It’s the opposite side of the same body-image coin, really. You’ve got the superthin models who gaze coolly from fashion magazines, encouraging the young and impressionable to do whatever it takes to look “fun” and “sexy.” Then you’ve got the Big Beautiful Women network getting together for six days to dance, swim, hold fashion shows and more in celebration of Size Acceptance. They encourage the young and impressionable to view obesity as “fun” and “sexy.”
That’s how National Association for Body Responsibility founder Rob Stevens sees it, anyway. “This is the No. 1 killer,” he says of obesity. “These 400,000 deaths a year are preventable. Fat is not a reason to be handicapped.”
In town from Chicago last Tuesday to protest the BBW’s 11th Annual Vegas Bash, Stevens and a motley half-dozen sweat in the 4 p.m. sun in front of the Flamingo. Wearing white tees reading “Please Do Not Feed the Fat People” and passing out fliers and stickers saying the same, they attract a surprising number of curious passersby. They also attract the scorn of a few Bash attendees motor-scootering by, as well as that of Flamingo security.
“You gotta go,” repeats the guard. “This is private property. You gotta go.”
Relocated to the sidewalk outside Steakhouse 46, Stevens grumbles, “Yeah, because there’s 1,000 of them paying to stay here ...”
“You know, I used to be 320; now I’m down to 225,” comments a tourist. He and Stevens high-five.
“We’re responsible for our own problems,” says 61-year-old, diabetic NAFBR member Barbara Rupholdt. “It took my brother having a quintuple bypass to start paying attention. I lost 51 pounds by training myself to only eat when I’m hungry.”
Security circles silently for the second time in an hour. The father of a family of seven offers to buy a T-shirt. “We don’t have the right to sell them,” prohibits Stevens, who hands it over for free. By now even the guy handing out adult-entertainment cards has donned a shirt.
After a third threat from security yields no action, the protesters venture into the Flamingo pool area, reserved for BBWs only.
“If you are comfortable with your body, surely you can be comfortable mingling with other people,” Stevens notes later over the phone. And he addresses his critics’ main point of contention with his protests and NAFBR founding: The Overfed Head, a self-help book available through thintuition.com for $12.95. “If everybody had the information that I’ve created, our obesity epidemic would fade,” he counters. “I’m merely teaching people to trust their body, so I am absolutely trying to sell something. It’s a good value in comparison to having a heart attack or paying for all the medical concerns. I guess you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is. I’m proud of the information I’ve created, I’m proud of what it does for people, and I’m proud that I want people to buy it.”