Comedian and podcast host Adam Carolla says he has no problem with hefty women feeling good about themselves, but the “love your body”, fat-pride movement has gotten under his skin.
On his podcast last week, Carolla played a portion of a recent HuffPost Live segment entitled “Dance Like A Pro At Any Weight,” in which a larger woman spoke about embracing her fatness and loving her body, bringing herself to tears in the process.
“I’ve been thin and I’ve been chubby and I’ve been fat. I’m the fattest I’ve ever been right now and one thing that followed me through all those bodies was shame,” Whitney Thore, the founder of the “No Body Shame Campaign,” said on HuffPost Live. “And it’s what I finally shed. But I know it’s something that speaks to everyone because I’ve lived it and all these negative nay-sayers and haters can’t touch the happiness and the joy that I feel today.”
Overweight women should not be shamed, Carolla said, but they also should not be celebrated.
“In a world where everyone is so eked out by third hand fucking smoke and you’re not supposed to have soda pops that are more than 16 ounces and we’re worried about salmon that’s raised on a farm versus — and like I said its all smoking, smoking, smoking, tobacco, tobacco, tobacco, hey let’s ban e-cigarettes — How about the negative health aspects of being 150 pounds overweight? That’s to be celebrated?” Carolla said.
Guest co-host Gina Grad jumped in to say that the point of the segment was to show that fat women cannot be shamed into being thin and healthy.
Carolla agreed in part.
“Well sort of and sort of not because I’ve seen plenty of instances where people did get shamed into just about everything. That worked. But there is still a difference between not shaming somebody and then celebrating somebody who is unhealthy,” he said pointing out the other unhealthy activities like not wearing a seat belt, smoking, and not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle are not celebrated.
He went on to highlight that the very people who are calling for people to celebrate their larger selves are the same people who obsess over things far less concerning.
“This thing ‘I need to be celebrated for who I am, ironically coming from the same people who are freaked out over — like I said — they have invented third hand smoke, fracking — fire is going to come out of your spigot, radon gas is seeping from the floors, environmental allergies. The people that are Purell-ing the most are celebrating the hefty chicks the most?”
“You’ll die faster being overweight than you will be[ing] a smoker,” he added going on to say, “It is hypocritical to go after second hand smoke and then celebrate hefty chicks, they both have negative health effects.”