The Daily ran articles about Panchero’s El Gordo eating contest and Ruttle’s Rama Lama Ding Dong challenge. Is it not highly ironic that these contests celebrate gluttony when overweight people are looked down upon?

Last Friday, an article ran about a London teenager who killed herself after numerous taunts and even torture about her weight. Last spring, another suicide made the news when another overweight teenager killed himself for similar reasons.

There are probably many more that go unnoticed by the mass media. Yet the mass media flaunts the figures of models, unwittingly fueling the public sentiment against overweight people. How many times have you seen an overweight person taunted for his or her weight? Have you ever done this yourself?

And yet we celebrate those who can finish off a sundae large enough to fill a salad serving bowl, or can finish off five pounds of burritos. Perhaps this is simply another one of life’s truly sad ironies. Perhaps the irony is even strong enough to be called hypocrisy.

Jeni Nosbisch

Junior

German