MeMe Roth, taken down a size or two
Jul. 26th, 2009 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tahnanIf you watch television reports on the horror of obesity, you've probably seen MeMe Roth, who's an anti-obesity activist performance artist. She's the "president and founder" of "National Action Against Obesity", which as far as I can tell means "I wanted to appear on national television, so I formed an organization I could represent, which consists solely of me but thereby lends me credibility". The fact that she's more performance artist than activist can be seen from the issues she chooses; in addition to being something of a go-to talking head whenever Fox or CNN needs an anti-obesity "expert", she was profiled (and fortunately ridiculed) on The Daily Show for crusading against cupcakes at elementary school birthday parties, she compared eating to sex crimes....
At any rate, she was recently interviewed on Fox by Stuart Varney, who I know nothing about but gather is fairly conservative. Nevertheless, if you have the sanity points to sit through MeMe's blathering, it's worth seeing the interview, insofar as it opens with him saying, "Why are you so intent on discriminating against women over size 18?"
A few other highlights, if you can't stand to watch it (and who could blame you?): "Do you realize the hurt—I'm serious, you're laughing—do you realize the hurt of what you do? There are many, many people in this society who suffer from, I think, one of the most hurtful forms of discrimination. They are made to feel terrible, they're made to feel that they look awful because you say that they're overweight. And now you come along and you hold up a huge big pair of pants and you mock people, you're laughing at them. That, madam, is disgraceful and shameful, and you are the source of a great deal of hurt and real personal unhappiness." And at the end of the interview, he says to her, "I'll give you a chance to mock people again. You still got that size, large-size pants? Would you like to hold it up again, and mock people, and laugh about it?" And blithely, either not understanding that he's suggesting that what she's doing is terrible or else not remotely caring, she says, "I would absolutely do this." (To which he responds, "Well, you're not, because we're out of time. This is outrageous.")
It is, as Colorwheel said when I mentioned this to her, a shame that Roth gets any media attention at all. But man, it's nice to see someone just outright call her on how awful she is.
At any rate, she was recently interviewed on Fox by Stuart Varney, who I know nothing about but gather is fairly conservative. Nevertheless, if you have the sanity points to sit through MeMe's blathering, it's worth seeing the interview, insofar as it opens with him saying, "Why are you so intent on discriminating against women over size 18?"
A few other highlights, if you can't stand to watch it (and who could blame you?): "Do you realize the hurt—I'm serious, you're laughing—do you realize the hurt of what you do? There are many, many people in this society who suffer from, I think, one of the most hurtful forms of discrimination. They are made to feel terrible, they're made to feel that they look awful because you say that they're overweight. And now you come along and you hold up a huge big pair of pants and you mock people, you're laughing at them. That, madam, is disgraceful and shameful, and you are the source of a great deal of hurt and real personal unhappiness." And at the end of the interview, he says to her, "I'll give you a chance to mock people again. You still got that size, large-size pants? Would you like to hold it up again, and mock people, and laugh about it?" And blithely, either not understanding that he's suggesting that what she's doing is terrible or else not remotely caring, she says, "I would absolutely do this." (To which he responds, "Well, you're not, because we're out of time. This is outrageous.")
It is, as Colorwheel said when I mentioned this to her, a shame that Roth gets any media attention at all. But man, it's nice to see someone just outright call her on how awful she is.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-26 02:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 02:44 pm (UTC)Still, nice to see that someone at least tried to call her on her nonsense.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-27 07:12 pm (UTC)