Daisy in Chains

And all this is being condoned by those in authority.

It’s OK now, for influential bullies, like the vile Ron Carter writing for The Spectator, to talk about the ‘horribly fat woman’ in the Tesco queue, accompanied by her ‘wobbly kids’ and to joke about sending them all to starvation boot camp. When educated, intelligent opinion-formers talk in such ways, what hope is there for the jabbering Twitter underclass?

As a nation, we pride ourselves on being diverse. And yet there is almost zero tolerance of anyone of size. Women of my size and larger cannot walk the streets without being verbally or physically assaulted. The normal rules about behaviour, respect and common courtesy don’t apply to us.

And now the most fundamental of the Ten Commandments doesn’t seem to apply to us either. Hamish Wolfe swore to preserve life wherever possible but allowed himself to become so enraged by what he saw as the drain on the NHS by overweight people that he took matters into his own hands. Even those who outwardly condemn his actions are secretly relieved he didn’t kill anyone of worth. He chose to kill large, unattractive women, so that’s not so bad then. He may even have done us all a big favour, by reducing the financial demand on the NHS in future years. Think I’m exaggerating? Search Hamish + fat people on social media and see what you find.

By his actions, Wolfe has legitimized the ill treatment and abuse of people of size. He has set us back decades.

Hamish Wolfe will never come out of prison alive. But the threat to women roams our streets continually.

COMMENTS:

SuziePearShape writes . . .

I’m a larger than average but perfectly healthy woman and so far, today, I’ve been called Tubs, Nelly the Elephant and Fat Cow. It’s not even the middle of the afternoon. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been pushed, shoved, or abused by perfect strangers in the street, simply because of the way I look. In the queue at Asda, other shoppers look into my basket and sneer. A man asked me once if I was planning to eat it all myself. I have three kids, thanks very much, dickhead. You’re right, Beth, bigger women just don’t matter as much.

MellSouth writes . . .

A darker side of fat-shaming is to assume that fat women are easy. Because they look the way they do, they will sleep with anyone, they are grateful for the attention. They aren’t allowed to be particular, they have to take what they can get (and frequently do). Inappropriately touching a fat woman in a bar, grabbing her breasts or her bottom, will be viewed by all around as humorous. Either she was asking for it in the first place, or she should be grateful anyone wants to touch her at all. Fat women simply aren’t afforded the same protection by the law as their skinnier sisters.

GazboGoon writes . . .

Fat cows like you make me sick. Just stop eating so much and your problems will all vanish, daft bitch.

Jezzer writes . . .

Ever shagged a fat bird? Talk about fart and give us a clue. LOL.

‘Never read below the comments line.’

‘You’re right.’ Maggie closes the screen.

‘Do you think people buy this idea of the killings being a vendetta against fat women?’

‘No. Most of the stuff in the national press was a lot more sensible.’

‘Where?’

Maggie flicks through her bookmarked articles. ‘This one. In the Telegraph.’


Telegraph Online, Wednesday, 15 October 2014

FAT WAS NEVER THE ISSUE

Dismayed by the hysterical outpourings surrounding Hamish Wolfe’s conviction last month, Sally Kelsey argues that the victims’ size was largely irrelevant.

Since Hamish Wolfe started his prison sentence barely a day has gone by without an article decrying our habit of ‘fat-shaming’. ‘Justice for Fat Girls Too’, screamed one well-known blogger’s headline last week, as though Wolfe hadn’t just been handed a whole life tariff, effectively locking him away for the rest of his days. If justice can strike a heavier blow than that, I’m not aware of it.

The police have been criticized for not catching him quickly enough, for not realizing when Zoe Sykes vanished back in June 2012, that there was a fat-slayer at work. Never mind that Zoe still hasn’t been found, that for days, weeks, even months after she was last seen she was still just listed as a missing person, the police should have known back then that something was up. They should have warned fat girls that they were in danger.

The media have been accused of not taking the serial killer seriously enough, because he ‘only killed fat girls’. We’ve been accused of condoning the behaviour of the social media ‘low-lifes’ who trolled the victims’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, posting hateful comments about how they deserved what they got.

Sharon Bolton's books