Too Fat for SCOTUS

Paul Campos has a great piece on the fat hatred, prejudice, and ignorance permeating discussions of whom Obama should nominate to replace the retiring Justice David Souter:

Within hours after the news broke that Souter was resigning, concerns arose that [former Harvard Law School dean and current Solicitor General Elena Kagan] and [federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor] might be too fat to replace him. A commentator on the site DemConWatch.com noted that of the three most-mentioned candidates "the oldest (federal judge Diane Wood) is the only one who looks healthy," while Kagan and Sotomayor "are quite overweight. That's a risk factor that they may not last too long on the court because of their health."

At The Washington Monthly, a commentator claimed to have employed a more scientifically rigorous method: "To all the short-sighted libs who are clamoring for the youngest-possible nominee... Right idea, wrong methodology. You want someone who will serve the longest, i.e. with the greatest remaining life expectancy—and that involves more than simple age. I tried assessing their respective health prospects, and ruled out all who even border on overweight. Best choice: Kim McLane Wardlaw, whose ectomorphitude reflects her publicly known aerobic-exercise habits."

(Wardlaw's "ectomorphitude" also gets rave reviews at legal gossip site Underneath Their Robes, which describes her as "Heather Locklear in a black robe. This blond Hispanic hottie boasts a fantastic smile and an incredible body, showcased quite nicely by her elegant ensembles.")

Meanwhile, a letter writer at Salon comments on Sotomayor's candidacy, "How do you say 55, overweight, and diabetic in Spanish?" (Sotomayor was diagnosed with Type I diabetes—which doesn't correlate with higher weight—when she was a child).

Hey—you got your racism in my sexist fat-hating!

I'll just encourage you to go read the whole thing, in which Campos brilliantly teases out the relationship between sexism and fat hatred.

It puts me in mind of another Campos piece, a book review, actually, from two years ago, which ends with the following:

[You know] that particularly clueless right-wing acquaintance of yours? The one who believes that anybody in America can become rich, because he thinks about poverty in a completely unscientific, anecdotal way, which allows him to treat the exceptional case as typical? The one who can't seem to understand the simplest structural arguments about the nature of social inequality?

The next time you see some fat people and get disgusted by their failure to "take care of themselves," think about your clueless friend.

Heh.

[H/T to Shaker MRBill30560 in comments.]