Michelle Obama: No Friend to Fat Kids

Mrs. Obama, my respect for you has taken a serious hit since you initiated your campaign against childhood obesity.

It isn’t that I want to force-feed our nation’s children and turn them all into lumbering giants; rather, I thought you were smarter and had more vision than to approach the issue as clumsily and insensitively as you have.

There’s nothing wrong with encouraging children to get more physically active, as your “Let’s Move!” campaign does. There’s also nothing wrong with educating children about good nutrition.

However, your campaign is unintelligent at its core, because instead of simply encouraging all children to eat right and stay active, you have made the choice to cast obesity itself as the enemy to be destroyed.

When we frame our battle for healthier children as a battle against fatness itself, we’re merely proclaiming open season on fat people. We’re encouraging an already fat-prejudiced society to further demonize those who bear the fat – worst of all, the children who bear it.