Just FYI: Food Is For Fat People And The Poors
23 October 2009, 11:59 AM. By Alex Alvarez
We don’t eat food, obviously, because we’re fabulous and also because we can’t really afford it. Which goes directly against stylist Robert Verdi’s (pictured at left being skinny and mildly fluorescent with Eva Longoria) recent statements about the relationship between your panza and poverty:
I think people of all sizes should be wearing clothes. I don’t know if they necessarily need to be photographed in clothes. A lot of women say ‘I should’ve been alive when Ruben was because I’m Rubenesque.’ So times have changed. There are different cultural norms and values and beauty identities, and the fact that thin is in — who cares? It’s why I stopped eating. I think food is for fat people and poor people. Rich people don’t eat. They get dressed up and go shopping.
We thought about this recently when we overheard two homeless men arguing about who was sicker, with one shouting, “I’VE GOT GOUT MOTHERFUCKER! GOUT!” Now, gout had historically been seen as a rich person’s ailment or “The Disease of Kings” as it was associated with the consumption of rich foods containing high levels of purine content, like champagne, lobster and foie gras. Or course, those prone to tipping back grain alcohol may also develop gout. But we prefer to think this man had been eating lobster and foie gras. Motherfucker. At any rate, our point was that certain attributes - like plumpness - that had once been associated with wealth and access to plenty of rich and varied foods, have now become the domain of the poor in popular thinking. Now, the rich are seen as having access to healthy or rare, hard-to-get food items as opposed to fattening, yummy foods.
And because, due to the nature of our job, we end up reading so many articles highlighting obesity in Latinos, we can’t help but view Verdi’s statement as something that is not only very obviously elitist and classist, but quite possibly the result of forsaking or ignoring other cultural standards of beauty in favor of a white-washed standard that values thinness. The problem lies not in the fact that poor people eat and rich people do not - the problem lies in the quality and nutritional value of the foods consumed by different economic classes, as well as they’re accessibility.
Robert Verdi: ‘I Think Food Is for Fat People and Poor People’ [Robert Verdi]
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Verdi might have sounds more than a bit crass, but he is right for the most part. I’m sure poor people of a larger size eat more than their thinner, wealthier counterparts, and their food usually has a higher calorie and fat content.
fucking asshole. not just on the latino front but hhmmm the third world countries with starving kids…
I guess thats why i eat then… because um i am fat and poor.
Third world countries don’t exhibit the particularly American phenomenon where the poorest people are also the fattest. Again, that’s an American thing. There’s way too many intestinal parasites and too little packaged food to turn your average skeletal slum dweller into a nearly spherical, doughy faced American poor. Plus, you don’t really have the kind of social services/food stamp programs in Latin America. If you’re poor, you’re just screwed.
well, i think the lucille bluths and karen walkers of the worlds got it right. just have liquid meals. drink alcohol for bfast, lunch and dinner. you’ll get enough calories to sustain your body throughout the day. eh, maybe eat two pieces of fruit. whether they be two grapes or a banana (heh), or an apple and an orange slice with your blue moon/wheat-beer-of-choice.
that way we fatinos lose weight and still get our drink on. and we save money too (by not buying food). how effiecient and extremely economical. cause you know…blue moon by the case is $22 at the costbuymartistoresoftheworldcos, so that’s less than $1 a beer. man, what a fucking deal.
and on that note, happpppy hour is about to start over here on the westies. later brahs. stay away from that gnarly food dooooods.
…and “Whole Foods” takes foodstamps. At least here in New York. Jus’ sayin’…