Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.
In a 2013 article for Buzzfeed, reporter Louis Peitzman wrote, "I was never really bullied for being gay, but instead got made fun of for being fat on a daily basis."
As part of The Takeaway's series on obesity, John Hockenberry talks with Peitzman about the psychologically damaging stigma Peitzman faced as an overweight person, and the ways in which society treats fat people like second-class citizens.
"One of the key things for me is that there are a lot of liberal, open-minded people, progressive people who would never dream of making homophobic comments or racist comments or any of these things, but will still make fat jokes, because that is culturally accepted," Peitzman says. "I think for a lot of people fatness is one area you can always mock without repercussions."
Peitzman says he feels like this acutely as a gay man. In his article he writes, "The truth is, the gay community isn't interested in embracing overweight people because we're a blemish on the image of perfection. And much in the same way progressives as a whole can get away with ignoring anti-fat bigotry, gay men never bother examining the way they treat their overweight brothers. Ignore us or relegate us to the butt of hackneyed jokes: We just don't matter. It doesn't get better for us."
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear our full conversation with Peitzman, and click play below to hear listeners from around the country reflect on their own challenges with obesity, weight, and identity.
