Here's A Question: Who The Hell Is The "Fatties" Editor?
LatestI ask because, well, that’s where this started, isn’t it? When Maura Kelly unwisely decided to proceed with articulating her disgust with “fatties,” it was because her editor brought it up.
It’s perhaps lost in the deafening roar of everything that was wrong with Kelly’s now-infamous piece — titled “Should ‘Fatties’ Get a Room? (Even on TV?)” — but in the very first sentence Kelly indicates that this idea of being “grossed out” by “fatties” was not initially hers. As is often the case in spaces where ideas are percolated, there was more than one person in this room:
The other day, my editor asked me, “Do you really think people feel uncomfortable when they see overweight people making out on television?”
If this is true, it suggests that Kelly didn’t exactly roll out of bed one day, fire up her computer, and send off a pitch to her editor: Hey, I’ve got a great idea Marie Claire might be interested in! Don’t you hate how fat people are so fat? And how they insist on walking about in broad daylight? I’d love to write this for you… Yeah, no. It doesn’t happen like that. Kelly’s ignorance — which, to be fair, was clearly a preexisting condition — was coaxed out and placed in the spotlight thanks to an editor.
Maura Kelly has since apologized for her post, and Marie Claire’s editor-in-chief, Joanna Coles, has more or less stood by the work (without actually saying whether or not she agreed with it). But there’s a chain of editors between Kelly and Coles, and I’m willing to bet a significant amount of money on the fact that Coles did not see the article—at least not in its finished form—before it went live on the site. Nor do I think Coles was the one who decided that the issue of whether or not one is “grossed out” by fat was something best addressed by a blogger who’s an openly recovering anorexic. And if I’m wrong, well, damn, Hearst, you’ve got an even bigger problem on your hands.
Maura Kelly is someone’s writer…whose? Our various emails to Marie Claire editors, including the online editor, have gone unanswered, but if you have any insights, email me at [email protected].
(Oh, and if you happen to be in midtown right now, there’s a protest outside the Hearst building at 6:00 PM. Send pics if you’ve got ’em.)
Related:
What Was Marie Claire Thinking With This “Fatties” Piece?
Marie Claire Responds To “Fatties” Controversy
Marie Claire’s Controversy Counterpoint
Watch the TV Clip of Two People Kissing That Has Marie Claire So Grossed Out
Protest At Marie Claire’s Offices
If You’re Fat-Phobic, You’re Also An Ignorant, Bigoted Idiot