A fat woman went to a baseball game. Unbeknownst to her she was sitting in front of certified fitness trainer Keath Hausher. Keath couldn’t manage to keep his eye on the ball, and instead took the picture of the fat woman in front of him without her consent, and posted it to Facebook accompanied by his judgments about her size, and the food that she ate at the game, calculating the calories she had eaten, and making fun of her for using My Fitness Pal. Keep it classy there, Keath.
The woman found out about it and called him out. Keath responded “Holy shit, I’m a complete tool, what the hell was I thinking, I apologize for my absolutely fucked up behavior.”
JUST KIDDING! He doubled down, saying:
As usual, I’ve come under fire for being a ‘fat-shamer’ and a ‘bully’ for my views concerning obesity in our nation. I stand by every comment without reservation…It is a public health issue. I didn’t name her, or show her face. It is raising awareness to say it’s okay to not stand for that.
He’s just another brave person bullying fat people “for our health“ and getting bullied for it, poor baby. Well Keathie (can I call you Keathie?) you can stand for it, sit for it, or lay down for it, but fat people have the right to exist in fat bodies without bullying, shaming, stigma or oppression and it doesn’t matter why we’re fat, what being fat means, or if we could become less fat, and you can fuck right the hell off. (Those wanting to make some sort of “but wut about muh tax dollarz!” argument – or wishing to learn why those arguments are bullshit – can head over to this post.”)
It turns out that, happily, Keath lacks the courage of his bigoted bullying convictions. After “getting hammered” on social media, he first tried the Jamelia approach:
I stand by MY views … not the one’s I’ve been inaccurately portrayed to have.
Like Jamelia, he learned that when you do something shitty in a glaringly public way, the Shaggy song “It Wasn’t Me” should not be considered solid damage control advice. So he then came out with this gem:
“I would like to take a moment to express my apologies to the individual in the photograph I posted and those it upset. One of the things I have learned quite painfully over the last couple of days is how sometimes something that is well intentioned can be executed poorly…
“Well intentioned…Executed poorly.” Good one Keathie. He went on:
I have absolutely learned my lesson and will be more careful going forward about how I use social media, and I don’t think it’s productive to draw further attention to what is now behind us.
Not more careful about fat-shaming – but more careful about getting caught. I still think he should have gone with “Holy shit, I’m a complete tool, what the hell was I thinking, I apologize for my absolutely fucked up behavior.” but that’s just me.
In another twist, it turns out it wasn’t the woman at the game who responded. It was this thin dude who enjoys pretending to be fat people on the internet who have been fat-shamed. He crafts his responses based on “Good Fatty” tropes, making up stories about how the person used to be much heavier and lost a bunch of weight and so they should be treated with respect, and purposefully misrepresents himself, sending tons of traffic to his website were he posts these “responses”. In this case he used his friend Beverly (complete with pictures and I’m hoping with her permission) who was subsequently hounded by the media until he admitted what he had done.
The problem is that this dude also can’t keep his eye on the ball. Keath’s behavior wasn’t inappropriate because the subject of his bullying had lost weight. His behavior was inappropriate because you shouldn’t take people’s pictures without their consent, post them on the internet, and mock them. (And that sentence will be immediately added to my “Shit I can’t believe I have to say” list.)
Let’s keep our eye on the ball y’all – the truth isn’t “You shouldn’t fat-shame people because they might be losing weight.” The truth is “You shouldn’t fat-shame people.”
Activism Opportunity:
Keath’s certification is through The Cooper Institute. If you’d like to let them know the behavior that Keath is exhibiting under the banner of their certification:
E-mail through their contact form: http://www.cooperinstitute.org/contact
Call: 972-341-3200 or 800-635-7050
Fax: 972-341-3227
Care to share some thoughts with Keath and Tony? (All the trigger warnings, obviously…)
Keath:
E-mail him: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keath.hausher
Tony:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyposnanski
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonyposnanski
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