'Fatties' booted from website
By: Staff Writer
5/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0
Some 5,000 people have been booted off a social networking site for gaining weight over the holidays, with 533 Canadians among the so-called "festive fatties" shown the virtual door.
Though the mass eviction has the hallmarks of a publicity stunt for BeautifulPeople.com, a gated online community with a ban on ugly, the sheer volume of members expelled -- from a site whose members claim supreme interest in appearance, no less -- speaks to how normalized overeating has become for the entire population.
BeautifulPeople.com issued a news release heralding the ousters, which occurred after members posted photos of themselves celebrating Christmas and New Year.
"Vigilant members, who take pride in the standards demanded by the site, called for action," said the news release.
"Canada has been one of the worst offenders," says Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com. "It's the eating, the drinking, the sitting on the couch watching TV -- that entire culture. Canada also has the added excuse of it being extremely cold, so people are wearing baggy clothes and don't mind letting themselves go a bit over the winter months."
Site founder Robert Hintze claims "letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to (BeautifulPeople's) business model."
Canadians were the third-largest group of rejectees. The U.S. led with 1,520 and the U.K. was second with 832.
The good news is The New England Journal of Medicine reports most people only gain about a pound (.45 kilograms) between U.S. Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, despite thinking they've put on four times that amount. The problem, say researchers, is that the average person never loses that excess weight.
-- Canwest News Service
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 5, 2010 A2
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/fatties-booted-from-website-80685357.html
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haha...I really should not be laughing at other people's expense, but I found this article amusing, to say the least.
By: Staff Writer
5/01/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0
Some 5,000 people have been booted off a social networking site for gaining weight over the holidays, with 533 Canadians among the so-called "festive fatties" shown the virtual door.
Though the mass eviction has the hallmarks of a publicity stunt for BeautifulPeople.com, a gated online community with a ban on ugly, the sheer volume of members expelled -- from a site whose members claim supreme interest in appearance, no less -- speaks to how normalized overeating has become for the entire population.
BeautifulPeople.com issued a news release heralding the ousters, which occurred after members posted photos of themselves celebrating Christmas and New Year.
"Vigilant members, who take pride in the standards demanded by the site, called for action," said the news release.
"Canada has been one of the worst offenders," says Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com. "It's the eating, the drinking, the sitting on the couch watching TV -- that entire culture. Canada also has the added excuse of it being extremely cold, so people are wearing baggy clothes and don't mind letting themselves go a bit over the winter months."
Site founder Robert Hintze claims "letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to (BeautifulPeople's) business model."
Canadians were the third-largest group of rejectees. The U.S. led with 1,520 and the U.K. was second with 832.
The good news is The New England Journal of Medicine reports most people only gain about a pound (.45 kilograms) between U.S. Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, despite thinking they've put on four times that amount. The problem, say researchers, is that the average person never loses that excess weight.
-- Canwest News Service
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 5, 2010 A2
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/fatties-booted-from-website-80685357.html
---
haha...I really should not be laughing at other people's expense, but I found this article amusing, to say the least.
