Is the Surgeon General Too Fat?

by Cameron Scott · 2010-01-11 16:49:00 UTC
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President Obama's new Surgeon General was just sworn in today.

He's a seriously impressive guy: An African-American known for his commitment to the health of the rural poor, he opened and ran a clinic in a part of rural Louisiana devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He serves on the AMA Board of Trustees and was the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant last year. In addition to an M.D., he holds an M.B.A.

But he's overweight, which has generated some criticism that his weight will "undermine his credibility" as the United States attempts to confront its obesity epidemic.

Does that strike you as bizarre and inappropriate?

I've doctored the facts a bit to make a point: The nominee is not a man, but a woman. While a approving Salon.com blog post guessed that she might be 40 pounds overweight, Regina Benjamin is no whale. I have a hard time believing that a man of her size would have his body publicly scrutinized.

After all, Dr. Benjamin is not being proposed as a spokesmodel for a weight-loss product, but as the Surgeon General of the United States.

Video of her here.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Cameron Scott writes The Thin Green Line blog at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle).
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