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“How about we move along from this, hmm?” Inger suggested.
“Kind of an overreaction, don’t you think?” Emilie mumbled under her breath to no one and everyone. “We were just talking about diets.”
They weren’t “just talking about diets,” so Hale had something to say, but he didn’t say it when Elsa gave his knee another squeeze and kicked the side of his foot as an exclamation point.
Instead, he leaned into her and ordered, “Eat as many potatoes as you want.”
When he moved away, she replied, “Aye, aye, bossman.”
Straight up.
He was really going to enjoy spanking her.
Finished passing around the food, they all ate in silence until Scott commented, “Well, this is awkward.”
“As it would be when Elsa drags in the high and mighty Hale Wheeler to tell us off for caring about her,” Oskar groused.
“It’s like I don’t even speak,” David said to the ceiling.
“Oskar, darling,drop it,” Inger said to her son.
Oskar didn’t drop it.
He said to Hale, “You know, for your information, the anti-body-shaming thing is not doing any favors for obese people. It isn’t good for them to think it’s perfectly okay to carry around that much weight. It’s an epidemic. You can literally die from being too fat.”
“And you think making people who self-sooth through food ashamed is the way to fight that epidemic?” Hale shot back. “You think making them feel like they need to hide, like they’re not worthy, like they’re less, like they’re society’s pariahs is the way to go?”
“No,” Oskar snapped. “I simply think making them feel they should be proud of being fat isn’t the way to go.”
“The only blatantly discriminatory joke it’s perfectly safe for a comedian to tell is a fat joke. They’re the last segment of society who it’s considered socially acceptable to find contemptable, so it’s okay to openly poke fun at them. How do you think that makes people who struggle with their weight feel?” Hale asked.
“I would hope it would make them feel like they need to find some willpower and better their lives,” Oskar answered sharply.
“And do you think the vast majority of people who have these issues don’t wish to do something about them?” Hale pushed. “Do you honestly think it’s only a matter of willpower, and not a failure of our mental health system that leaves many without the capacity to acquire the tools to find healthier ways to live their lives?”
“Please, don’t let’s get into socialized medicine being the answer to society’s ills,” Oskar mock begged. “It’s a matter of eating less. Honestly, that’s all.”
Scott made a noise at this juncture, a noise of disagreement.
But the man didn’t wade in.
And Hale didn’t back down.
“You don’t have a weight problem, so exactly how would you know?” Hale inquired, deciding, considering how contentious this already was, against noting how much alcohol Oskar had put away that night.
“I just know making them think nothing is wrong is a poor answer to a big problem,” Oskar retorted.
“So filming them in gyms when they’re trying to do something about it, posting it and making fun of them on social media is all right with you,” Hale stated flatly. “Or any of the countless and constant messages society hammers into them to make them feel unwanted, less than and worthless, those are good strategies to battle this epidemic. Rather than saying beauty has nothing to do with a measurement and exercising a little acceptance in order to perhaps help them toward finding some self-esteem which could do something about how they perceive their place in this world. That being they actually have one. And onward from that, could have beneficial effects on their mental well-being which in turn would have the same on their physical health.”
“Again, I’m simply saying it’s not helpful to make them think it’s okay being fat,” Oskar replied.
“And what I’m saying is, instead of relaying the pervasive message they’re not okay, sharing with them that they are might be a greater force for positive change,” Hale returned.
“The problem with that is, they’renotokay,” Oskar retorted.
Jesus Christ.
“Right then, since you aren’t suffering from it, and likely won’t, considering how obviously important it is to you to keep fit, what’s it matter to you? How exactly is it your business?” Hale inquired.
