That’s where the problem lies.

The problem is not an endless parade of Americans who are too thin. It’s an endless parade of Americans who are way, way, waaaaaay too fat.  But the opening and success of stores like “Torrid,” selling uber-zaftig teen girls  lace cross-your-heart hammocks (breas) and thongs that resemble the Brooklyn Bridge in size, has made it in vogue to be overweight.  We encourage it, even though–truth be told–we wouldn’t be caught dead dating these people.

And so tonight’s  debut of the new FOX show–which at one time would have been relegated to a weird closeted chubby chasers fetish club–on national broadcast TV is a symbol of how far we’ve come, er . . . gained.  How far we’ve lost (without losing pounds).

And FOX’s “differently digestive” reality show is not the only pro-fat show on TV, this summer.  Others are also promoting and giving overt approval to people who aren’t just obese, they’re morbidly so.

The barely-watched Oxygen Network has the show, “Dance Your Ass Off,” in which very humongous, overweight people dance to try to lose weight.  I thought a better title would have been “Bring the House Down,” since that’s what would happen if these human tons danced on the second floor of your house.  Some have cited the show, “Ruby,” about a 500-pound woman, appearing on the Style Network.  But at least Ruby is trying to lose weight on that show and is now under 350 lbs.

Yes, the battle of the bulge is a tough one for most Americans.  It’s work.  It takes discipline and initiative.  You have to want to take a walk outside or go for a run.  It’s a test of will and strength to forgo eating another bag of chips or dunk another Oreo cookie.  These fatties are lazy.  They have no self-control.  The choice they do make is for slovenliness.

And don’t give me that “I have a gland problem” excuse.  Unless you are physically disabled, you have no excuse.  Why is it that so many fewer Americans had “gland” problems in 1980, when only 15% of Americans were obese?  I doubt there’s something in the water or that an abormal  gene suddenly took hold of Americans’ bodies like a horror flick script.

And it’s not about socio-economic status and class, either.  You don’t need an expensive gym to work out.  You just need the will for some fresh air and a nice walk in your neighborhood or the park.  The excuse, that poor people don’t have access to fresh produce and are stuck eating at McDonald’s, doesn’t wash either.  McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s–all of these places offer fresh fruit, salads, and lower-calorie offerings.  You just have to have the internal desire to forgo the fries and burgers or eat them in moderation.  Instead, some fat kids and their parents sue fast food chains.  That’s the ticket.

I’ve written about this topic over and over through the years, and the problem just keeps getting worse.  Whenever I write about it, I get hate-mail from the Million Pounds March/A Waist is a Terrible Thing to Mind crowd, as if their lack of self-control and laziness is a civil rights cause (well, it is a civil right to be fat, but you get the point) . . . as if it’s the same as being born Black or Hispanic.  Newsflash:  It ain’t.  You can change your physical condition and lose the weight.  It’s entirely a different thing to lose your skin pigment, Michael Jackson notwithstanding.

And it’s not shallow to feel this way.  Yes, our society is far too pre-occupied with looks.  But it is what it is.  And it’s hardly the same thing as not wanting to be with someone who will crush you in one move:  by sitting on you.  Shows like this send young girls the wrong message:  that people will love them no matter how much they weigh.  Well, yeah, but it’ll be a lot tougher.  Reality check:  fat people are often discriminated against (though perhaps not enough anymore), they are looked down upon, they are made fun of (though, again, not enough anymore because of our PC culture), and to give your kids any message otherwise, you’re setting them up for disappointment and sadness amidst the tub of ice cream.

Mike Darnell, head of FOX’s alternative programming, said he commissioned the show, “More to Love,” because he wanted to do a show with “real” people.

“‘There’d been 100 versions of dating shows. But no one ever said, ‘Let’s try to put regular people – or people bigger than a size 2 – on a show,’ ‘ Darnell says. ‘This reflects the dating pool. It’s very relatable to the vast majority of women who watch these shows.'”

But people don’t want to watch regular people, unattractive people.  Thus, the phrase, “movie star looks.”  People want to escape their lives when they relax and watch TV, not see a carbon copy of Sharon, the fat chick in accounting, literally living large on their small screens.

Several years ago, I mocked the movie, “Shallow Hal.”  Yes, the movie was hilarious.  But its message was that fat people are beautiful, that we should feel for them, that it’s discrimination not to want to date them, that in the end a guy will see the utter “hotness” of a morbidly obese chick–all utter BS.  Sorry, but all of this is fantasy.  And yet the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance was perturbed at this very sympathetic (to them) movie.  I said it then, and I’ll say it again:  fat chicks need to lighten up.

Do you think they’ll ever make a movie or reality TV show about guys who fall for anorexic chicks?  Good luck.  I wouldn’t watch it.  Not only would it be even more disgusting than the fat shows, it–more important–simply wouldn’t have the comedy value that tonight’s “Fat-chelor,” er . . . “More to Love,” will have.

I feel for these fat-atrixes in one respect:  our society is now telling them that they should feel comfortable in their (multi-folds of) skin.  But, in reality, the contestants on tonight’s “Fat-chelor” are being used and taken advantage of by sleazy Hollywood producers who are making cha-ching off of them.  And that’s worth more than their extremely heavy weigh in gold.

As readers know, I’m against the food police.  And I think government should stay out of healthcare.  I believe in the free market, free will, and personal responsibility.  If you want to eat a giant 1500-calorie super duper cheeseburger, go ahead.  I aplaud that American gives you that choice, and big brother doesn’t tell you what to eat and whether to exercise.  But don’t expect me to pay for your health insurance when you get a corononary because you have a steady diet of crap like that and sit on the couch watching muching on Snickers as you watch “The Biggest Loser.”  Sadly, insurance operates collectively, and I pay for you.  We all do.  When you don’t have insurance, America pays for you and your eating.

And that’s why I don’t cheer this mainstream approbation of the chubby chicks that’s made a marked steady slippery slope incline over the last decade.  In real life, fat chicks would never make it up that slope.

And that’s why–at the core of the problem–it’s the (sometimes thin) people on the left and in the PC crowd who are to blame.  They’re the ones who preach to us not to “judge” people when they weigh 330 pounds and aren’t a linemen for the Dallas Cowboys.  They’re the ones making money casting and (subrosa, mocking) fat chicks.  They’re the ones telling them to feel proud about buying–and wearing–a size 32 thong, so the panty-lines won’t show under their giant size 32 skin-tight leggings.

They’re the ones who give these fat people a leg–and a giant thigh–up.

***

One other thing:  You might ask why I pick mostly on fat chicks and not fat men.  Well, for men, it mostly doesn’t matter.  In our society, most women glom onto men for the size of their  . . . wallets.

The Luke Conley, the real estate investor and construction contractor on tonight’s show, is successful.  And because of that, he can probably get a woman far below the standard 200 pounds average of the cast of this show.  Women are judged by their beauty, which is why nearly every hate e-mail I get from Sarahmessiah supporters cites Mrs. Palin’s “gorgeous looks”  (as overrated as they are, all things being relative) as an asset for the Presidency.

Still, studies have shown that water rises to its own level–that people end up in relationships with those who are in a similar level of attractiveness.  And that’s what you have with “The Fat-chelor.”

Well, one way or another, we’re assured of one thing:  The show is gonna be HUGE.