Kate Upton is As Fat As Barack Obama is Muslim

This week, self-proclaimed "Skinny Gurl" on the blog Skinny Gossip posted this absurd tirade about how fat Kate Upton is, asserting that she is 80% genetically identical to a cow. Skinny Gossip's mission statement is to be "a gossip site with a snarky counter-view to a culture that glorifies excess consumption." Skinny Gossip? More like Emaciated Babble. Skinny Gurl goes out of her way to say demoralizing things about a girl she's never met, including that she is white trash, gives $25 sexual favors in garages, and shouldn't eat burgers because it would be cannibalism. 

Saying that Kate Upton is fat is about as egregious as saying that Barack Obama is Muslim. It's not an opinion. It is a lie.

It's true that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. It's also true that everyone has different tastes and attractions, whether to different body types, hair colors, or genders, and therefore has varying opinions on what they find attractive. But there's also a difference between having an opinion - for example, that Obama has been a lackluster president - and attempting to make that a fact, such as that the president is a Muslim. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions - this is America, after all - but no one is entitled to fabricate facts.

It is a fact that Kate Upton is 30 pounds underweight.

It is a fact that Kate Upton has been on the cover of multiple renowned and established magazines, most notably GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire.

It is a fact that Kate Upton has just under half a million Twitter followers and is one of the most recognizable young models of 2012.

No one in this country gets such fame for being naked, or celebrated as beautiful if they are fat. That's just how our country works. She is in a shallow industry where looks are everything, and she is on top.

This foolish person known as Skinny Gurl is contributing to the issue of body image in America, a luxury in the developed world but nonetheless a serious problem. According to Skinny Gossip, Skinny Gurl is a 20-something in the fashion industry who takes "personal pride" in keeping herself "very thin" and feels that she is entitled to be the authority on monitoring celebrities and their appearances. Seventeen magazine is now publishing unedited photographs of models to boost the self-esteem of their teenage readers and to make the fashion industry healthier, both for models and for the girls and women who view them. To be so callous about something as trivial as a model's looks or her weight is uncalled for. Women should not support each other blindly, but they should be careful about how they criticize those they do not agree with and why they are criticizing them. Upton does not deserve to be called fat; she does deserve to be questioned about her talent and rise to fame. Bodies should be celebrated, not scorned. 

"Have we really gotten so fat in this country that Kate is the best we can aim for?" Skinny Gurl asks. The real question is: have we really gotten so media-obsessed that we will take the word of a blithering idiot who probably has an undiagnosed mental disorder and definitely has access to a computer? Does her opinion stand as fact? Is Skinny Gurl the next Katie Couric or Oprah? I think not.