Hillel Schwartz Fat And Happy

Hillel Schwartz, author of Never Satisfied, observes in the short essay “Fat and Happy?” that in the United States, “a fat person's prior identification is with fatness; as a status, fatness comes before religion, race, sexual preference, income, gender. Only in a society so content with doing away with fatness could it become such a distinct and negative stigma” (par. 10). Schwartz’s comment gives a brief glimpse into what could be described as the fat society; a never ending series of fat discrimination that is all in all about trying to have a better and healthier society. Although Schwartz seems to be writing about fat shaming but is actually describing how society needs to change their way obesity is viewed and how it is combated as a result the quality of life will improve for everyone. Schwartz describes fat people throughout the essay as failures, failures because they are fat and fat because they have failed. Fat people seem to be connected to the Neanderthals of primitive times. Chunky and fat, slothful and hideous, this is what the primitive people of old were described as, this
People are so ready to start dieting that they don't think about the consequences, being heavy isn’t what causes health issues. What causes health issues and damage is the fear of fat and the bad diets that cause a perpetual circle of taking on and off weight that endangers the body. Schwartz comments that “Fat people are waddling reminders of the failure of medicine to come up with a safe, workable program for long-term weight reduction, just as poor people and homeless people are stark reminders of the failure of the economic system” (par. 7). So what does this mean exactly? It means that even though much has been done to try to combat obesity it has nonetheless been a