Marie Claire Let Maura Kelly Abuse Fat People For Fame And Web Traffic

ROLL over Jan Moir – Maura Kelly is making her bid to become the world’s most odious, pisspoor columnist in her attack on fat people for Marie Claire.

We’ll deliver the best bits of an article that Kelly’s editor allowed to be published.

But before that a few words about Dear Maura Kelly, who realises that so long as you create a name for yourself, your publication will employ you:

Although she’s in her thirties, she’s never been in love before — and has started to wonder if she ever will be. She’s decided to start making dating her job if it’s ever going to happen. Hence, this blog.

Her lack of love is now her livelihood. What else do we know about Dear Maura Kelly?

She rides her vintage Raleigh as often as possible – usually wearing heels, and always wearing her helmet. (She will not be a fashion victim!) Some of the things she loves: indie rock, peanut butter, Fellini films, the Brooklyn Bridge, running (slowly) in Prospect Park (always wearing New Balance sneakers) and The Brothers Karamazov. And definitely her friends, too; her tight circle includes a fashion designer, a hard news journalist, a couple magazine editors, a bike messenger-turned-lawyer, a professor of philosophy and an aspiring screenwriter.

Because Maura Kelly has no-one special to share her life with, she will share it with you, her imaginary friends. (If you want to be real friend and make the list you need a job Maura thinks will reflect well on her, like a vivisectionist or a jihadi who retained as an architect.)

Dear Maura Kelly has been invited to write on a sitcom called Mike & Molly. It’s about two lovers who meet at Overeaters Anonymous. Dear Maura hasn’t seen the show but is still able to review it. It’s called “Should Fatties Get a Room?”

The other day, my editor asked me, “Do you really think people feel uncomfortable when they see overweight people making out on television?” Because I can be kind of clueless — I’m not much of a TV person — I had no idea what she was talking about…

Kelly read about the show. Because Kelly is a proper journalist who does her research.

My initial response was: Hmm, being overweight is one thing — those people are downright obese! And while I think our country’s obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy, I also think it’s at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity! Yes, anorexia is sick, but at least some slim models are simply naturally skinny. No one who is as fat as Mike and Molly can be healthy.

Dear Maura Kelly is on a roll, so to speak:

And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for, by way of our insurance, than any other health problem, even cancer.

The war on the fat is a big deal in the UK, too. In the country that bangs on about equal opportunities, the fat are still fair game for abuse.

So anyway, yes, I think I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I’d find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

Read the rest of this entry »

Anorak

Posted: 27th, October 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (3)