Megyn Kelly clarifies her fat-shaming comments but Meghan McCain’s unimpressed – By Jayme Deerwester (usatoday.com) / Jan 12 2018
A day after Megyn Kelly told “No Excuses Mom” Maria Kang that “some of us (herself included) need to be fat-shamed,” the NBC morning host clarified that remark Friday morning.
“I said something yesterday on the show that clearly struck a nerve,” she told her audience, “and I think it’s a conversation we need to have. We were discussing body-shaming others, something I absolutely do not support. In fact, quite the opposite.”
https://twitter.com/MegynTODAY/status/951818512489701376
Kelly conceded that she had said that “Maria’s message does appeal to some people. She has thousands of followers who created their own “no excuses” clubs throughout the country. And then I revealed something I used to do 25 years ago.”
She then played a clip from Thursday’s show, in which she suggested Kang “parlay the shaming thing into a professional business because some of us want to be shamed. When I was in law school, I was gaining weight. I said to my stepfather, ‘If you see me go into that kitchen one more time, you say ‘Where you goin’, fat (expletive)?’ And it worked!”
Coming out of the clip, she said, “The pressure to be thin is ubiquitous in America and those who are not can face heartbreaking cruelty. I do not endorse this reality. The truth is I loathe it.”
Kelly then got personal, telling the audience, “Everyone in my family is or has been overweight obese” — that her sister was, at one point, 300 pounds before having gastric bypass surgery, that she once came home crying after a neighbor call her mother fat and that she was bullied over her own weight during her middle-school years.
“Please know, I would never encourage that toward any person,” she concluded. “I’ve been thinking a lot about why I once encouraged it toward myself. What I know for sure is that weight is an issue for millions of people, thin and heavy alike. And neither deserves to be judged or shamed for how they choose to handle that struggle.”
But the women over on ABC’s The View weren’t so quick to forgive, especially Meghan McCain.
“This hit me in a personal way,” she said, recalling that her very first guest appearance on The View was to respond to being fat-shamed by Laura Ingram. “I have been fat-shamed publicly and humiliated my entire career. When you say something like, ‘Sometimes, fat-shaming is good,’ it really hurts me.”
She continued, “This rhetoric is dangerous and I want to tell all the girls here: I’m a conservative political analyst; I’m still a very a very political person no matter what (Kelly) has decided to do with her career. To be on TV and do what I want to do here, I’ve never had to lose a pound. I’ve got a hot husband, I’ve got a cool job. I’ve never lost weight for anything.”
DID MEGYN KELLY ENDORSE FAT-SHAMING? The talk show host got backlash after she said “some of us want to be shamed." She's since responded saying, "I absolutely do not support" body shaming others. The co-hosts weigh in. pic.twitter.com/DF9rL08wsJ
— The View (@TheView) January 12, 2018
PB/TK – Here’s the thing dear Megyn, fat-shaming ain’t cool and those that feel a “need” to be shamed have a problem. Fat-shaming can lead some to illness such as bulimia and anorexia. Society puts enough pressure on people, especially females, I should know, my sister died of anorexia, so trying to explain your way out of it only digs the hole deeper.
