Amid Obesity Epidemic, NBC Op-Ed Calls For ‘A Hot (Fat) Girl Summer’

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Obesity is an increasing problem in today’s gluttonous culture, leading to a swath of health threats including premature deaths. But a left-wing writer seems to see it differently. Writing in NBC News on Sunday, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, former executive editor of Teen Vogue and author of “Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life,” claims women should “have a hot (fat) girl summer.” Note the parenthetical.

“We survived a global pandemic and now you’re worried about the size of your jeans? Let’s just refuse to ever be ashamed of our bodies again,” the subtitle of the piece declares. “It’s time to tip the scales in our favor and have ourselves a hot fat girl summer.”

“Why are we torturing ourselves and other people with the pre-pandemic pressure to lose weight? There is no scarcity right now of jokes, memes and advice on how to lose the ‘pandemic 15’ or shame around pandemic weight gain,” the author writes. “But pushing ourselves to get back to the life we had before, for better or for worse, seems counterintuitive to the opportunity we have as we re-enter society …Why not take this moment to reset our barometers for self-love? Why not just reject the unfair, external standards that have always kept us all — but especially women — in a cycle of self-hate, fighting to get or keep our weight down, cycling through juice cleanses and fad diets and overly aggressive exercise classes?”

This is an awfully misguided assessment, and rejection, of the linkage between physical health, mental health, and coronavirus transmission. As Tristan Justice pointed out in The Federalist several months ago, obesity puts people at a greater risk of COVID-19 complications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that obesity could triple someone’s risk of being hospitalized. Nearly 80 percent of those hospitalized from COVID-19 were obese or overweight, one study by Kaiser Family Foundation found.