Have you heard this one? A valet parking a car wrote a three word description of the owner on the back of the parking ticket. I am assuming that this is a common practice enabling the valets to make sure the right car got to the right person. It’s a security measure. The words were “play, fat, red”. The woman who owned the car was indeed going to a play and was dressed in red. Apparently, she is disputing the fact that she is fat.
The hapless valet left the ticket in her car. She found it and well….all hell broke loose. She took the fight public and accused the parking garage of all kinds of prejudice. Is there now a politically correct word for fat? Or are we not allowed to use it as a description? I wonder how she would have felt if they gave her car away to someone else? Or how she feels now that the whole world knows she is fat?
If it bothered her so much maybe she should do something about it. I mean change her weight not the valet’s description. Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. I once asked a young woman when her baby was due- only there was no baby. Six weeks later she looked pretty darn good. Not too long ago, my youngest daughter was asked if I was her Grandmother. I overheard this. I didn’t blow up and be offended but I did buy some hair dye on the way home.
Is it okay to call someone a fat slob or to demean them because of their size? Absolutely not! But is it prejudiced to give an accurate description of someone? I think not. What other descriptive words can’t we use anymore? I can hear it now…..Officer: “Ma’am, can you describe the perpetrator who stole your purse?” Victim: “Yes, he was tall, I mean, not short, I mean, well, he was black, no, I mean, didn’t have light skin, he was very skinny, no, I mean, not fat, ohhhh, he didn’t have any meat on his bones. His hair was very curly, no, I mean, not straight, his nose was large, well, not small…….to hell with it- he can keep the damn purse!”
I am short, fat, red- haired, fifty-somethingish and I know it. Getting pissed off because someone describes me that way is just ridiculous. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
The hapless valet left the ticket in her car. She found it and well….all hell broke loose. She took the fight public and accused the parking garage of all kinds of prejudice. Is there now a politically correct word for fat? Or are we not allowed to use it as a description? I wonder how she would have felt if they gave her car away to someone else? Or how she feels now that the whole world knows she is fat?
If it bothered her so much maybe she should do something about it. I mean change her weight not the valet’s description. Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. I once asked a young woman when her baby was due- only there was no baby. Six weeks later she looked pretty darn good. Not too long ago, my youngest daughter was asked if I was her Grandmother. I overheard this. I didn’t blow up and be offended but I did buy some hair dye on the way home.
Is it okay to call someone a fat slob or to demean them because of their size? Absolutely not! But is it prejudiced to give an accurate description of someone? I think not. What other descriptive words can’t we use anymore? I can hear it now…..Officer: “Ma’am, can you describe the perpetrator who stole your purse?” Victim: “Yes, he was tall, I mean, not short, I mean, well, he was black, no, I mean, didn’t have light skin, he was very skinny, no, I mean, not fat, ohhhh, he didn’t have any meat on his bones. His hair was very curly, no, I mean, not straight, his nose was large, well, not small…….to hell with it- he can keep the damn purse!”
I am short, fat, red- haired, fifty-somethingish and I know it. Getting pissed off because someone describes me that way is just ridiculous. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
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