Meet Jennifer Jonassen

This summer I have been reading an amazing new series of novels written by Scott Westerfeld. The first book is called Uglies and is set in the dystopian world of the future where being beautiful is mandatory and being ugly (or even just normal) is an act of high treason. In Westerfeld's world everyone's sweet sixteen party is a date with a plastic surgeon that attempts to equalize everyone by making them all top model gorgeous. Sounds great, huh!? But there are a few downsides like the loss of your individuality (not to mention the possible loss of those adorable freckles your grandma gave you.) I don't want to give too much away so I urge you to read it for yourself. But I will say that this book profoundly resonates with me and my own journey to hold onto myself despite what society demands me to be.

Back in June, I requested my readers to email me their thoughts on my column and specifically what they thought I should do career wise in terms of accepting roles that are strereotypical and/or offensive in it's representation of larger women. I received all kinds of responses ranging from very supportive to some that suggested I give up acting altogether and just "surrender" by losing a lot of weight. Here are some reasons why I don't surrender:

1-Earlier this year Republicans W. T. Mayhall, Jr. and John Read, as well as  Democrat Bobby Shows  attempted to pass a bill that would ban "obese customers" from dining out at restaurants. No I am not kidding.

www.billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2008/pdf/history/HB/HB0282.xml

Luckily that bill is dead now but to a certain extent it's damage has been done. Just reading about it online personally pained me. This bill was intended to "...shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi," said Republican Rep. John Read. But I question the motives. I think it was simply written to shame, attack and hurt people. Interesting that instead of creating public gyms or taxing/banning fast food restaurants or offering medical care was not suggested or part of this bill. Just criminalizing Mississippi's larger citizens. Also shocking is that there is no way to really determine who is obese. Presumably this would be up to the discretion of the restaurant owner who would be fined or even put out of business if caught serving food to someone with a BMI that the government decides is too "obese" to be allowed to eat. Scary,huh?

2-Parade.com recently had a poll asking it's readers if obese passengers should have to pay for an extra ticket.

www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_06-29-2008/Intelligence_Report

This topic became very volatile on both sides of the argument but what most astounded me was the utter lack of compassion shown in the posts toward larger passengers. In fact the posts were so ugly that Parade closed down the forum altogether stating: "Due to the inappropriate nature of many comments posted, the discussion feature has been disabled for this article."

What struck me about almost all of the response was that everyone was so quick to criticize the individual flyer but not the airlines! Why is it so insane to believe that every person who buys a ticket gets to sit comfortably? God forbid the airlines make larger, more comfortable seats for everyone. As consumers we should be demanding this. But then again we live in a world where the ever important FUEL PRICE always trumps human life let alone merely hurting someone's feeling. The price of oil always wins out.

3-Someone in my family called me the other day to say that after working many years as a  bus driver, some random doctor at the annual physical had deemed them un-fit to drive a bus due to their weight (which by the way hadn't changed since she had started.) This conclusion was not based on fact nor was she even given the proper physical tests (hopping, lifting etc) to determine whether or not they could do the very things the doctor was unfairly presuming she could not. Understandably traumatized after the encounter she called to say that as she was driving home from the exam she thought it really does matter, very much so in fact, how large, fat, obese, plus-sized people are portrayed in movies and television. She told me in those moments, that the column I write and PLUS Model Magazine was such a source of light and support. So, to answer one of my readers out there: no I will not surrender and I hope you will not either.