[S04.E01: Knocked Up?]

18 hours ago, Ketzel said:

I'm not M. F. Luder, but I do happen to have the relevant excerpt from a blog Whitney kept, which was still available on line during her first season on MBFFL, but which subsequently disappeared.  I had quoted it in an earlier post regarding how Whitney kept varying the reasons for when and why she gained weight.

From her now deleted blog:   "As early as 13, I started to notice that the black boys in my classes were exclusively interested in me and a few of my friends. They told me I was “thick,” and “juicy,” which I learned to equate with “fat,” because they didn’t ask out the skinny girls I aspired to be like. By the time I reached high school, I vowed that I wanted to lose enough weight so that a black guy never found me attractive again. I realize this sounds racist, but it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t have dated them (fast-forward a couple years and I’ve dated plenty), but in my mind I had decided that what some of the black guys saw as “thick” translated to “fat” in the white community, and being white, I felt the pressure to look like right kind of white girl."

Hello KETZEL. Thanks a bunch for taking the time to clarify her statements.

First of all, I have to say that I find Whitney to be a thoroughly detestable, self-centered, obnoxious, rude, pitiful excuse of a human being. Her childish treatment of the people in her life--parents, co-workers, friends those that attend her Big Girl dance classes--is inexcusable. Her fake pregnancy storyline is especially loathesome given that she has PCOS and there are many young women with this condition who desperately want to conceive but can't, some of whom are undoubtedly her fans, who are deliberately being mislead by her and the TLC producers.

I said all that to say that, in this regard, I'm going to have to give her a pass. I find that what she posted in her blog, IMHO, was well stated and entirely believable. For so many people during their teenage years it's desperately important to be considered acceptable and "normal" to our peers and within whatever culture we belong to. As much as we like to comment on her myriad of character flaws, I think it's only fair to make clear that being a racist is not one of them.

In Black culture, which is also my cultural background, in general Black males are far more likely to find females who are thick, have "junk in the trunk," big bone-ded or, as many of us say, "fluffy," attractive more so than White males. What White culture often deems as too big or too fat is not only perfectly acceptable but desirable in much of Black culture. Concurrently, many Black females consider themselves to be damn fine or "PHAT" at much higher weights than White females.

Wow, amazing how well thought out and coherent she can be when she puts her mind to it. So sad that she doesn't do this more often.

BTW, this will be my third attempt at posting this reply. My original attempt should have been posted hours ago but I received an error message that the site was being worked on and it promptly wiped out everything I wrote. :-(. Crossing my fingers that the third time is the charm.

Thanks again.

[S04.E01: Knocked Up?]

On 1/30/2017 at 0:21 PM, M.F. Luder said:

We know Whitney isn't gay/bi because otherwise she would have added that to the ways in which she felt emotionally victimized throughout her life. She once explained how upset she was that black boys thought she was cute in high school, imagine if she also had to deal with attraction from/to women. How scandalous.

Whoa, hold on M.F. Luder. What's that about her being upset that Black boys thought she was cute? Exactly what did she find so upsetting? I admit that I can only watch this show in very small doses; generally prefer to hang out here and get my Twitiful updates from all of you, as always presented with a healthy balance of information, truth and snark.

Please enlighten, inquiring minds just gotta know!

[S05.E04: Kirsten's Story]

6 hours ago, PsychoKlown said:

I enjoyed reading your post DC GAL IN VA.  You made some interesting points.

The only explanation I can give for this is that when traveling with the "she-beast" there was probably a lot more time added just to get her sorry carcass in and out of the car.  What would take us about five minutes in a rest stop probably was 30 - 45 extra minutes.  That, and add all the times to stop (even for drive-thru) food and drink.

I also suspect they couldn't drive over 8 hours on any given day because of the pain she-beast was in and would have to stop.

And finally, the extra weight in the car would slow down speed.  If the car was pushed to a high speed it would require more stops for gas....which would require probably a stop for snacks....then the restroom again....and so it goes.

Really appreciate your kind comments PSYCHOKLOWN, thanks.

You definitely brought out several great points about that trip-from-Hell. Geez, just the amount of time and physically draining activities maneuvering her from point A to point B must have been exhausting. I especially loved how she yelled at her mother to "Close the door!" after she huffed and puffed her way back into the van.

Also regarding the time it took to get to Houston, I looked up the driving distance between Seattle, Washington and Houston; used Seattle as a starting point since I couldn't remember exactly which city in Washington they were departing from. It's 34 hours and 2,339 miles. I think it's totally possible for two people to drive this in at least three days, especially with AZCHRISTIAN stating above that he or she could drive coast to coast in five days. But silly me, I completely forgot that they had to use TWO vehicles because our delicate flower Kirsten took up all the space in that large, borrowed van mom was driving and there was no room for dad so they couldn't just take turns driving one vehicle, which also means they had to spend twice the money for gas. Plus, though never stated, did they stop and spend a couple of nights at a motel or just spend five "gamey" unwashed days with each other?

Aaahh, Kirsten is just the gift that keeps on giving, ain't she!

[S05.E04: Kirsten's Story]

6 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

Her voice reminds me of Kathy Griffin's impersonation of Kelly Bensimon, modulated down an octave.

Thanks CLAREWALKS.  I looked up Kelly Bensimon--didn't know who was--but couldn't find the Kathy Griffin impersonation.

Actually, now that I think about it, Kirsten's voice reminds me of Bart Simpson's buddy Millhouse on The Simpson's.

[S05.E04: Kirsten's Story]

Just a few more thoughts/observations about this episode:

First, I know that a lot of you can't stand the parents but I really want to cut them some slack. Yes, they're dysfunctional, but raising your daughter's two kids, then accepting her back into the home FREE OF CHARGE, probably spending an inordinate amount of the household income just to feed her, then (the mom) contacting TLC/Dr. Now to try to save her daughter's life, driving for five days with that ungrateful, whiney she-beast and even paying for an apartment, well I would say that they have gone above and beyond for their train wreck of a child. I truly believe that both parents are just plain worn out from years of dealing with their dear daughter and her issues.

Oh, and let's not forget the daily torture of helping her bathe. Dammit, she was so weird and weepy during that opening shower scene screaming and crying for her mom to push that shower bench near her ass, I was half hoping that Norman Bates would show up as "Mother" and put the family out of their collective misery.

Also, sorry, but I just don't buy Kirsten's back story about falling in with the wrong crowd -- Hell, she was probably an active and integral member of the wrong crowd -- and taking off when she was a teenager cause daddy loved her brother more. What I suspect is that she had a serious attack of "I wanna do what I wanna do when I wanna do it!" Along with that nasty, entitled attitude she has, I am sure the parents were having none of that shit, so she took off and thoroughly trashed her life. She's lucky they didn't tell her to piss off when she asked to move back home.

I am crossing my fingers for Neiko since his creepy display of cruelty towards his mom -- yeah, I know Kirsten thoroughly sucks as a mom -- frankly scared the crap out of me. As a woman, all I could think of was "Oh joy, another woman hating sociopath in the making." At least their turnaround at the end gave me hope that hopefully he'll turn out okay.

The one thing that I really didn't understand was when the parents were leaving and the mom said she'd be back in ten days.  Well, if it took five days to get there and five days to return home, why the Hell did she leave in the first place?  Of course, as many of you here have expressed, absolute sheer lunacy to leave a young teenage boy to care for his teenage-minded mom.

BTW, it's driving me a little crazy but Kirsten's voice reminds me of a cerain cartoon character's voice that I can't quite place. Any guesses?

[S05.E04: Kirsten's Story]

2 hours ago, Peanutbuttercup said:

Someone on a weight loss surgery board I frequent was chosen to be a participant on this show. He also confirmed that TLC pays for surgery and medical bills -- either completely if you have no bariatric surgery coverage, or whatever your insurance doesn't cover. They also pay a very small amount for the move to Houston (which is required if you don't live relatively close).

Before he got his surgery, but after they had started filming and arranged the move and all of that, TLC just stopped showing up and stopped calling. When he finally got them to return his calls, they told him they dropped him as a participant because he didn't have enough personal or family drama.

Thank you for this insight about my long suspected inner workings/agenda of the TLC producers. They are as totally slimey as I had thought. I hope that he was able to get his weight loss surgery eventually.

Sadly, it makes me wonder exactly how many people in this country belong to the category of the super morbidly obese who desperately need this surgery as well as intense therapy to fully address their situation.

I also wonder how many desperate, decent people TLC rejects because they are just too "normal" for their requisite dysfunctional TLC scripted drama to be entertaining?

[S05.E04: Kirsten's Story]

Another very, very long time lurker decloaking here. Can somebody please get me a glass bottle of wine to go with that WHINE!?

I loved how she whined about nobody understanding or caring about her situation. I yelled at the TV "Hey dimwit, what exactly do you call driving your crybaby self for FIVE freakin days to get help for you!!!" And it was downright scary how quickly she wolfed down that drive-through sandwich. Kinda puts lovely Twitney on MBFFL to shame. Kinda.

As Arnold said, "I'll be back."