Amy Alkon -- fat-hating advice columnist

Pics or it's a fucking lie.

It would appear that Amy Alkon takes her style tips from Maggie Thatcher. Figures.

I left a comment on Amy's blog, but, like a butthurt fanbrat, she deleted it and banned me. Is anyone surprised?

In other news, I left a comment on the "Up Yours, Amy Alkon" page replying to Kephren...

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“The truth is that losing weight and keeping a particular shape isn’t difficult. It’s a matter of choice. Period.”

For some people it’s not that easy. But your self-centered narcissitic worldview has no room for those people, does it?

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“BTW, I’m certain you noticed the age difference between myself and my wife. The primary reason that I married someone significantly younger than myself is that my contemporaries, almost to a woman, seem fixated on blaming their problems on men.”

White Christian men have it so hard! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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“Crap, my life would be SO much easier if a flabby midsection got my rotor going. But it just doesn’t work for me. Some other guys, maybe, but not me. And my wife knew that when she married me.”

BAWWWWWW! More unwarrented self pity.

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“My God, you’d think I was asking her to cut off a leg or something, the way you ladies complain about it.”

You don’t seem to understand why we have a problem with you, so let me explain this. You were being a selfish prick. You didn’t want your wife to lose weight because it affected her health, or something like that. You wanted her to lose weight because your penis had to be satisfied, and there was no way your marriage could be happy until your penis was satisfied. You didn’t want her to lose weight for her, or even for the both of you, you wanted her to lose weight only for yourself!

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“My wife and I adopted both children, so your remarks about childbirth are completely irrelevant. And even if she had given birth there are plenty of women who lose the extra weight and keep it off.

Losing weight and keeping weight off is easy. You simply start eating less and start exercising more. All the excuses that people give are just so much BS. If you’re carrying extra weight, it’s because you don’t want to eat healthy and exercise. Period.”

Where’s your science? Where’s your evidence to support this? Because right now, all I’m hearing is empty rhetoric.

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“If she had the intelligence to actually do research rather than just spout dogma”

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“she’d know that one-parent families, specifically fatherless ones, are toxic to children. There is a direct correlation between fatherlessness and juvenile delinquency, depression and host of other problems.”

I’ve heard that statistic! And I’ve also heard that statistic may be because of other factors involved in an environment, not just because there’s no father in the picture.

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“In any case, you don’t have to be the “right size” in some objective sense, only the right size for the person that you’re with.”

What about being the right size for yourself? What about being happy with the weight that you are and to hell with what anyone, including your spouse, thinks?

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“Melissa, everyone has an excuse.”

I really wish I could live in this beautiful world of yours where everything is so simple!

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“Whining about “why don’t men have to keep in shape” — go ahead and complain all you like, but blaming this fact on men is completely ridiculous.”

Everyone’s always persecuting the white, Christian male. Quick, call the WAAAAmbulance!

Now for some snark from Amy's website...

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To be honest, the angry mob from hell was a stoopid distraction. The more they write, the stoopider they sound.

The sheer irony of someone misspelling the word stupid is so great, I'm not sure if the misspelling is on purpose or not.

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Amy, thank you for banning them.

Now we can go right back to our self-complimenting circle jerk. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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Ha. Your innocent naivety is sweet.

And your unwarrented WASP paranoia is cute.

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Well said! All sons should certainly be taught this - among other tidbits - early and often.

It's never too early to start instilling the good old WASP Persecution Complex!

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In fact, I get tons of letters from men thanking me for telling the truth about how men feel about fat, and for giving women a science-based way to lose weight without agony or lots of exercise.

And I'm sure every one of those men are charming, beautiful people.

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There is NO monitoring of where the mothers spend the money. Observe single moms who receive child support, whose kids have hand-me-down clothes on while Mom has new clothes, fancy hair-dos, money to party with, and so on.

Seen it a thousand times. Still do. (not the good moms of course)

Where does he live that he's seeing this all the time?

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So in conclusion Alice dear, as a former teenage boy (and child of divorce)

Yet another person who seems to have a hint of unwarrented self-pity. God, why do all these people seem to feel so sorry for themselves?

Mr.Doobie wrote:

I left a comment on Amy's blog, but, like a butthurt fanbrat, she deleted it and banned me. Is anyone surprised?

No. She refused to post my comment on her horrendous advice to the formerly-overweight woman who was used like a Kleenex, despite the fact that my entire comment was about her advice and not that I was an angry pitchfork-carrying WGW member.

Seriously, though, Doobie. Your post? Is awesome.

Just was reading this, and I so, sooo want to kill the commentators on there. So, so much. I hate SUVs too, but you'd think that the commentators (and Amy herself) were all raped up the butt by evil fat women who used their SUVs as dildos on these helpless, victimized people:

Patrick wrote:

I like the fatass one, Amy. It covers the exceptions to the general rule, such as Ms. Smartass who doesn't have a small penis, but a
"luscious vagina." And how does her husband/boyfriend find her luscious
vagina to produce all those porcine children that she thinks only an
SUV is capable of accomodating?

Does he just slap her on the thigh and ride in on the wave? Or is he
just not particular, finding any old crack between the rolls of flesh
and go to town on it? He could do one on the neck one night, crease
behind the knee the next, fifth one on the left thigh the next... Hey,
it's like having a different woman every night! He can marry once and
have more wives than Solomon! Maybe chubby chasing has an appeal after
all.

You... asshole. May your penis die and fall off like a squished worm.

Amy Alkon wrote:

Actually, I think they should drag their lard asses to the gym the very old-fashioned way...by using their fat feet!

Uh-huh, and what about the fat people who don't have a gym in walking distance, the disabled fat people who can't walk to the gym, or the fat people who just don't want to endure the ridicule and 'shame' of being seen in public in a potentially embarrassing, compromising position -- people like my mom, who wouldn't go to the pool for fear of how people would see her?

Thanks, Amy, I needed to remind myself why I hated you all those months ago.

I'm gonna go post a comment about her praise of the psychotic grandma who conditionally loved her grandchild based on the kid's weight.

Mr.Doobie wrote:

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“In any case, you don’t have to be the “right size” in some objective sense, only the right size for the person that you’re with.”

What about being the right size for yourself? What about being happy with the weight that you are and to hell with what anyone, including your spouse, thinks?

Okay, this one, I can't leave alone. And before I continue, so that it's totally clear, this guy was being a jerk and a moron and selfish and every other label that we've thrown at him because of all the reasons we've already gone on about, ad nauseam, so don't misunderstand this as me justifying him. At all.

My objection is to the general principle of "to hell with what anyone, including your spouse, thinks." It matters what your spouse thinks. Just not caring whether you are attractive to your husband or wife is a recipe for disaster. It is important to be happy with yourself. But that doesn't mean you can just throw all considerations about what your spouse thinks out the window. How that would be applied to something as nebulous and whacked out as weight and figure is something spouses are entirely capable of working out on their own for their own case (I don't know or care how other people do it, and I'm not really interested in finding out), but "Do whatever you like and damn the spouse, anyway!" is the worst plan ever.

In the interests of being fair and balanced, I'll interrupt my Two Minutes' Hate of Alkon to say that here she shockingly gave some good advice.

Kel: True, and that is something that every couple needs to work out on their own. However, I would question why this guy is writing to Alkon instead of talking with his wife about this.

There are some guys who can't get it up for a woman of a particular figure (and that's not only true for men who are not aroused by fat women -- yes, some male heterosexual fat admirers literally cannot be aroused by a thin woman's body), and I think that every dating couple owes to each other to discuss clearly and honestly what their limits are. If this couple did not do that, then that's their mistake. Personally, I wouldn't want to date, much less marry, a guy who couldn't be physically attracted to me if or unless I gained or lost any amount of weight.

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people responding to an obvious troll

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KelinciHutan wrote:

Mr.Doobie wrote:

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“In any case, you don’t have to be the “right size” in some objective sense, only the right size for the person that you’re with.”

What about being the right size for yourself? What about being happy with the weight that you are and to hell with what anyone, including your spouse, thinks?

Okay, this one, I can't leave alone. And before I continue, so that it's totally clear, this guy was being a jerk and a moron and selfish and every other label that we've thrown at him because of all the reasons we've already gone on about, ad nauseam, so don't misunderstand this as me justifying him. At all.

My objection is to the general principle of "to hell with what anyone, including your spouse, thinks." It matters what your spouse thinks. Just not caring whether you are attractive to your husband or wife is a recipe for disaster. It is important to be happy with yourself. But that doesn't mean you can just throw all considerations about what your spouse thinks out the window. How that would be applied to something as nebulous and whacked out as weight and figure is something spouses are entirely capable of working out on their own for their own case (I don't know or care how other people do it, and I'm not really interested in finding out), but "Do whatever you like and damn the spouse, anyway!" is the worst plan ever.

True. What I said was stupid and purely in the name of snark rather than debate. However, like Malganis said about expectations and such, he should've been able to have a conversation with her about it, rather than having to write an Advice Columnist about it. If he's so stuck on weight, and she's more like Malganis, than maybe they're not quite the perfect match for each other.

I read the grandma article...

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In David Buss' outstanding book "The Evolution of Desire"

Christ. Why does David Buss give these people such a raging hard-on? Evolutionary psychology is not the be-all end-all factual oracle that they make it out to be! It's one of the most hotly debated fields in psychology (and other schools of science).

Mr.Doobie wrote:

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In David Buss' outstanding book "The Evolution of Desire"

Christ. Why does David Buss give these people such a raging hard-on? Evolutionary psychology is not the be-all end-all factual oracle that they make it out to be! It's one of the most hotly debated fields in psychology (and other schools of science).

I always find it very interesting that evopsych is only ever mentioned in the mainstream anything when it backs up the status quo (e.g. why men like huge tits, why all women are gold-digging bitches etc.)

Cyberwulf wrote:

I always find it very interesting that evopsych is only ever mentioned in the mainstream anything when it backs up the status quo (e.g. why men like huge tits, why all women are gold-digging bitches etc.)

True enough. Some evopsych challenges the status quo (like the recent book Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior by Geoffry Miller), but that's not the stuff that gets airtime. Which I suppose makes sense, because evopsych's main appeal for most people lies in the "See! This commonly engaged-in behavior is SCIENTIFICALLY ORDAINED, by Gawd!" justification it can offer, especially when those behaviors are currently under attack by revisionist forces.

That probably wasn't phrased very well, but blah, I haven't had my first cup of coffee yet. So sue me.

(Oh, and on-topic to the original purpose of the thread... Amy Alkon is an idiot, and a particularly arrogant and malicious one at that. What she looks like is immaterial to me because her mind and heart are clearly as ugly as the sin she accuses others of. What a hateful little toad.)

Yeah, I don't think my need to own pretty things and my like of pretty men and women is due to any evopsych expalnation, no matter how hard they try to force it.

I'm pretty sure I'm just materialistic.

I don't like how people try to justify their selfish desires by blaming evolution instead of trying to control the inherent selfishness. Its just lazy.

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I don't like how people try to justify their selfish desires by blaming evolution instead of trying to control the inherent selfishness. Its just lazy.

I like this answer.

Mafiosa wrote:

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I don't like how people try to justify their selfish desires by blaming evolution instead of trying to control the inherent selfishness. Its just lazy.

I like this answer.

I think I have new sig quote.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Mr.Doobie wrote:

Quote :

In David Buss' outstanding book "The Evolution of Desire"

Christ. Why does David Buss give these people such a raging hard-on? Evolutionary psychology is not the be-all end-all factual oracle that they make it out to be! It's one of the most hotly debated fields in psychology (and other schools of science).

I always find it very interesting that evopsych is only ever mentioned in the mainstream anything when it backs up the status quo (e.g. why men like huge tits, why all women are gold-digging bitches etc.)

I more or less agree. It seems to be a way of using theoretical, circumstantial, unsubstantiated bullshit to excuse someone's failings. On top of that, the morons who spout this bullshit keep referencing back to the time we were basically pack animals and saying we still have that in us. If we're going on the idea of evolution here, wouldn't we have, I don't know, EVOLVED beyond that stupidity when it became irrelevant millennia ago?

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Cyberwulf wrote:

Mr.Doobie wrote:

Quote :

In David Buss' outstanding book "The Evolution of Desire"

Christ. Why does David Buss give these people such a raging hard-on? Evolutionary psychology is not the be-all end-all factual oracle that they make it out to be! It's one of the most hotly debated fields in psychology (and other schools of science).

I always find it very interesting that evopsych is only ever mentioned in the mainstream anything when it backs up the status quo (e.g. why men like huge tits, why all women are gold-digging bitches etc.)

I more or less agree. It seems to be a way of using theoretical, circumstantial, unsubstantiated bullshit to excuse someone's failings. On top of that, the morons who spout this bullshit keep referencing back to the time we were basically pack animals and saying we still have that in us. If we're going on the idea of evolution here, wouldn't we have, I don't know, EVOLVED beyond that stupidity when it became irrelevant millennia ago?

Yes, and no. The real thing about evopsych is that, regardless of whether or not it works in terms of actually being a legitimate branch of psychology, Alkon/Roissy/similar are DOIN IT RONG. Evolution is amoral. There are no ethics or right/wrong markers attached, it's just there. So even if these folks can prove that all this stuff actually is knocking around in the human brain, what they can't prove, using only science, is whether we should listen to it. Assuming we generously, for the sake of argument, grant all the "men like X, women like Y" business that evopsych tends to produce, that just means those tendencies exist. It says nothing to whether they are good or bad or even useful.

Which I suppose is why Alkon will never really get what it is she's doing wrong with all this. Our objections to her advice to women and men with regards to weight and appearance are on an ethical level. Her defense is that the behaviors make sense because of SCIENCE! She's just not getting the disconnect between something being logically sound and ethically sound.

Somath Cegem wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Quote :

I don't like how people try to justify their selfish desires by blaming evolution instead of trying to control the inherent selfishness. Its just lazy.

I like this answer.

I think I have new sig quote.

Yay me!

Lapin wrote:

Somath Cegem wrote:

Mafiosa wrote:

Quote :

I don't like how people try to justify their selfish desires by blaming evolution instead of trying to control the inherent selfishness. Its just lazy.

I like this answer.

I think I have new sig quote.

Yay me!

Are you going to add the missing apostrophe or are you going to make Lapinina look like an illiterate boob in your sig?

Damn it, I keep fucking up its and it's.

She had a journalist friend, Cathy Seipp (who's since passed on) who wrote this about fat people.

Why do right-wing nutcases have a problem with fat people? Except Limbaugh, of course.

Twonky wrote:

She had a journalist friend, Cathy Seipp (who's since passed on) who wrote this about fat people.

Why do right-wing nutcases have a problem with fat people? Except Limbaugh, of course.

It has nothing to do with being right-wing, it has to do with being an opinionated asshole. I've seen right-wing nuts go on about the "obesity epidemic" being a lie spawned by the evil Bill Clinton and his erroneous Food Pyramid. I've also seen left-wing nuts BAN TRANS FAT.

So, uh, yeah.

Actually, Michael Bloomberg, our mayor, proposed that idea, IIRC, and he's not exactly left wing. However, the ban is dumb.

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A 12-year-old pupil at a Liverpool school where fatty drinks and snacks are banned has been suspended for ''crisp dealing'', it is reported.

...the campaign against the salad dodgers may be going to far.

Reminds me of 8th grade when my brother made a ton of money smuggling Coke.

*standing ovation*

Reminds me of 4th grade when I was selling school chocolate on the black market.