comment #1

JohnCope says ...

What will eventually happen, what's already beginning to happen, is that insurance companies will have to start not only upping premiums sky high on these people but probably also using obesity as a reason to exclude coverage. The weight epidemic is simply costing too much. This will seem extreme to many as it will demand self-discipline which no one has but it's also an inevitability I think.

comment #2

corey3rd says ...

It's the rapid rise of corn syrup in our diets and the Big Gulp being seen as a Medium drink.

comment #3

MathewM says ...

There are hundreds of reasons and it's not just a red or blue state thing as Wells likes to portray everything as. Another reason is a urban vs. suburban lifestyle. People who live in cities walk more than those living in the suburbs. In general though people of lower incomes eat more junk and exercise less. It's not a political ideology which is typical Wells stupidity.

comment #4

Jay T. says ...

Jeff, you're missing the author's point. He is in no way enabling obesity, he's merely calling it inevitable. That's not the same thing - not even close.

comment #5

vansmith says ...

fat americans, fat bastards in general make me uncomfortable, they stomp in offices, breath heavy, look disheveled, they are usually very nice people though. i know its hard to lose weight but i see tons of school kids eating huge chinese food dishes for lunch on sunset, carl's jr and in n out up the street, jesus, they dont stand a chance in hell. its the getting everything you want syndrome..

comment #6

JD says ...

I know doctors who have very strong feelings about this phenomenon. Their feeling is that people are basically in denial about the idea of good vs. bad health. Much like the widespread denial of pending environmental disasters, this belief assumes that you can buy your way out of anything, that doctors can give you a magic pill and extend your life indefinitely, no matter how much you clog your arteries. This also extends to mainstream attitudes about movies. People are basically immature, stuck in that child-like feeling of immortality, and preoccupied with escapism. Maybe I'm in a tiny minority here but, to me, living like this seems far more depressing than confronting the harsh realities of the world. Hell, accepting the dark possibilities of a life lived irresponsibly -- and taking measures to avoid these possibilities -- is downright liberating by comparison.

comment #7

MG_movies says ...

I thought this was a movie blog, not a place for small-minded, prejudiced people to air their vile opinions about how OTHER people should live. Like you, Jeff. I love your writing, but I am sick to death of your posts about obesity, politics, and every other damn thing that has nothing to do with MOVIES. I know this is America and you are entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't mean you get to yell FIRE in a crowded movie house (or MOVIE in a crowded firehouse).If you want to have a general blog, then call it "What I Think About Everything." Otherwise, is it possible to blog about actual movie and the movie business?

comment #8

vansmith says ...

put down the burger and fries MG, we're just riffing here..lol

comment #9

Craig Kennedy says ...

Are you this black and white in real life Jeff or are you just trying to make a more lively blog? I swear to god sometimes you sound exactly like those talk radio pricks I despise so much.

Everything is us vs. them. Your way vs. the wrong way. We're with you or against you. There's never any gray area. Never any common territory.

In this case, you're mistaking explanation for justification. They guy isn't saying it's ok to be fat, but since he's not taking your tack that it can all be chalked up to human weakness and failure, you see it as a capitulation. He either agrees with you that fat people are broken human beings, or he's pro-obesity.

So tell me once and for all, are you being a prick because it suckers dopes like me into crying about it or are you really just an unpleasant person to be around?

comment #10

rocco says ...

I live in the bluest of blue cities (80% D-voting)Philadelphia, which also ranks annually among the country's fattest.

Unless, of course, you selectively use the word to describe affluent and "enlightened" whites with whom you associate to the exclusion of lower-middle and lower class whites, hispanics, and blacks who not only prominently vote democrat but are just as morbidly rotund and willing to see 'Fred Claus' as over-sized herds of red-staters.

comment #11

Gordie Lachance says ...

I'm gonna get Jeff's back on this one. I loathe fat people, because 90% of the time their gluttony extends far beyond their eating habits. Greedy, entitled and selfish is no way to go through life.

What I would really love to see is a reality show (or a documentary... see? now this isn't off-topic) about fat people who claim to have "glandular disorders" and gain weight without eating. Yeah, right. Lock them in a house with cameras and just watch what they eat for 3 months.

"Oh, Lordy! It's a miricle! My glands is fixed! They weight done come off!"

comment #12

dangovich says ...

You want to see obesity, go to Disney World. It's astounding, the number of super-sized people riding around the park in motorized carts meant for the handicapped.

comment #13

StewartforPresident says ...

"Greedy, entitled and selfish is no way to go through life."

Actually "Fat, Drunk and Stupid is no way to go through life."

comment #14

corey3rd says ...

isn't movie watching all about sitting on your ass, eating golden goo called "butter flavoring," swallowing tons of candies and drinking an unlimited refill Coke the size of a trash can?

Movies and being inactive and overfed isn't two different topics

comment #15

BurmaShave says ...

What he's saying would make sense if obesity didn't overwhelmingly effect the poor. As a fat man myself, though not obese, no one should ever feel happy the way they are. It's the beginning of the end. Seriously.

comment #16

televisiontears says ...

While it's certainly not the sole factor, you do need to take class into account when discussing America's belt size. Most Americans don't have the time and resources to plan healthy meals for their families. McDonalds is cheap, easy, and pleases the kids. Ask yourself this: if you're a parent in a low-income family working an exhausting ten-hour day, are you going shopping at the organic co-op and spending an hour preparing a healthy, well-balanced meal? Probably not. Are you gonna hit the gym with your family afterwards? Probably not. This just reeks of Jeff's disdain for fat people, nothing more. He's not concerned with anyone's health; he simply doesn't want to look at unattractive people. So my question, Jeff is "Why the fuck do you care?"

comment #17

televisiontears says ...

"Oh, Lordy! It's a miricle! My glands is fixed! They weight done come off!"

Wow, Gordie. Kind of the latent racist, aren't ya?

comment #18

Gordie Lachance says ...

Televisiontears- Kind of the latent douchebag, aren't you?

Thats just my impression of the fat, illiterate bible-belters. I wasn't thinking color.

Why would anyone, low income or not, set their kids up for a lifetime of diabetes and heart disease? Kind of cruel. You should stop having kids or maybe the government should intervine.

comment #19

vansmith says ...

whats for dinner? EVERYTHING!!

comment #20

O.G. says ...

Ricky Gervais hits the nail on the head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX8CKji6Ass&feature=related

comment #21

gruver1 says ...

Wells to MG_movies: So you're a right-wing fatbody? No judgment implied. Just innocently asking.

comment #22

scooterzz says ...

nikki blonski's new movie, 'queen sized', premiers today on the lifetime channel.... this thread is so timely....

comment #23

televisiontears says ...

Gordie- I didn't mean to take a cheap shot at you. Your comment just sounded racially charged, so I felt a need to call you on it. Not that I need to qualify, but I'm a single, childless, skinny white kid. I've just worked with many low-income families, and this has been my experience. My point was simply that many folks have far more pressing issues at hand than their weight, and the food industry takes advantage by selling them a slow, delicious death. They're not entirely blameless, but they are enabled. It's a complicated issue, and I was just offering one viewpoint based on my limited experience. I don't try to resort to name-calling, so I do apologize for calling you a racist. It was presumptuous and uncalled for. Maybe, in the distant future, people will be able to have real dialogue on web threds like this. One can only dream...

comment #24

televisiontears says ...

Threads, of course.

comment #25

T. S. Idiot says ...

If someone will volunteer to count Wells' posts about fat people and someone else will do bare feet, body hair, and obnoxious young women, I'll take baldness. The one with the highest score by Jan. 1,2009, wins the HE dream vacation: a week in Des Moines at Holiday Inn.

comment #26

jeffmcm says ...

Jeff Wells, the Daniel Plainview of movie bloggers. "I have a competition in me...I want to see no one fat."

comment #27

alan says ...

The bad guy in Zodiac is fat. Obama is thin. The Cloverfield monster's large size leads to mass destruction. I have finally figured Jeffrey Wells out.

comment #28

Aguirre says ...

it's amazing - i live in chelsea and have to travel about three subway stops to see a single ounce of fat.

also, while i agree with jeff that obesity is a huge problem (no pun intended) and that most red-staters are woefully misguided... the deaf and unbending way in which he presents his mentality is a wee bit sociopathic... not to mention, bush-like.

comment #29

Jay T. says ...

You'd think Jeff would like Keira Knightley...

comment #30

Walter Sobchak says ...

I hate anyone over 50. Just look at them. They're completely worthless.

comment #31

Howlingman says ...

Aguirre: "it's amazing - i live in chelsea and have to travel about three subway stops to see a single ounce of fat."

I think it's less a Red State-Blue State thing and more an urban-suburban. When I lived in the 'burbs' the only way you could get around was by car. Living in downtown Toronto (and later NYC ) I must have shed 15 pounds just by walking everywhere.

Though I'm curious to know which direction from Chelsea you go to see fatties. Times Square? All those midwestern tourists?

comment #32

Aguirre says ...

howlingman: you're exactly right, if ever i want to see some jiggle (and not the kind I have to pay for in singles), i just hop on the 2/3 and a mere TWO stops later i'm in the heart of times square, where it there's almost as much cellulite as there is neon.

comment #33

tophertilson says ...

They don't let you live in Chelsea unless you can provide proof of gym membership.

comment #34

Gordie Lachance says ...

I will say this: My prejudice against fat people has nothing to do with looks. There are FAR MORE ugly people in this world by my count (I feel like I could take a shot at Wells here, but won't) but they're not a burden on the health care industry.

Also, they don't walk around with a sense of entitlement the way fat people do. If anything, they're more accomidating and giving, to over-compensate for their aesthetic shortcomings.

comment #35

Kim Voynar says ...

Well, I agree that Jeff does perhaps dabble a bit in obsessing over the beautiful people vs not-so-beautiful people topics, he does have a point about the blue state/red state issue.

I moved back to Oklahoma from Seattle this summer after 13 years on the coasts (Yes, on purpose. I know, I know, don't ask) and I was shocked at how many more truly obese people there are here, and especially how many morbidly obese children I see. The all-you-can-eat buffets are packed every day.

People do NOT walk here like they do in Seattle, even it they're going someplace close. Or bike. My husband dropped my cell phone while walking to the store, it was exactly where he dropped it when we found it two days later. Why? Because nobody walked by it, most likely.

comment #36

nola says ...

Think of how many people never walk or exercise and eat fast food every single day. You really notice it when you go overseas. Other first world countries do not have the number of fat or very obese people we do. Why is that? There are McD's/Burger King all over Europe and Asia now.

I think as a culture we have forgetten how to eat. To really enjoy food, not to treat it as a means to an end. Only in America is caring about what you put in your mouth seen as an elistist thing. You don't have to be rich to eat well. A dish of black beans and rice is cheaper than fast food and taste better.

comment #37

Hash says ...

I anxiously look forward to the day somebody writes a book about college dropouts with faces that look like they were hit with a frying pan who end up getting divorced.

On that day I will start my own movie blog and occasionally take jabs at Jeff.

comment #38

Aguirre says ...

nola, i like to consider myself a high-brow kinda guy (for worse or for worse, going to an ivy league school and living in manhattan has made it impossible for me to consider myself in any other way, at least as far as culture is concerned), but i definitely eat to live rather than the other way around. i just think it has less to do with cuisine being an elitist thing in this country (which it certainly has become), and more to do with a culture that embraces mediocrity like no other place on earth. from the food we eat to the films that we champion... our compliance has diseased this nation in both body and mind. one force makes us fat, another less intellectually demanding. the former may be easier to spot on the street, but when i walked out of theater after 300 or transformers and into a crowd of the morbidly obese... my frail self felt just like one of them.

comment #39

MG_movies says ...

Actually, Jeff, I'm a fairly skinny (6-0, 185) left-wing Demo who eats pretty healthy but doesn't get enough exercise. This isn't about me. Well, yes, it is. It's about me being frustrated reading the sometimes narrow-minded opinions of a guy I consider to be pretty smart, and thus, I thought, above such petty remarks. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for you as a writer, which is why I read the site. It just feels like posts such as this one should be above you. I'd much rather read about what you thought of Pauline Kael and what you've heard about the latest big studio hiring or firing. And have a little sympathy for those who don't look like, talk like or live like you. And if you can't have the restraint to keep your obvious disdain to yourself, and save it for where it is deserved; for movie like "Are We There Yet?" You're better than this, man.

comment #40

le corbeau says ...

I hate thin people. Joyless pricks who think a turkey sandwich from Quizno's is actually food, as opposed to some sick Soylent Green frankenproduct of our unnaturally hyperindustrialized, planet-destroying food chain. Pinched, insensitive fucks who don't even have their cortex connected to their tastebuds so they eat their half a fat gram a day and then go straight on to the business of exercising so they can mate with other Dachau-looking greyhounds. They don't even enjoy the sex, how could they when they care so little about which sex they're joylessly humping away at that they like women with asses like 16-year-old male track stars and tits you could balance a level on. Basically they're all repressed homos, those skinny people, having unpleasant, painful sex, bone scraping against bone and knees knocking knees, so they take out their hatred and their lack of pleasure in life on those of us who love the smell of sizzling bacon and the unctuous mouthfeel of foie gras and take genuine, honest delight in gustatory pleasures. Then when their self-hatred becomes too much for them, they sneak off to a place called Fatburger and stuff themselves, then vomit it back out in the restroom for some Hispanic kid to clean up. God I hate them, their Naugahyde skin, their crows-feet-riddled faces, their visible bones protruding like alien trying to escape, their lanky joints flapping about like marionettes. Disgusting.

comment #41

Gordie Lachance says ...

You're right, MG. Sex IS so much hotter when it features the musky aroma of mold-growth in a fat fold or a butt that hasn't been properly wiped in a month because it's owner can no longer reach it.

I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it.

comment #42

thatmovieguy says ...

This discussion reminded me of a woman who once lived in the same apartment building I did. She was quite overweight and was always complaining that diets "just didn't work." Then one night she invited me over for dinner and served a large pan of lasagne. I had two pieces; she finished the rest because she "hated to see food go to waste." She washed it down with most of a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke. She later explained that she thought Diet Coke was supposed to help you lose weight, but that "it didn't work: I drink it all the time and look at me." Apparently, she thought Diet Coke was some sort of magic potion that was supposed to wash away all those extra calories she consumed. As Meg Ryan says in JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO, "I have no response to that."

comment #43

Griff says ...

While we're piling on about "lifestyle choices" I have to confess to a vile prejudice: smokers. Hate 'em. I drive to work in the dark most mornings, and every single day, some dimwit throws a lit cigarette out the window. You can see it bounce and spread merry sparks across the roadway and toward the tinder that used to be landscaping. To say nothing of the yutzes who empty their ashtrays in parking lots, or the selfish pigs who drop their butts everywhere, especially at the beach.

I'll stop raving now, and go back to being a mild mannered conservative Rethuglican.

comment #44

RoyBatty says ...

Was watching Haskell Wexler's doc on sleep deprivation in the film business (WHO NEEDS SLEEP) and one of things the sleep researchers contend is that much of the weight gain you see with people who work long hours is from having something with their coffee.

This is something I can attest to personally. I have always been on the trim side, but 10 years ago I took a job with hours all over the place. My coffee intact increased because of it and began add a muffin/what-have-you with it. A couple of years down the road and I HAD the beginnings of my first tire & pot-belly.

comment #45

George Prager says ...

America runs on Dunkin'.

comment #46

RoyBatty says ...

(no, there's no reason that "HAD" is in all caps - I went back to add the title of the doc and didn't notice I had left cap lock on)

comment #47

George Prager says ...

This guy cuts through the bullshit:

"Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?pagewanted=all

comment #48

LFF says ...

That darn evil corn syrup. Why just this morning a pepsi distributor held a gun to my head and forced me to put a dollar in the vending machine! They must be stopped. I demand legislation to prevent any sort of responsibility for my own body.

comment #49

rocco says ...

I love food...almost nothing gives me more joy than cooking or eating a fabulous meal (almost nothing)...I've been blessed with a high metabolism, but after the holidays when my pants feel a little tight, it's salad for lunch for a few weeks. It's called restraint. Many people lack this in today's society.

My issue is not with calling attention to the disgusting girth of this nation's waists, but Jeff's insistence on making it a liberal/conservative issue...WHY even go there? When it comes to social policy and personal liberties I am extremely liberal, but one could argue that the liberalization of media and societal values has more to do with today's ubiquitous sense of entitlement and lack of restraint than anything for which any republicans can be held responsible.

comment #50

Rich S. says ...

All you need to know about Jeffrey you can learn from reading Plato's Republic. Seriously. Jeffrey sees himself and the rest of his blue state ilk (never mind that Bakersfield is in a blue state, but I digress) as Plato's philosopher kings. They are benign despots that rule the people for their own good. Corruption and self-interest are never possible in his idyllic state.

This explains his disdain for fat people, ugly people, people that don't spend a majority of their income on high-thread-count clothing and skin-care products, people that don't like Zodiac or Michael Mann, people that do like Eddie Murphy, Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson and, most of all, people that don't agree with bypassing the electoral process to put Barack Obama in as a divine-right king. For a guy who prides himself on being a blue-state progressive, Jeffrey is the most narrow-minded, elitist, class-conscious writer I've ever experienced.

comment #51

Dravot says ...

The looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand.

Or so I have read.

comment #52

christian says ...

Think how much greater Hitchcock would have been if not a fattie.

comment #53

George Prager says ...

"Jeffrey is the most narrow-minded, elitist, class-conscious writer I've ever experienced."

That's a lifestyle choice.