Whenever I see these studies that pop up about how happy black women are about being overweight, I wonder it this is some kind of “okey doke” propaganda that’s a deliberate attempt at actually KEEPING black women content with wearing dresses my kids could use for tents and being all right with having “a little sugar” (aka debilitating diabetes–let’s not make that shite sound cute, cuz it ain’t).

Apparently the Kaiser Foundation did a survey of 800 black women that revealed 66% were happy with their weight–morbidly obese or not–compared to white women, who came in at 41%. And what really blows my mind is how the author of the Washington Post article uses an active, yet 30-40-pound overweight woman to highlight the credibility of the study. Miss “Chubby and Happy” has been warned by her doctors that her nearly 200-pound bee-hind needs to drop the pounds, but she just mostly poo-poos that notion. And check out this gem of a quote:

“And though she’s never married, she contends she never lacks boyfriends, black and white. “Men have always said to me, ‘You’re not fat, you’re p-h-a-t fat.’ And when I’m not teaching, I’m all girl.”

Hmmm. O.K.E.Y. D.O.K.E.Y.

I guess this isn’t a good time to bring up the terms, “hit it and quit it” or “jump off.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve overheard a man say freely that he’ll sleep with a rotund woman for a variety of crass reasons but wouldn’t dream of getting serious. And in all fairness Miss Chubby and Happy is attractive, but she needs to STOP with the half-top.

Some commenters on the WashPo article got it right:

So let’s stipulate that this is a story given its is the last day of black history month. Is this really the best the Post could come up with about black women? They are atypically fat and happy. I would be displeased if I were a black woman. Post should stick with the Michelle Obama beautification stories.

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Oddly enough, when I visited France, I saw scores of lovely black women, none of them fat. Go figure.

–in response to above: those thin French black women must really hate themselves!

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How could anybody enjoy or take pride in being fat? It is easier to say, I like being fat than it is to lose weight.

This is not a color issue to me, this is an over-eating issue. I have seen as many fat white women as I have seen fat black women.

Not too fat, not too skinny should be the goal regardless of skin color.

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Another fat and proud article.

Women (or men) wont be proud when they have their first myocardial infarction (or your last) or their kidneys fail and they wind up on dialysis, or when diabetic retinopathy deprives them of much of their vision, etc etc.

Don’t delude yourselves. The choice isn’t: Obese or model-thin? What’s wrong with optimal weight – we maintained those optimal weights for 100s of thousands of years pre-industrial age. Our technology is killing us.

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Obesity is not good for anyone regardless of race and sex. Unfortunately, obesity is high in the black community and in some ethnic Latino communities like the Salvadoran and Puerto Rican. My mother is overweight, but I’ve gotten here to eat healthy and she goes to a senior wellness center daily for excerise. I attended Howard University Homecoming last October. I ran into a friend that I hadn’t seen in about 14 years. She was chubby when I last seen her. Now she’s almost 250 pounds. I was shocked to see her at the weight and size. Her arms and legs looked like Miss Piggy. Black women need to start eating healthy and stop cooking greens with fatback meat, salt, and other unhealthy food. When I travel to North Carolina at the holidays, I see so much unhealthy food at the table and many of my fat relatives just over eat. When some were living in New York City and in D.C., they were skinny or small. Once they moved down home, they gained so much weight. I try to educated my overweight family members on unhealthy foods and their weight without hurting their feelings. However, every black women cannot look or be the size of Halle Barry.

Black women are being fed (literally and figuratively) a load of bull. Can’t you see that the (fat) joke is on us? “Oh look at the fat black lady! They just LOVE being fat! Go throw her some chicken and watermelon and ask her if she wants to wash my drawers and raise my kids, will you Bob?” *cough* The Help *cough*

Let’s go through the impact of this, shall we?

–Black women have THE highest obesity rates in the United States

–Black women have the highest incidents of diabetes, high blood pressure and hormone-resistant breast cancer, all due to obesity.

–Excessive, DISPROPORTIONAL fat distorts facial features and the feminine form.

–ALL men, of ALL races overwhelmingly prefer a fit, feminine form, with very few exceptions.

Who benefits by convincing black women to remain the least physically attractive? THAT is the question.