Followers of fat acceptance preach that it’s ok to be overweight. They believe that it’s not unhealthy to be overweight but rather that’s the way people are and everybody else should just accept, embrace and celebrate it.

Not only does this line of thinking discourage fat people to actually do anything about their weight, other then post all over the internet about how normal and healthy they are, but it also spreads the myth that by being overweight you don’t pose any additional risk to your health.

I shouldn’t have to point out the danger in encouraging this line of thinking. Case in point, forty eight year old Paul Mason.

Mason, from the UK, is dubbed the world’s fattest man and weighs in at 445kg (980lb). Advocates of fat acceptance would tell us ‘so what he’s fat, leave him alone he’s not bothering anyone’ and this is where I have a problem.

Mason costs British taxpayers an astonishing $177,000 (100,000 pounds) a year, he cannot work and instead relies on taxpayer funded home delivery and fulltime carers to look after him.

Mason isn’t ‘big boned’, is certainly not healthy and for his mother’s sake I hope he wasn’t born like that. No, Mason suffers from the stereotypical stuffing your face full of food syndrome, or to be politically correct, a compulsive eating disorder.

At 445kg logic would dictate that someone should have stepped in a long time ago but in the interests of preserving Mason’s dignity and self respect, it seems the British medical industry have instead literally allowed him to wallow in his own filth. How up until this point nobody has simply stopped this man stuffing his face with “three family-size takeaway meals a night” is beyond me.

Mason is literally gorging himself on a publicly funded food orgy and it’s gotten to the point where officials have to fork out $35000 to perform life saving surgery. Meanwhile the British public are left asking themselves ‘why?’

Mason himself appears oblivious to his health problems;

Mr Mason was surprised to find out how big he was when he visited a doctor about his weight.

I thought I was about 30 stone (190kg) but I did not realise how heavy I was. When they weighed me I was 45 stone (286kg). I could not believe it.


That’s from a 2003 interview with the Telegraph and I believe perfectly highlights the crux of the problem with the fat acceptance movement.

People should not be able to get to nearly 300kg and be completely oblivious about their weight. Even if Mason was curious, the fact that he can punch ‘fat acceptance’ into Google and find an entire community telling him it’s ok to be fat and it’s just the way he is certainly wouldn’t help.

Now weighing 445kg and literally eating himself to death, it’s easy to see just how damaging the fat acceptance line of thinking can be.

I’ve previously written about Fat Acceptance and after reading about Mason’s story inevitably found myself back at Bri King’s blog Fatlotofgood looking for answers. Not surprisingly, the message of  I’m fat, I think it’s awesome and there’s nothing you can do about it’ is still being shouted from the rooftops.

You have no idea why I am fat, or why anyone else is fat and if you are automatically assuming it is because of overeating and lack of exercise then you have no right to be a nurse. Compassion, heard of that? Do you realise, G. Sheahan, that if all that ‘extra care’ wasn’t seen as being needed that a lot of nurses like you wouldn’t have jobs?

You aren’t my doctor so you have NO authority whatsoever to pass judgement on whether I am healthy or not. Thanks for calling me a liar. And yeah, I am going to die. But so are you.


That was posted in response to a letter critiquing a story about King that featured in The Age. However it seems criticism is a one way street when it comes to fat acceptance.

People, please read the comments policy before you waste your time posting your fat hating rhetoric (which, by the way, includes everything along the lines of “Oh but what about your HEALLLLLLTH”). These sorts of comments are not going to see the light of day around here. My blog, my rules.


Whilst I respect the fact that Fatlotofgood is a privately run blog, is a one sided environment even remotely constructive to anyone who isn’t just looking for someone to tell them it’s ok to be fat?

God forbid someone show some “compassion” and enquire about “your health” Bri.

Moran’s case for now is certainly in the extreme and is not financially sustainable. Still there are those out there who would make excuses for his lifestyle and morbid obesity.

With movements such as fat acceptance trying to make their mark on society I can’t help but wonder, today Moran’s case might be in the extreme but what about tommorow?

Given the current explosion in obesity it’s not going to take long for 150kg to become the new 100kg and in just a few short decades where do we go from here?  Do we encourage people to destroy their bodies lest we upset their precious self esteem or as a society is it possible to find a healthy medium between catwalk rake thin models and rolls of flab?

Our government’s have poured considerably effort into stamping out smoking and drinking acceptance, perhaps it’s time they seriously took up the challenge of squashing fat acceptance too.

1. Fatlotofgood.org.au – The delusion of fat acceptance