Disclaimer: Virginia and Corinne are humans with a lot of informed opinions. They are not nutritionists, therapists, doctosr, or any kind of health care providers. The conversation you're about to hear and all of the advice and opinions they give are just for entertainment, information, and education purposes only. None of this is a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice.
Virginia
You’re listening to Burnt Toast! This is the podcast about diet culture, fatphobia, parenting, and health. I’m Virginia Sole-Smith. I also write the Burnt Toast newsletter.
Corinne
And I’m Corinne Fay. I work on Burnt Toast and run @SellTradePlus an Instagram account where you can buy and sell plus sized clothing.
Virginia
And it’s time for your May mailbag episode! But instead of answering your questions this month, I decided it would be fun—cathartic? something?—to open my other mailbag, which is the place in my computer and in my DMs where the trolls live.
Corinne
Yes, you’ve been getting a lot of this lately.
Virginia
It started when The Cut did a profile on me, right before the book launch. There were a lot of feelings about orange crackers. Which I feel like we have spoken to?
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Corinne
You addressed it very directly on TikTok.
Virginia
Then after the Fresh Air interview came out, and the book launched, it’s just been a lot of people in their feelings.
Corinne
You made it to Fox News.1
Virginia
I did. I did make it to Fox News. I always knew I could do it.
Corinne
I didn’t realize that that was a thing, that they’ll be like, “Oh, something that was on Fresh Air. Let’s twist this into something that will make our audience mad.”
Virginia
No spoilers, Corinne! Because we’re gonna get into just how mad they got. I should say, Corinne hasn’t read most of these. I’m making her come in cold because I’m a little numb to it all at this point.
Corinne
I’ll be reacting in real time.
Virginia
I felt like we needed some human reaction. I also want to say: In choosing what messages to talk about in this episode, I was mostly looking for the it’s-so-bad-it’s-funny comments, the orange snack cracker type of thing. But I do also want to get into some of the repeat themes that come up that I think are super troubling in this conversation. We are going to read some fairly disturbing emails. Content warning for anti-fatness, misogyny, every other kind of bias you can think of, white supremacy. It’s going to be a wild ride. Take care of yourself if that’s not something you want to listen to.
Corinne
Make sense. This is also a paywalled episode. That means to hear the whole thing, you’ll need to be a paid Burnt Toast subscriber. It’s just $5 per month or $50 for the year.
Virginia
All right, before we dive in, Corinne, how are you doing? What is new with you?
Corinne
I’m doing good. It’s starting to get a touch hot here, so I’m feeling a little bit of dread.
Virginia
Is it time to get out the face shield?
Corinne
I’ve been wondering if we were going to talk about that sun visor again. Why don’t I just admit now, that it did not get a lot of wear.
Virginia
But it seemed so great!
Corinne
The thing is, I wear glasses and it’s really hard to wear with glasses.
Virginia
Yeah, that does feel like a big design flaw.
Corinne
I need a sun visor in prescription glasses.
Virginia
Imagine if your whole face was your prescription.
Corinne
Yes, exactly. What I ended up doing instead was just buying prescription sunglasses, which was great.
Virginia
It does feel like that plus a hat does achieve a lot of the same goals as the sun face shield.
Corinne
I no longer need a face shield because I have prescription sunglasses.
Virginia
All right. Well, it is an official Butter recommendation so we should probably go back and add a footnote. But if you don’t wear glasses, it might be amazing for you?
Corinne
Totally. Or maybe if you have less chunky glasses? What’s new with you? Besides.
Virginia
Besides the trolls? Things are good. It’s garden season. I am excited about that. It’s been very nice to have that safe space to be in when my introvert self—and I want to be clear, this is just like how I would respond as an introvert to any amount of… There’s a lot of output with this season. Before we even get into the trolls. So it’s good. We had a lot of shrubs not survive the drought last year, which I’m sad about. But I’m also like, it’s a reason to buy a new plant.
Corinne
You’ve got to treat yourself.
Virginia
I’m mourning but I’m moving on. Okay, should we dive in? Should we do our first letter?
Corinne
I think we should.
Virginia
Okay. This is from Lou. This is the kind of email I like to file under “Men Who Listen to Podcasts and Send Me Thoughts.” So Corinne, I will have you read this.
Corinne
Hello Virginia,
I was just listening to your podcast on NPR and I have to say it's been scientifically proven that being obese is an health issue, that goes for children and adults! I disagree that it's a body image problem. It's costing the health care system millions of dollars! Your information is misleading and harmful to say it's not an issue! Please do your due diligence and research the health effects rather than dismissing it as an image problem and chastising the medical community for addressing the issue. These obese, people, Lizzo for example, promote that fact it's ok, now you're writing books not addressing the issue. If you thought it was ok next time you go to the doctors get on the scale! The fact you don't reiterates what I'm saying and does not go along with what you're saying.. This problem all started when junk food and fast food came along - look back to old photos even the eighties - people were not obese - this is insane what's going on!
Virginia
Lou has a lot of thoughts. Lou also uses a lot of exclamation points. And has very creative comma use.
Corinne
Creative comma use for sure. My first thought is: Did Loui listen to the interview or did Lou read the title and react immediately?
Virginia
This is a common theme of Internet trolls.
Corinne
Would you say that the point of your book is that there’s a body image issue?
Virginia
No. I would not say that.
Corinne
I would not say that either.
Virginia
That’s not how I would characterize my work, no. We’re talking about systemic bias and how it harms people, including their physical health.
I’m always sad when they bring Lizzo into it. Can we just leave Lizzo alone?
Corinne
Poor Lizzo.
Virginia
She doesn’t need this. She didn’t ask for it. You’re mad at me, Lou, not at Lizzo. So yes, this is very much a greatest hits troll playlist. Like, “It’s been scientifically proven with,” but he doesn’t link to any research or supporting evidence. He’s not looking at the data. "It’s costing the healthcare system millions of dollars.” There’s so many people who have put in thousands of hours of work unpacking these premises.
has devoted decades of her life to this. And then, "please do your research." That's one of my favorite things because I do research this? For a living?Corinne
You think they just let Virginia write a book without doing any research?
Virginia
They came up to me on the street. It was the wildest thing.
Corinne
You sent them an email and said, “We have a body image problem. Can I write a book?”
Virginia
This is not specific to just Lou. One guy sent me link after link after link and they were all fitness guru podcast episodes. I understand I am just a woman who researches this professionally and has written about these issues for decades, and you are a man who listens to podcasts. But it still does not mean you have to send me personal emails about it.
Corinne
There’s also not a lot here, besides ranting.
Virginia
Yeah, ranting and claiming that I don’t have any facts on my side while they have all the facts but they never actually use facts.
The thing that really gets to me is how men write these emails where it’s like “You are wrong. Let me tell you how you are wrong. Please do your research,” and I’m just like, well I have 50 pages of footnotes, Lou. Do you?
Corinne
YOU please do your research. You please do YOUR research.
Virginia
Here’s another fun one from a man. This guy wrote:
In response to your grifting nonsense I would usually say hush! back into the kitchen with you and make me a sandwich—
Corinne
Oh no.
Virginia
but, sadly, we all know how that would end.
Corinne
How…how… how would that end?
