The problem I have with the "fat acceptance" ethic is that on a fundamental level it promotes the same notion as mainstream thin-obsessed culture--that fat people are lazy overeaters and thin people were born beautiful.

Despite the uproar about anorexic fashion models, the fact is that most of the thin people you see on TV and in the movies are athletes: sports players (obviously), but also actors who workout hours a day in order to maintain their movie-star appearance. Even most skinny people you see on the street exercise and eat well. (Which isn't to say that all people who exercise and eat well are skinny.) When Mo'Nique says "Skinny Women Are Evil," she is completely discounting the effort that healthy people make to be skinny.

To compound the problem, fat acceptance encourages fat people to do things like compete in beauty pageants, get makeovers, and eat baked potatoes with sour cream, but (typically) not to play sports or put any real exertion into looking better.

I would have more respect for the fat-acceptance movement if its message were "It's OK to be fat, but it is not OK to overeat and avoid exercise."

I'm all for a limitlessly wide standard of beauty - one that is inclusive of all hair colors, skin colors, heights, and body types. I'm all for eliminating the ridiculous idea of women accepting our 'imperfections'. For heaven's sake, an uneven skin tone is normal! Freckles are normal! There is nothing 'wrong' with a big nose, or cellulite, or bony hands, or small eyes, or thin lips. These things are just normal! Men don't obsess "my hair is too thin, I have split ends, my complexion is uneven, my hands betray my age" ad infinitum...because they accept that how they were born is GOOD ENOUGH, the way they are is, quite simply, reason enough to love themselves. Women need to get this message too. If the media doesn't promote the message, tune out the media.

I stopped wearing makeup when I realized how stupid it was to think "boy, I look tired without mascara". Not one single man in the history of mankind has looked in the mirror and thought "wow, what I need is some lengthening thickening mascara, some lightly smudged eye liner in a not-too-dark color, some brow pencil, a tri-tone eye shadow that deepens the crease and highlights the brow and maybe a touch of pearlescence in the inner corner of my eyes for brightness." If they can think they look great without putting on an artificial mask, I thought, then I can too. And guess what - they're right. I do look great. And I never had to worry about looking a mess when waking up for the first time next to a new love. I looked just like I did when we went to bed, which was fine with him, and is now fine with me.

So I'm glad Mo'Nique likes herself and wants other fat women to feel good about themselves. But the idea of advocating obesity - as in her call to Oprah to 'come back to us!' - is just plain stupid. People who are obese are out of control -plain and simple. They are taking in far more calories than their body needs for their caloric expenditure. They do it despite the significant healthy risks of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. This is not rational behavior.

I think it's fine and good to believe that everyone has something to offer beyond a narrow standard of physical beauty. I think everyone - thin, tall, obese, whatever - should find something to love about themselves. But advocating that obesity is fine, and beautiful, is no different than advocating that alcoholist or meth addiction is just a lifestyle choice with as many perks as drawbacks. No one would accept an alcoholic saying "Why can't the rest of the world change and see the beauty in the way that I am?" No, we expect the alcoholic to get control of the self-defeating behavior. Food addiction and an inability to control your intake despite clearly understood threats to your healthy is a problem. It doesn't negate all the good things about a person but it *is* a problem, and one that should be addressed. By all means feel good - great! - about yourself while you address it. Beauty is more than skin deep. Of course it is. But that doeesn't make the problem of food addiction and obesity beautiful, or an un-problem.

Here's what I want to see -- just regular women and girls that are size 10, 12, 14, 16. Not ones that you would see an think "obese" but still beyond the size of TV starlets. I want to know what those sizes really look like on TV. I saw a full-body shot of Gwen Ifill on TV the other day and though "damn! What's she been eating?" But she wasn't like Mo'nique or even Oprah in her fat years. So maybe she was normal. But my eyes have been habitualized to seeing super skinny TV actresses that normal size news commentators look enormous to me. I also used to think the very beautiful red-headed actress on that 70s show was unusually large for a TV actress and then thought, what is she ... size 6?

So have the beauty pageants for the obese. And we'll also watch the super skinny get even skinnier. But I wish I could see what mid-size looks like too.

Like other posters here, I would welcome a collective realization that women like Nicole Richie are sick and look sick. But the fat acceptance movement is really just another side of the wierd body weight coin we have in this country of overabundant food.

I don't like the fat movement, if I may call it that. It seems its message is either: learn to think of obesity as beautiful, or else stop being shallow and fall in love with the person behind the fat. It never acknowledges that many of us want the insanity to stop and for NORMAL weight to be accepted, not for everyone to just throw up their hands and ignore all common sense and aesthetics. I have read posters on certain blogs who flat out refuse to admit that obesity can be related to health problems, who won't contemplate the idea that a person can ever be too fat. Who won't acknowledge that most of us healthy weight people put a little effort into maintaining ourselves; it doesn't just happen naturally. We want doughnuts too.

When you're in your twenties, deciding to stay fat and participate in beauty pageants might be liberating and fun. But I honestly can't think of anything apart from illness that will suck your youth and vigor away like obesity. It sucks the life out of people like malnutrition probably used to when food was scarce.