Does Being Fat Really Matters?

First things first. As for the pictures we decide to go with, I think you need to look at more of the site. We use all kinds of pictures – thick, thin, young, old, black, white, gay, straight, pink vibrators, and blue vibrators. I think you may be incorrect there. But if you can send us a link to some site that allows usage of non-nude, yet erotic, pictures of those that aren't “heroin thin” we'll obviously take a look and see what we can do.

Anyway, I understand what you're saying, but this is a slippery slope. I agree that you don't need to starve yourself to fit into a size 0 and have collarbones as pronounced as your knuckles. But if you make people think that it doesn't matter at all how heavy they are, isn't that just as misleading?

Forget just the biological workings of attraction for just a moment. You can't have someone sitting at a buffet 5 times a week, eating 3 day's worth of calories in one sitting because they want to rebel against some societal pressure of being thin. That's a problem. But not because being a specific weight, being a specific dress size, and having a certain waistline matters.

It's because being healthy does matter.

Being healthy isn't constrained to a certain number on a scale. Being healthy isn't only available to those who hit the Pick 6 in the genetic lottery. Being healthy is something that is seen as almost universally obvious and important, except to the greediest, most gluttonous nation in the world – ours.

We've become a collection of people who only blame and deny. How many people have you heard say that they are simply “big-boned” when it's obvious that's not the issue? I'm not saying there are not people out there who are simply bigger and can't fit into a tiny little number. There certainly are – stand someone from Thailand next to a Samoan to see what I mean. But there aren't as many as they think there are. You certainly never hear anyone take responsibility and say, “I look like this because I eat like shit and have no desire to stop, let alone do anything about it.”

The fact is, it's rewarding to have self-discipline and to reap the bounty of your efforts. I have an aunt who lost 10 pounds one summer. She was extremely happy, not because she felt like she was closer to being what Cosmo told her she should be, but because it was hard to do…but she did it anyway. She was proud of herself that she could stop eating everything offered to her and get up in the mornings and walk a few miles.

So I'm somewhat with you here. It doesn't matter to me and shouldn't matter to anyone else what size you are, as long as you're healthy.

Also, I'd like to take this time to give a big thumbs-down to Tyra Banks for propagating this whole “Any body type is beautiful and we don't need to be a slave to what these magazines tell us we should look like” idea. You're only partially correct, Tyra, but it's a little hypocritical now. I would have respected it a lot more if it was 10 years ago when you were at the forefront of the whole “You need to look tiny with huge tits to be sexy” movement. Now that it's not as easy to be thin as it once was, it's a bit too convenient to wave your let's-talk-about-me hand at the industry and dismiss it. That's biting the hand that feeds you, but hey – at least it's calorie free.