Marie Claire blogger Maura Kelly has something to say...

When I woke up this morning, I did my usual round of websites: People, Gmail, TheFrisky, Hulu, EW, TheDailyWhat, and so on. On TheFrisky, however, journalist Jessica Wakeman has uprooted a rather startling discovery from the blog page of MarieClaire.com, for which Maura Kelly is getting some serious, insulting, and personal flack for her article entitled, "Should Fatties Get a Room?" to which she immediately replied, "Yes!" In the article, Maura addresses a TV show, "Mike and Molly", that follows two obese characters in love and how their weight effects their lifestyle and relationship and what not. What seems like a fairly harmless show just trying to shed light on a stereotype not typically romanticized, Maura finds "disgusting."
Posted on the 25th, there are now over 1,200 comments found on the page addressing how horrid Maura's statements are, especially from the readers who actually are obese, which Maura did not seem to take into account. As if only thin people would read it and the others would somehow bypass the word "Fatty" in the title. Just to quote a few sentences: "So anyway, yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls of fat kissing each other...because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything." "...I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room." Then she has an entire paragraph in parentheses claiming she'd be "happy to give nutritional information" and a rather two-faced-sounding "YOU CAN DO IT!"that comes across as incredibly ignorant.
Also surfacing with Maura's childish article is her own body image issues. Editor-in-chief, Joanna Coles, who OK'd the article, is admitting these words of hatred are really addressing Maura's own self hate towards her body. Having dealt with anorexia almost her whole life, it is imperative that Joanna take Maura's issues into account when dealing with such a sensitive subject as for both readers and the writer herself. The whole fiasco is based on very poor judgement, which does not represent what Marie Claire stands for at all. Last fall they made headlines by hiring a plus-sized stylist for the magazine spreads. Indian Plus-sized model, Crystal Renn, is more popular than ever after a ten-year hiatus. Yet Maura decides to write as if all obese people should all feel ashamed and constantly try to fix their bodies, which are "mistakes to be corrected," completely forgetting that not everyone needs to be ten pounds underweight be satisfied with their bodies.
In the comments--there's a new testimonial posted about every 2 minutes--are women telling Maura she should be fired, that this shows how she was raised, that she should be ashamed of herself, that she's a terrible writer who wrote about nothing important except how she felt, some even say they'll never purchase another Marie Claire magazine again (uh-oh). All very well thought out and not a trace of profanity to be found. Despite the fact that under the article is a long apology from Maura, no one is taking her seriously. Hopefully Maura's next article (if she can get passed this) is more people-friendly and not something sprung from a one-sided opinion.
To read Maura's article, go here.
For Jessica Wakeman's response, go here.