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Like most white men who have been afforded some status because of their physical prowess, McClelland reprises the very tired argument that fat people (I'm reclaiming the "F" word, by the way) will ruin the aesthetic terrain of sports events (or the gym, or other public places where exercise occurs) by their presence.
It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't catch-22 that should raise the hackles (and suspicions) of everyone. So, fat people shouldn't exercise in public, or, if they do, dare to face the wrath of the fit who will point fingers and make fun of them either directly or behind their backs?
Alternatively, if the pressure to stay away from opportunities to exercise works as well as McClelland might hope, the evil "fatties" will stay indoors so as not to offend the sensitivities of him and his ilk of uber-runners?
Am I getting this right so far?
When people who are fat stay indoors to avoid the inevitable finger-pointing and juevenile giggling, they get labeled as couch potatoes, beginning the cycle anew.
This is elitism at its best,and represents what I think is the zenith of body hatred in this country. It seems, at least in the response to this article, that American's are finally get fed up with this illogical binary.
Get off your high horse McClelland. Salon, what a disappointment.
