I think MeMe Roth and Debra Dickerson deserve each other.

Oh wow,

I've never written a letter to any magazine, but this article has blown my mind...I'm five two, 110 pounds and have spent a lifetime hating my body, obsessing about weight, starving myself etc., like most women (or according to this article,like most white women, of which I am one) but even at the height of my eating disorder neuroses it would be clear to me that Buffie the Body is not an obese woman--honestly, is she even overweight? Doesn't look like it to me....

Even the headline for this article is deceiving--a rump the size of hers will absolutely not give you heart disease! Excessive belly fat--yes,that's a problem. Look at the medical research. But since when does ass fat give you a coronary? PLEASE.

Now, come on. If you want to write an article about obese icons in the black community(which I'm honestly not sure is productive, either), how about Monique, or someone of that size? Yes, perhaps black women suffer from poor nutrition and lack of exercise. I'm no expert. Certainly, the overall epidemic of obesity in this country, coupled with anorexia, bulimia, etc. on the other extreme, shows how fucked-up our culture is when it comes to food and health.

But this article does no one any favors. Singling out this totally hot girl just because she has a big ass--it reminds me of watching rap videos with my stepmother in the room, and her saying, "oh, she's a very pretty girl...but her butt's a little big for that bikini, don't you think?"

As a woman who has struggled to accept an already thin body my entire life, I can tell you I hope no daughter of mine would read an article like this.

Debra,

So far, we know you can't stand Barack Obama. Or his wife. You've told us enough about it, ad nauseum, here on Salon.

You've already written about your children, and your confusion about them racially.

Now we have this piece.

Frankly, could you be any more negative about your own race?

Is there ANYTHING positive you can say about being African-American/black/insert the "Debra Dickerson preferred and approved terminology of the day" here?

Anything?

No, I didn't think so.

P.S. I'm SO glad that I didn't have to work with you. I have to wonder if haranguing your coworkers about their lunches and weight was the least irritating part of your presence.... You really do come off like a HUGE P.I.T.A. in every way...

Obese is not a picture-based assessment but a medical definition that coincides with actuary tables assessing risk of early death outside of 'norms'. Obsese is 30% or more over desirable weight. Buffie clearly fits this, and it has nothing to do with the relative dimensions of her bottom. She's not just fat - she's obese. It's not a personal judgement.

If you look at weight standards from 20, 40 and 60 years ago you will see that fatness and obesity are a recent and growing trend. When I was in grade school and high school in the late 70s early 80s, it was rare to see a fat kid. It was even rare to see a chubby one - chubby almost meant fat, since truly obese was extremely unusual in that age group, if not nearly nonexistent.

Now, chubby is the NORM. And just because size 13-15 is not uncommon does not make it healthy or good.

If you can't maintain a heart rate that is 50% of your maximum for 30 minutes 5 times per week, you are not using your body as it was meant to be used. Our bodies are machines, pure and simple; underuse and abuse through overeating erodes and destroys the machine. Carrying around extra pounds puts stress on the joints, especially the knees, the heart, lungs, and often other organs such as the gall bladder and liver. It puts stress on the skin and the central nervous system.

We aren't talking buff vs. non-buff - that's a choice. We're not talking subscribing to Hollywood standards of slenderness - that's a choice too, and mostly a stupid self-destructive one. We're talking fat, and it's not *normal* to be fat. If you eat only the calories your body needs for the energy you expend, you won't get fat. Your weight will vary relative to the next guy's by a bit, and it may be distributed differently (and more or less attractively) according to the genetic roll of the dice- but fat is 100% avoidable. And in many cases - though not all - it's not that great looking, as even fat people will tend to agree.

We are a nation in denial about our appetites and habits and the consequences of mindlessly giving into those things without balancing it out with exercise. The result is the fattest nation on earth, with a host of physical and mental and emotional illnesses to go along. It's a bad problem and getting worse; the burden on the healthcare system will be astronomical if the T2D (type 2 Diabetes) generation of kids doesn't change its ways - and with every year that passes of fat/obesity acceptance, that gets more and more unlikely.

I don't see Dickerson's article as prejudicial against fat; I see it as a reasonable attempt to call attention to a problem that is affecting millions, and disproportionately impacting a sub-group that has historically been marginalized and disenfranchised along socio-economic lines, with obesity acceptance a simple continuation of the destructive pattern.

If there are cultural factors at work that lead to poor nutrition and lack of exercise, well, that seems to me like a problem that needs to be discussed. Kudos to Dickerson for doing so.

There are people who can't help being fat -- that's the hand they were dealt. But most overweight people become that way for two simple reasons -- too many calories, not enough exercise. Very few who follow Buffie's regimen will end up looking like her -- they'll be fat all over, and unhealthy. They might claim to feel good about themselves, and maybe some of them do -- but they won't, on average, be around to feel good for nearly as long as those who at least TRY to stay in shape. This is such basic stuff that it seems ridiculous to point out, but evidently it's necessary.