Dear Bill Maher,
I’m sad to say it’s officially over Bill. I’ve been a fan of yours for since “Politically
Correct”. I have “Real Time with Bill
Maher” set to record every Friday night on my DVR and I’m always a little
bummed out when you go on break and happy when you return. I always enjoy your specials and your documentary
“Religulous”. I agree with most you have to say most of the
time politically and have always thought you were a pretty smart guy. Until today.
You’re a comedian and you make fun of people. I get it, no one is safe. But on your 9/20/13 New Rules your little
fat joke really cut me to the core.
Yes, you usually can’t help yourself and can’t let one show go by
without making a fat joke. I usually
cringe or shake my head. I get it. It’s really obvious that you have hate for
fat people. I roll my eyes when you make
fun of Governor Chis Christie. I’m not
aligned with him politically, but I feel for him when the only thing you can
say about him is that he is fat, haha, look at him that’s so funny. Like Governor Christie, I am fat too.
I’m what doctors like to call morbidly obese or what I call death fat. I’ve struggled my whole life with obesity,
going to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 8 years old. I’m not going to make any excuses about why I
am obese. I am and every waking moment I
am aware of it.
On your “New Rules” segment you started off with a picture
of a very ugly blob fish saying that a “British biologist declared that the
blob fish is the ugliest animal on the planet”.
The punch line was “He must admit he’s never been to Walmart” then you
showed a picture of the back side of a morbidly obese woman dressed in jeans and
a tank top shopping at Walmart. I have
to admit I immediately choked up, feeling sadness for this poor, unaware woman
who was just shopping at Walmart and then feeling wow, that very well could
have been me. I have no idea if one of
your staff took the photo, or if was just some random stock photo, irregardless
it was just a vicious and cruel joke to make.
Your panel and the audience thought it was hilarious, and for that brief
moment I took that joke personally and thought maybe everyone in whole world
really thought that I and all fat people were truly the ugliest things on the
planet.
I tell you Bill, at that moment it didn’t make me feel like
going outside for a run. All it did was made
me hurt and angry. Then you continued on
to the end of your “New Rules” talking about how mean Americans are on Twitter,
and gee I wonder how they got that way.
You were really knee deep in the very hypocrisy that you hate in
politics and religion. I hate that you
are feeding people this crap and making them think its ok to shame fat
people. It’s not ok Bill. It’s not ok to make people feel sad and
worthless. Fat people are humans
too. You are going to have to live on
earth with fat people, we are not going away.
How can you be so quick to judge,
just because of the way someone looks? You may not find us attractive, but why not
treat us with dignity instead of making us feel like we are no better then an
ugly blow fish.
The good thing is Bill, I know deep down inside I’m not the ugliest
thing ever. I have a husband and
children who think I am beautiful I like many other obese people work hard (I have two part time jobs and take good
care of my family) and contribute to society.
Sure there are lazy, obese people out there, but there are lazy skinny
and in between people too. Governor Christie didn’t get where he is by being stereotypically
lazy because he’s fat.
I’ve unsubscribed “Real Time with Bill Maher” off my DVR. I’m sure you could probably care less, but I
would hope maybe that if you or your staff would read this it would at least
make you think about changing the way you treat fat people.
Good bye Bill.
Marianne
