Maybe you haven’t heard about this controversy, but it’s a helpful lesson in the unstated rules of 21st-century discourse. Adam Richman is a former actor and self-educated chef who, for four seasons 2008-2011, was the star of the Travel Channel series Man vs. Food and its sequel, Man vs. Food Nation. The show was a favorite of mine. If you’ve never seen it, the gimmick was this: Richman would go to a city and visit several of his favorite restaurants in the city. Each episode would conclude with Richman taking on a challenge, which usually involved him gobbling down some ungodly number of sandwiches — or burgers, pizza, “Atomic Hot Wings,” whatever — in order to have his picture placed on the restaurant’s “Wall of Fame.”
It was fun to watch and the food was always delicious-looking, but inevitably Richman got kind of pudgy from all that eating. Then he went on a diet and lost 70 pounds, becoming sufficiently fit that he was photographed nude for the British edition of Cosmopolitan.
Understandably, Richman was proud of his dieting success, so he posted a photo of himself wearing a pair of pants from his “fat” size, holding out the waist to show how much he had lost. When he posted this photo on Instagram, he used the hashtag #thinspiration.
That hashtag apparently invited a harsh comment from a “body image” activist (as angry fat chicks now call themselves), and Richman did not react wisely: “DILLIGAF?” (Do I Look Like I Give a F–k) was his first comment, and this attracted another “body image” activist who “made a post about Adam’s ‘DILLIGAF’ comment on my personal Instagram, and asked my followers to ‘tell him that eating disorders are not a joke and nothing to take lightly.’ My followers did just that, but I didn’t for one second predict the vitriol that followed.”
The so-called “vitriol” from Richman wasn’t anything particularly shocking to people who are accustomed to online arguments:
“Give me a f–king break. If anyone acts like a c–t I’ll call them one. It’s not misogyny, it’s calling a spade a spade.”
and
“No — I legitimately don’t give a f–k about haters & close minded internet loudmouths like you. . . . Seriously, grab a razor blade and & draw a bath. I doubt anyone will miss you.”
Like I said: Not shocking to people accustomed to such arguments, yet not quite in keeping with the wholesome image of the host of a popular TV series. As a result, Richman’s new show was delayed:
The Travel Channel has pulled the plug on Adam Richman’s new series, “Man Finds Food,” after the TV host’s rant on Instagram over a picture related to his recent weight loss.
“Man Finds Food” was supposed to debut July 2, but the channel announced that the show has been postponed, reports the Washington Post.
It did not offer a new premiere date. But the “Man vs. Food” host posted this encouraging remark on Facebook: “Still waiting for a airing date for the show. “Stay tune (sic) MFF fans!”
Last month, Richman drew outrage after he wrote a string of expletives on Instagram in response to fans criticizing his use of the hashtag #thinspiration — which is often associated with anorexia and pro-eating disorder messages. . . .
He eventually apologized via Twitter and deleted all of his Instagram messages related to the incident.
In a statement to ABC News, Richman said he is sorry for his “inexcusable remarks.”
“I’ve long struggled with my body image and have worked very hard to achieve a healthy weight,” Richman said.
There is a word for this: Crazy.
Yes, Richman’s use of the f-word and the c-word were probably a breach of the standard clause in TV contracts that obligate on-air talent to refrain from engaging in obnoxious/immoral public behavior. But Charlie Sheen is still on TV, and there are lots of other TV stars who keep working despite DUIs and other personal scandals that lead to unfortunate tabloid headlines. So what happened?
The Feminist Thought Police got him. This controversy wasn’t really about eating disorders and “body image,” except insofar as those issues are a subset of the Feminist Grievance Cluster, along with date rape, the “pay gap,” abortion and Hobby Lobby.
Maybe there are male “body image” activists, but I never heard of one. No, it’s exclusively a fat chick issue, which means it’s also a feminist issue, and one look at Amber Sarah — the fat chick who may have cost Adam Rich his TV show — tells you all you need to know.
Her blog is called “Adipose Activist: One fat girl’s battle against size discrimination,” and I’ve got a terrible fear that fans of Adam Richman may be tempted to say rude things about Amber Sarah. So whatever you do, don’t say anything rude about her.
And here’s what I mean about “the unstated rules of 21st-century discourse”: You might think that feminists who are ostentatiously concerned about fairness and discrimination and equality would recognize that this means they have to play by the same rules as everybody else. On the Internet, it is customary — indeed, it seems obligatory — that when people disagree, they say the meanest things they can think of to denounce their antagonists: They’re ugly, they’re stupid, they are devotees of hideous sexual perversion.
For example, people on the Internet who hate me seem to enjoy making remarks accusing me of being homosexual despite the fact that (a) I’ve been married for 25 years and have six children and a new grandson, and (b) these people are usually “progressives” who make a big show of denouncing conservatives as homophobes.
Having been called a “faggot” innumerable times by these Enlightened Disciples of Progress, I understand that they have no actual principles or moral standards, and the same is generally true of feminists. They demand to be treated as equal to men, but when I respond to their stupid arguments the way I’d respond to any stupid argument made by a man — i.e., with cruel, mocking sarcasm — they act as if this proves that I am a hateful misogynist, and perhaps also either (a) a faggot, or (b) someone with a small penis, or usually (c) both.
That these assertions are false is obvious enough, and they are also logically invalid as argument, ad hominem. Even if I were a small-penised homosexual, this would not prove that (a) feminist ideology is coherent, or that (b) my mocking sarcasm isn’t funny as hell.
By categorizing all disagreement as hate, feminists are attempting to dictate rules of discourse whereby they win every argument simply by virtue of the fact that they possess vaginas. And because they preemptively categorize all critics as misognynistic monsters undeserving of respect, feminists thereby authorize themselves to employ Any Means Necessary to destroy their critics.
@rsmccain @AdamRichman And NEVER apologize to the perpetually offended. pic.twitter.com/uK7WjgHEJO
— Sheila_T (@_FreeMarketeer) July 2, 2014
Thus, Adam Richman is at risk of losing his TV career because he said rude things to a fat chick, as if we should be shocked that a guy from Brooklyn would say rude things in the heat of an argument.
Stipulate that the c-word is a particularly hateful insult that I never use myself. Further stipulate that suggesting someone should commit suicide is at least cruel and uncouth. But, again: Adam Richman is from Brooklyn, where the use of hateful, insulting, cruel and uncouth language has been elevated to an art form. It’s his culture, the same way suicide bombing is part of the Palestinian culture.
Anyway, if Travel Channel dumps Adam Richman, I’ve got an idea for his next reality-show series, an idea that would be perfect for Spike TV: Beautiful women compete to prove that they know their way around the kitchen in . . . Make Me a #$@&ing Sandwich.
Eating well is the best revenge and, whatever you do, don’t say anything rude about Amber Sarah the “body image” activist.
When my thyroid died, and I had just been promoted and was stress eating, I gained a lot of weight.
I got my thyroid straightened out, and got my stress eating under control (mostly by working hard to be even better at my job), and added running to martial arts and bicycling. Voila, weight-loss.
The thing I didn’t do, and cannot accept the way other women do, was start screaming about “body image” or “size discrimination”. I was fat. I needed to do something about it. I did. It would never, ever occur to me to attack somebody for cheering his weight loss.
Of course, the feminist grievance thing just does not appeal to me at all.
Look, I’m not someone who goes around insulting fat people, except Bill Schmalfeldt, of course.
First of all, I’m a Southern man, which means I don’t mind a gal with “a little more to love.” Furthermore, I am entirely sympathetic to the issues experienced by people with weight problems.
But there is a difference between “a little more to love” and morbid obesity, and no amount of rhetoric about “body image” and “fat acceptance” is going to help your diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or any other health problem common to the morbidly obese.
You can wish away these problems, no matter what the “fat acceptance” activists claim.
Gunga’s Motto: Never say, “Bite me” to someone who looks capable of eating you in a single sitting.
I agree people need thicker skins (hell they stick hot branding irons on my relatives and unlike you people, we don’t do it for fun).
That said, if you are working for TV, most shows try to avoid controversy like this. The feminists are a bunch of…well hysterical women (with the vapors to boot). While what Adam said was just typical internet lack of civility, that sort of thing can cost you a job on TV. So he is not exactly a victim. And Charlie Sheen is not actually working at the same level he once was.
So just like Megan Fox had to do with Michael Bay, he had to suck it up and apologize to everyone offended. I am surprised he didn’t go to feminist rehab to boot (they make you watch old tapes of feminists icons, I hear it is really horrible).
Of course, it is not like Adam did what Mel Gibson did, because that will get you in really hot water with Hollywood!
As an imagination activist I demand that you immediately retract your hateful anti-wishful thinking comment. If wishful thinking is good enough to run this country on, it should be good enough for you (unless you’re a commie with a diminutive peepee). Furthermore, I will stick my fingers in my ear and repeat “lalalalalalalala” until my demands are met and you start providing free unicorn rides, you hateful realityist!
[…] is important, and I would not normally go out of my way to make fun of Amber’s weight, but she went after Adam Richman because he was proud he lost 70 lbs? Amber is the one starting things here. Sorry, body image aside, Amber is morbidly obese and […]
Morbid obesity is a social construct that is about as healthy as homosexual behavior. Perhaps fatties can request to be added to the alphabet of deviance and the perpetually victimized.
The #thinspiration tag is what did it. That’s a pro-ana buzzword (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-ana#Thinspiration). I’m not surprised it triggered a crazy response.
If you want a dose of crazy, dig around the pro-ana message boards. Part of me hopes that the posters to those boards are actually a dozen or so OCD guys from 4chan trollololling the rest of the internet. But I know that’s not the case.
I had an acute stroke a year ago. I immediately lost 60 lbs. in 6 months and I’ve become incredibly judgmental of anyone who is obese. If you’re fat, unattractive and unhealthy by choice then you take the criticism for it. Furthermore, you risk making yourself a burden to others so you can belly up for second helpings of Hamburger Helper. You got a problem with “body image?” Then push away from the dinner table! Time to decide who is the master of yourself; your superego or your meat computer.
From her screed, “You need to be extra careful to think about not how what you mean when you say things, but how other people will interpret them.” I think Jeff Goldstein could help her out here.
Look, she started it.
He initially apologized, his original post was about his weight loss, didn’t mean to offend. That wasn’t enough for Beelzabutt. She organized her followers to stalk and harass him until he finally broke.
So Richman’s tale does resemble Sheen’s in that respect. Chuck Lorre hired a boozing, drug-using womanizer to play a boozing, drug-using womanizer, and then complained that he was too much of a boozer, drug-user, and womanizer (after EIGHT seasons as a top TV hit) to continue.
But Sheen had a contract, and walked away with $25 million in cash PLUS he kept his syndication rights to the shows he was in, which will be worth far more in the long run.
All these cable channels are related to the major networks, though, not independent producers as much. When anything is said against gays or fat chicks, they come down hard. Stick to running down America like Obama, your show can stay on.
Our esteemed host wrote:
There’s a bit more: not only are they trying to insult you by calling you a homosexual — which means that they view that as an insult! — but they are invariably pushing the meme that you are the “bottom,” the male who gets sodomized, not the male doing the sodomizing. The pecking order amongst homosexuals — pun very much intended — is strong and stark, and worse than anything women have ever thought that men thought of them.
[…] with a fat chick, or, a “body image” activist, or, to be more honest and to the point, Richman offended someone who is perpetually offended anyway, and BAM! She attacked him like he was two dozen Dunkin’ […]
“That these assertions are false is obvious enough….” Heh. Giggle snort.
Among the “they” is Bill Schmalfeldt.
The bad name calling doesn’t bother me (much) though I disapprove of it. But I do think that people *should not* wish death on others or suggest they kill themselves. This bothers me in a whole different way than name calling.
I click through to an article about a young woman who goes big game hunting and sure enough there’s the comment that she ought to be shot and stuffed. And called on it, the commenter refused to apologize. Asked point blank the person said that yes, she thinks people should die and that animals are better. Wishing that people would die horrible deaths, and wishing violence on people, reveals something about whoever does it in a way that using a rude name simply doesn’t do.
I’d definitely rip this guy up one side and down the other for the razor blade and bathtub remark.
So, if they maintain your having a small penis delegitimizes your argument does that not imply that they would be more inclined to accept the same premise as being true were it to issue from a better hung individual? And does this not mean that they believe there to be some scale by which masculinity, as manifested by penis length, correlates positively with wisdom or intellect?
They give away what they truly venerate by choosing to denigrate its opposite.
As a guy I love my penis (more often than I wish was necessary at times), but even I do not consider it to be some rod of authority which grants me dominion over lesser beings (at least when it is not wearing the superhero outfit my wife sewed for it).
“one look at Amber Sarah — the fat chick who may have cost Adam Rich his TV show — tells you all you need to know.”
Trigger warning: Krispy Kremes.
[T]hey believe there to be some scale by which masculinity, as manifested by penis length, correlates positively with wisdom or intellect?
Whether or not feminist believe this, in my case it’s true.
Krispy Kremes are the official pastry of the Philadelphia Eagles. And Amber weighs more than a typical NFL linebacker.
Lorre’s problem was that Sheen was publicly trashing him. The rest would have simply been “Charlie being Charlie.”
Amber Sarah is incredibly unattractive due to her fatness. She would look much better and dare I say appealing if she lost weight.
Why is she pretending that words will make her look better? Silencing others won’t make her look or feel better. It’s ridiculous.
No one can convince me she walks down the street (or sits in front of her television) and feels good about herself.
The reason Adam posed for Cosmopolitan? He looked great and felt even better about how he looked (and proud of the hard work it took to get there). I have a suspicion that Amber would consider posing for a magazine if she lost weight. A crap ton of it.
perhaps if amber stopped shoving food into her maw she wouldn’t have “body image” problems.
You are so WRONG. He started it. He. Has. A. Penis. Q.E.D! Plus he is named Adam. Adam was a liar and blamed everything on Eve. Assuming you believe that patriarchal desert people misogynistic racist faith. Because we know all the Wiccans were feminists and peaceful people before the Christianists came along and persecuted them.
So there.
I am pretty sure, Adam Richman is eating a pastrami sandwich at Katz Deli in that photo. While beef sandwiches are an abomination to me (look at my photo) I hear that eating a sandwich at Katz’ can result in a certain physiological reaction.
Once upon a time I was a 150 lb, 5’9.5″ airman and swore up and down that I’d never turn into one of those fat, out of shape sergeants that seemed to characterize the NCO ranks. Twenty pounds heavier, that is exactly what happened. My eating habits (a love of Cinnamon Toast Crunch especially) contributed to my weight gain. I still looked pretty thin, but my muscle tone (actual muscle, not tone as in looks) was, according to a physical therapist, on par with that of a 60 year old woman. That was my fault.
It took me until the last four years to take fitness seriously and the most amazing thing happened: while I haven’t shed much weight from exercise (most was lost due to changing my diet), I’ve replaced the fat I’ve lost with muscle and am now skirting 145lbs. I can do chin-ups and neutral-grip pullups (still working on a normal pullup), I’m almost ready to move up to a 30lb kettlebell, and I’m working on doing a lot of the crazy strength stuff male gymnasts do in their ring and floor exercise routines. Oh, and for those who don’t know me, I’m a chick.
If I was on the “everybody has to accept me for the size I am” bandwagon, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this. I’d still be a pudgy NCO barely passing my PT test every year. Instead, I worked my ass off (especially in the last year) and can now say I’m as strong or stronger than quite a few of the guys I occasionally see at the gym. I also feel good about myself because I worked for it. It hasn’t been easy; every day I go to the gym and every day it’s still hard. But I see the improvements and it’s worth it. Far better than sitting on my ass eating bags of Doritos wishing I was thinner and being bitter toward anybody who managed to make that transition.
I bet she’s one of those people that uses the motorized cart at Wal-Mart and the grocery store without actually needing to use it.
Those people piss me off.
Waitaminit, waitaminit ….. are you using a metric or English ruler?
This is up at The UK Daily Mail now.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2678573/Anger-Millies-thinspirational-selfie-Anorexia-campaigners-backlash-husband-Professor-Green-uses-term-picture.html
Unfortunately.
I’m pretty sure Her Majesty does not consort with anyone other than her husband. Oh, wait…never mind.
I’m trying to remember: are there as many commercials on TV telling people to eat more fries so that they’l get “Reubenesque” as there are for weight loss programs?
A clue for Amber Sarah: regardless of how comfortable you may be with your body image, the majority of Americans don’t really find serious obesity particularly attractive.
Oops!
Until reading your comment I’d assumed that Mr. Richman’s remark about the razor blade and bathtub was a barb meaning that these body image activists could all do with a good shave…all over.
But you don’t insult Bill Schmalfeldt because he’s fat, you do it because he’s Bill Schmalfeldt.
This is true.
Actually, you don’t do it at all. We tie your kind down so we can brand you.
And, no, I won’t eat more Chiken.
Stacy, you are gravely at fault for failing to put on a trigger warning on the pic of Amber Sarah. you are responsible for every guy who clawed his eyes out, you reprobate! As an exercise for the student, calculate how many trips it would take if she had to haul ass, and show your work.
a key scientific issue, does Amber look more like 1) she was eaten by a wolf, then shit down a cliff? or 2) she recently was taken by the Japanese whaling fleet off Antarctica?
Monsters! How do you like it?
http://www.seriouseats.com/images/20081209-hot-dog.jpg
You can be too thin and too bat shit crazy
Excellent post on the Fem-Nazis, PC police.
You can’t redistribute youth, good looks and a healthy body weight, so it’s no wonder fem-Marxists get especially hysterical when this topic comes up.
[…] Stacy McCain, who has an eye for crazy, found an internet exchange between Adam Richman, the former star of Man v. Food, and self-proclaimed fat activist Amber Sarah. Long story short: Richman lost seventy pounds and showed off his new (and very hot) body in Cosmo; he tweeted it out and used the hashtag “thinspiration,” which is apparently some pro-anorexia (no, not making this up) thing; and fur flew. Here’s Richman in Cosmo: […]
The head’s the best.
Figures. I’ve heard of this show, but never watched it until I was stuck in a hotel this week, and needed something mindless to run in the background while banging away at spreadsheets, code, and converting everything from XP to 8.1.
I liked the program, and I liked the attitude Richman presents: just enough self-aggrandizement mixed in with self-deprecation to make it fun. Plus I’ve actually eaten at a some of the places he’s been in the shows I saw.
As we all know, in any confrontation, introducing lawyers makes it ten times worse. But if one party in the confrontation is a member of a protected leftist victim group, then all sanity is blown out of the situation.
While I will agree with some of what Adipose says ( diets don’t work ), It is still a certain fact, recognized by Adipose herself, that life style does affect both weight and health. Therefore :
Adipose should quit blogging, push away from the keyboard, and do something else, like electrical work, or maybe roofing.
Even on the bathtub remark, I’m still with Stacy on this one. You just do not engage with someone from Brooklyn, either male or female, unless you’re prepared to do some serious rudeness/threat battle.
Do you know how in some cultures you are expected to exuberantly haggle on prices in the marketplace, and if you don’t the merchant is insulted, and may well refuse to sell you anything?
Brooklyn is a different culture. It is not genteel. They don’t mean anything by it, other than it being an over-the-top way to say “go eff yourself, moron.” And for that matter, when you are able to out-rude and out-threaten them in creative ways, they respect you for it.
I just don’t see how this woman could be as big as she is and not have developed a much thicker skin by now. Certainly she has been insulted in much worse ways than Adam Richman’s lame set of insults. In fact, seems to me like he was holding back. A true Brooklynite insult session would have included lots more f-word than he used.
Miss Pascal wrote:
It’s the wish that carries its own punishment; that’s a mortal sin.
This is a wrong !
You should mind that fat is very bad for human body..
Thanks a lot for sharing this article.
Munmun Nishi………..
Plus Size Fashion
I remember seeing that picture of Maria Kang, the 32 year old mother of three with the ridiculously fit and hot body, and thinking, “I want to get back into shape. If she can, I can.”
I’m not going to be that pretty or that slender – different body structure – but I should be stronger and healthier. Getting physically fit FEELS good: the muscle tone, the power when I move, the endorphins.
I just can’t stand how these people keep pretending that physical fitness and a reasonably healthy diet don’t matter. Because unless you have a huge medical issue, those things will keep your body size within a normal range.