Monday, March 14, 2011

Today in Anti-Fatty Bias

A seemingly benign article about using surgery to improve sleep apnea.

Blah de blah, new surgery, fixes sleep apnea, yay....but wait! Keep reading!

"I wouldn't send a middle-age obese man for surgery as their first option," says Aurora. "I would say let's lose the weight; lets use CPAP and see a nutritionist; lets avoid the alcohol and let's see how you do." The apnea can probably be taken care of with these non-invasive techniques, she says, and invasive surgery can be avoided.

But when she sees a young, thin person with severe apnea, says Aurora, surgery might be the answer."


[my emphasis]

So, basically: if you're fat and have too much tissue blocking your throat, we're not going to offer you surgery to correct that. Because you know what causes big tonsils? Fatness. RIGHT.

No, wait, that's not right. Tonsils are what they are. You either have a dangerous, possibly fatal condition caused by large tonsils, or you don't. The size of your ass has nothing to do with that. So, hey, fuck you, Dr. Aurora. People like you are the reason fat people have ever-so-slightly shorter life expectancies than thin people. Because we are denied life-saving medical intervention and told to "lose the weight and then we'll think about it".

This is pure and simple discrimination against fat people. In this case, it's not just about an airplane ticket or a job interview. NO. This is life-threatening fat-hating. And it needs to end now.

How much does this chap my ass? A WHOLE METRIC FUCK-TONNE that's how much.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

"lets avoid the alcohol and let's see how you do."

Sooo not only is this doctor assuming that fatness causes big tonsils, but also that all fat people drink unhealthy amounts of alcohol? Grump grump grump. Seems like this alcohol-avoidance advice, if it helps with apnea, would be equally applicable to fat and thin alike, eh? Or is it: "Thin people! Keep boozing right up until the day of your surgery! Then start boozing right away again! It's OK so long as you remain thin, because THIN alcoholics are fun-loving people persons; but FAT alcoholics are sad drunks."