Marie Claire: Faux Pas or Cunning Plan?

I have not read the offending article - I'm sure you know the one I mean - and I'm not inclined to give the Marie Claire site any more traffic than it's probably already getting because of this article.

The editor, and possibly the publisher, approved the magazine going out with that article in it; in my opinion, they are more at fault than the writer, because anyone can write anything they want and put it on their personal blog or some other website, but to pay this woman and give her a national forum for her ridiculous ideas is unconscionable.

I'm sure if you did a word-replacement for the article, substituting the word fat with black, Asian, Mexican or gay, the editorial staff of Marie Claire would have tossed it in the trash instead of printing it. If it were published, any number of anti-defamation lawsuits would have been filed in court already.

I don't know if the editor read it as satire or thought it would be funny. Maybe the staff is so out of touch with the real world that they couldn't see how hurtful it would be to people with a weight problem. Or perhaps they published it knowing that it would create a huge backlash and generate a lot of interest in the magazine -- even if it is the wrong kind of interest. You know the old saying, "Any publicity is good publicity." It will be interesting to see where the magazine is in a year -- still in print or out of business.

If the article can do one good thing, it is to bring a larger audience to the TV series Mike & Molly. I have not seen the show yet, although I have the best intentions to look for it on CBS.com. You see, I used to work with this girl named Emily Mixon, and her sister Katy is one of the regulars on the show. Katy (and Emily) are trim and attractive people, and even if they weren't, Emily is very sweet and their mom Donna is nice, and I haven't met Katy, but I'm sure she's nice, too, and their whole family is incredibly talented. So if this nasty article gets more people to tune in to the series, and it stays on the air for a while, and Katy has regular acting work and gets to be really well known, then good for her.

And if Marie Claire is still around, she can turn down their request for an interview.