Jade's Little Tumble

fuckyeahkatebornstein:

“Humiliation is a whip of the defenders of gender. Humiliation is sanctioned at virtually every level of the culture: people can laugh at a transgendered person; but when there’s no fear of being humiliated for one’s portrayal of gender, there’s less opportunity for the culture to exert control.”

(from Gender Outlaws)

I saw this article today about a fat man planning to run in the LA Marathon. I saw people commenting about how “gross” it was. How dare this fatty run a marathon, his heart would explode and he’d collapse in front of THE CHILDREN, and everyone would see it, and the city would have to clean it up! (Thin runners collapse all the time, why aren’t you moaning and complaining on behalf of the children when it happens to them…?)

So, not much for reading the article, hm? He’s been active in sports his whole life. There is no reported info about him having a history of medical problems. He would be at risk for the same thing as every other marathon runner: dehydration, exhaustion… I mean, cancer survivors, people with diabetes, people with various medical conditions - they run in marathons. People in wheelchairs and people with prosthetic limbs also still play sports. The human body comes in a crazy wide variety of shapes and fitness levels, there are even fat Olympians.

Do you want to try again with that defense that you’re “only concerned about his health”? No, you’re just a bigot spouting garbage without knowing what you’re talking about, you are being a judgmental jerk who is afraid of seeing a large man in spandex. Guess what? Fatty already ran the LA Marathon in 2008! AND -

“He is a three-time American sumo champion and has represented the US at the world championships.”

Fella has probably achieved more amazing physical feats in his lifetime that you ever will.

Take that, haters.

Update: Not only did he do it, he beat his previous time by about 2 hours.