Thindamentalists
Militant about his health and weight, the Thindamentalist can often be found pounding the treadmill at his local gym, where he’s on first name terms with all the staff. Hyper-conscious of his own waistline, he can also tell whether friends and family members have put on a few ounces since he last saw them.
Having fought off the ‘horrors’ of middle-age spread, he despairs of those who can’t control their weight. If he can do it, why can’t everyone else? For the Thindamentalist, the answer is obvious. Laziness, greed and a lack of self-discipline. And he doesn’t see why he should be squeezed up against the window on the bus because the person next to him is taking up one and a half seats, or why should he should be greeted with not one but two chins when he turns on the television. For him, being overweight is just one signifier of a wider malaise within society. If only everyone could be more like him….
Salad Days Slims
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? The answer is the Salad Days Slims. Unfortunately, the image that he sees is of a svelte young thing, circa 1982. The reality is that boozy afternoons at the pub and a predilection for pasties means that whilst he’s still wearing 32 inch jeans, there’s a fair bit hanging over the top nowadays.
The beer belly and love handles are badges of honour, signs of a life well-lived, rites of passage. Their own extra pounds, however, don’t prevent them from pouring scorn on the ‘real fatties’ (only the Thindamentalists have less sympathy for overweight people). But that’s ok, because Salad Days Slims aren’t overweight, and certainly not…obese. They’ve just got a bit of a belly. Right?
Endangered Normals
In a desert of weirdness and strange behaviour, the endangered normal represents an oasis of relative ‘normality’. They don’t do fad diets, they don’t fetishise food and they are neither gym addicts nor gymphobics. The key to health for endangered normals is balance: don’t gorge, don’t deny. No man (or woman) is an island, however, and the endangered normal is not totally without their own Fatville-induced oddness. Despite the fact that they are of a healthy weight, they still think they could be slimmer. The Endangered normal is more accepting of other people being overweight, having parents who have both put on a few pounds. They see putting on a bit of weight as a natural part of getting older.
Fat Fatalists
The fat fatalist would be the first to admit that they like their food, and none of that lettuce and crispbread rubbish; their family gets fed with ‘proper food’. They’ve tried dieting in the past, but counting calories weren’t for them. Anyway, there didn’t seem much point. Everyone knows some people are meant to be tubby and some people are meant to be skinny. It’s genetics, and everyone knows you can’t do anything about that! Whilst they are relatively content with their weight they feel stigmatised by the rest of society. For them, fatism is the last accepted form of prejudice – getting more overweight people on TV would be a great way of overcoming this.
Empathetic Relics
Although retired the ‘Empathetic Relic’ still leads a busy life, she is a strong believer in home cooking and maybe even grows her own vegetables in the back garden. Being of bus-pass age (just, she’d have you know), the Empathetic Relic, as the name would suggest, understands that keeping the weight off can be a tricky task. Having struggled with her own weight, she doesn’t think that fat people are lazy; instead being of the belief that obesity is a disease that should be treated rather than mocked. Being overweight is, for her, not the fault of the individual, and she recoils in horror at the thought of calling someone ‘fat’ or ‘obese’: ‘plump’ or ‘curvy’ are so much nicer.