Tag Archives: fat power

Gravitas, by Lynne Murray

Debbie says:

Our co-conspirator (well, regular guest blogger) Lynne Murray has been pretty quiet around these parts recently, and one reason is that she’s been working on a new short science-fiction novel, Gravitas, which is now available on Amazon and in other e-book formats, for $2.99 per copy.

Gravitas

I had the privilege of reading Gravitas in manuscript, and I want to recommend it to all of you. It is that rare bird, a novel which embraces fat power while not being about fat power. Instead, it’s about the troubles and travails of Val-Sybilla, who is burdened with a huge amount of the perfume Gravitas, a scent which has the power to cloud people’s minds (well, to turn people on and heighten their other emotional reactions). Val-Sybilla is carrying more Gravitas than most women ever carry, because she expected to get rid of it fairly promptly. But she is forced into an unexpected detour … onto Earth. Val-Sybilla’s people admire large bodies, so Earth is a bit of a surprise:

Before we could enter the building a vehicle cruised past us and someone stuck his head out the open window and yelled, “Get dressed, pig! No one wants to see that!” He tossed a large cup at me. Crushed ice and dark liquid hit me, but I managed to raise a hand to bat the cup back to hit the side of the car.

Every cell in my body seemed to contract in a new reflex. An arc of lightning followed the trail of tossed liquid back to the car, which sank a few inches lower on its suddenly flattened tires. A smell of burnt rubber rose in the air.

As the car settled down in the roadway and began to creep away, the driver yelled. “What did she do to my car?”

His companion said, “Don’t be stupid, how the hell could she do that? You hit a nail or something.”

Josu pulled me into the glass-doored building and the muffled cursing faded. He put an arm around me and turned us away from the window into the store itself. “I’m so sorry you had to endure that insult and the one on the highway. I hate to tell you how often this kind of attack is endured by women of abundant flesh on this planet.”

I stood for a moment half stunned, cold, sticky liquid trickling down my leg. “I thought the Great Mother was worshipped on Earth.” I whispered.

So, fat power, sex (influential women on Val-Sybilla’s planet are expected to have several husbands), adventure, suspense, and goddess worship. What more could you possibly want?

The Power of Fat People Is Extraordinary

Laurie and Debbie say:

We’re the first to admit that fat people are powerful. But the United Kingdom’s popular tabloid, The Sun, is giving fat people more power than even we would have guessed.

Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production — a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet.

The environmental impact of fat humans is made even worse because they are more likely to travel by car — another major cause of carbon emissions.

Our favorite sentence: “The scientists say providing extra grub for them to guzzle adds to carbon emissions that heat up the world, melting polar ice caps, raising sea levels and killing rain forests.”

Wow! With that kind of power, fat people can do anything! Fat people can create world peace! Free universal health care on demand! Affordable space travel! A cure for the common cold! We can even make everyone agree on which way the toilet paper roll should face!

We’re not going to bother to debunk the non-facts in the article. The statistics are wrong, the conclusions are wrong, and the math is wrong. It’s all just wrong. And it’s absurdly silly.

Let’s not forget that these cheap and easy articles are read by millions of people, and they have real power in fueling fat hatred around the globe. Making a scapegoat for global warming that is anything other than the industries pouring billions of tons of shit into the air is bad for the planet, and encouraging hatred is bad for everyone. We’d much rather be curing the common cold.

Thanks to Patti for the pointer.