Roger Ebert and WTF Samoa Air.

Roger Ebert, best known as a film critic for the show At the Movies has died of cancer at age 70. Roger Ebert wasn't a size acceptance activist, he tended to respond to criticsim. In one review he refereed to the different between plus size women and fat women were plus size women knew how to dress well and carry themselves where fat women did not. Activist Lesley Kinzel called him out on this and was surprised to get a response:

The shocking part happened when Ebert tweeted about my post, and then emailed me directly to assure me he had meant well, and to compliment and thank me for my “thoughtful and honest” writing. ROGER EBERT WAS THANKING ME. FOR CRITICIZING HIM. 

Despite his long career as a film critic, his Pulitzer price, his creation (along with Gene Siskel) of the thumbs up/down, he was constantly ridiculed about his weight. Anything from the ribbing by Gene Siskel (Roger would zing him back) to outright insults.

He took it all with a lot of class.

Speaking of class. Samoa airlines has decided to treat fat people as second class citizens by forcing them to pay by how much they weigh.

Like many Pacific island nations, Samoa has a serious obesity problem and is often included in the top 10 countries for obesity levels. As such, Mr Langton believes his airline's new payment policy will also help promote health and obesity awareness.

As I mentioned many many many times on this blog, stigma doesn't work. Stigma doesn't cause weight loss and instead makes fat people more miserable and less likely to undertake healthy habits. Samoa is a country that is the perfect example of how Health at Every Size is better than any weight loss program. The people of Samoa have always been big but it was not until they imported the western diet that they faced a steady decline in positive health outcomes.