When Obesity Was Celebrated
Today, the weight loss industry’s profits grow steadily in lockstep with the steady growth of our waistlines. Go back a few generations, though, and the existence of such an industry would have mystified our ancestors. Most of them wished they were so lucky as to have to worry about being too fat. Between running for their lives from predators or back-breaking toil as peasants and serfs, they were neither sedentary enough, nor had that much extra (or even enough) to eat to get obese. When food and leisure were scarce, to be chunky indicated good fortune – and throughout history, the fortunate have loved to showcase their good fortune. That explains the rise of fat men’s clubs in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America, when well-to-do fat men got together to celebrate and showcase their obesity.
Membership was contingent on weight – usually, a 200 pounds minimum. At fat men club get-togethers there were weigh-ins that often got competitive. Especially at clubs that assigned roles based on weight, where the most obese was appointed president, the second fattest became treasurer, and so on. Today, we downplay our weight, but back in the day, fat club members went to great lengths to add weight at weigh-ins by stuffing their pockets with coins, among other shenanigans. It was not until the 1920s, when the link between obesity and poor health became better known, that fat men’s clubs declined. One of the biggest, the New England Fat Men’s Club, last met in 1924. By then, membership had dropped from 10,000 to just 38, and when none passed the weigh-in, the club disbanded.