Doesn’t Work

9.14.19

You can HEP to Bill Maher – that is, do the Home Exercise Program. For the most part, he’s not a visual comedian. You can lurk in Downward Dog throughout his monologue and never miss a joke; all you need is hearing.

And he’s funny. Snorting during Downward Dog makes the pose more bearable.

So I watch him – well, I listen to him – every week.

Last week in his end-of-show rant, Bill wasn’t picking on Trump or Putin or any of the people I wish I could have a few words with myself. He was picking on me.

His rant was on fat-shaming – which he approves of and wants to see more of.

Bill Maher is snarky. I know that. He’s weird about food, and he’s immensely dismissive of fat people. But he also dislikes religion, and I’m okay with that… so I figured that I needed to let it go. He and I were just going to disagree. In fact, after working with Barbara (my brilliant trainer at Body Dynamics in Falls Church, VA), I’m beginning to believe that Bill Maher’s view of fat is …

… well, it’s old.

He’s largely wrong.

My blobby belly and broad tail are – it’s true – not particularly attractive. But I can walk down a street without feeling pain in my back. I can grumpily shuffle my way through a mile-long jog. My bloodwork shows better results than it has in decades. I no longer measure my value by the number on my scale. So Bill Maher can suck an egg, for all of me.

I let it go.

And then this morning, I found that James Cordon had taken on Bill Maher on HIS show… and as I watched and started to grin and then began to cheer, I realized I hadn’t quite let it go as much as I’d thought.

I’m going to try to embed the link to James Cordon’s response; I can’t imagine his network will mind. But in case it doesn’t work, you could probably look it up And the most brilliant thing he said was “fat shaming doesn’t work. If it did, there would be NO fat children in schools. And I’d have a six-pack by now.”

Amen, brother.

You and I work so hard to change our attitudes about our bodies and our progress. It’s worth remembering that the world is continuing to try to put you down… so stay strong. We are not alone, and Bill Maher isn’t always right.