Heavy Mettle

"Nobody was fat there," she says. "Everyone was active and lean, and I had lots of male friends and no boyfriends. I found myself attractive and sexy, but no one else did. So I lost weight and had boyfriends, and when I gained it back, I didn't. It hurt. I was ashamed to go out and do things. I used to go out to the tennis courts and hit balls in the morning by myself so no one would see me. There are all sorts of complex things about feeling like a failure.

"Being fat is not a moral crime. If you just put on a fat hat for a while, and let your ears open up to things that are said in the media, or things that people say day-to-day, you'll hear that moral tone about being fat. And fat people get used to that. They almost don't hear it. It's terrible. It's an unforgiving condition; it's with you all the time. The stigma is horrible."

Jim Walsh

"Being fat is not a moral crime"

Related Content

• Michele Bachmann is panicking over Bill Clinton's imminent arrival
  November 3, 2012
• Minnesota Office of Higher Ed un-bans free online classes, but is that a good thing?
  October 22, 2012
• '80s Night
  August 8, 2012
• Bill Clinton blasts Romney's climate change skepticism in Minneapolis speech [VIDEOS]
  October 31, 2012
• Slim Dunlap fans hosting St. Paddy's Day Mad Ripple Hootenanny
  March 12, 2012

More About

• Naomi Boak
• Jim Walsh
• Bill Clinton
• Obesity
• Weight Loss

Then Naomi Boak, fat kid-turned normal young adult-turned fat adult-turned spokesperson for the obese, stands up from her nonfat-milk cappuccino. With a slight hitch in her hip, she moseys over to the ice cream tubs and pastry counter to have her photograph taken in an unapologetic full-body portrait—not the way society's scolds want her to be but the way she is.

Jim Walsh can be reached at 612.372.3775 or jwalsh@citypages.com