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By Newsweek Editors
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A new clothing store called Torrid recently opened near where I live in Providence, Rhode Island. Passing by, I happened to notice that there were a lot of--how should I put it--well, fat teenage girls inside. I thought this might be happenstance. But then I saw what they were selling: size 26 jeans, 42D bustiers, extra-long satin ribbon chokers. Torrid, I realized, offers fashion exclusively for young overweight women.
Fat has gone mainstream in America. Plus-size clothing like that sold at Torrid is the fastest-growing segment of the apparel industry. There are travel agencies that specialize in serving obese vacationers, toilet-bowl manufacturers making extra-wide johns, casket companies whose products are specially built to hold 500-pound corpses. Salter Housewares, a major manufacturer here, will soon increase the capacity of its standard bathroom scale to 400 pounds. And one of the most well-liked and popular TV stars right now is Hurley from ABC's hit show "Lost." He's a laid-back dude who happens to weigh more than 300 pounds.
Though not overweight myself, I have a great deal of sympathy for the heavyset, who suffer in a society where looking anorexic has long been considered desirable. All the same, I can't help wondering if we are now moving too far in the opposite direction--becoming too accepting of fatness. The agency that runs New York City's subway system recently went public with plans for a new fleet of cars featuring 17-1/2 -inch-wide bucket-style seats. There was an immediate outcry from fat-rights groups, and the agency buckled. The seats were redesigned to be flat and bench style so that they could accommodate even the widest New Yorker's derriere.
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Those same fat-rights groups argue that all these efforts to make life easier for the obese are long overdue. There are now 127 million overweight Americans and by 2010, according to the federal government, 40 percent of us will be obese. By midcentury, the svelte in this country are likely to be a small minority. But obesity isn't a lifestyle choice that we should accept and celebrate. It's a medical condition. Research has shown it leads to diabetes, depression, heart disease and cancer. Do we really want to make obesity so socially acceptable that we reduce incentives to lose weight? As Arthur Caplan, a prominent bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, told me, "It's one thing to lose weight when your doctor tells you to, another when you can't find a pair of pants to fit you."
I recently visited a resort in Cancun, Mexico, where a group of local entrepreneurs have opened the world's first--and I assume only--plus-size-friendly beach club. Freedom Paradise, as it's known, goes all-out to accommodate American tourists who weigh more than 250 pounds. Doorways span 39 inches, about 20 percent wider than standard. Beach chairs are double size. Its motto is "Live large, live free." Certainly there's no pressure to lose weight. The resort's "exercise coordinator" told me most of what he does is organize groups to play Dominos or Uno.
On my last night at the hotel, the resort threw a barbecue outside by the ocean. I watched as a 47-year-old woman from Louisville, Kentucky, helped herself to a plate full of chicken, ribs, grilled sausages, Mexican rice, Caesar salad and tortilla chips. The woman, five-foot-six inches tall and 300 pounds, was diabetic and had suffered five heart attacks in as many years. She gobbled up her plate of food, then went back for seconds.
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