Mean People Suck.

This story came to me today via an email from a coworker with the subject line: People I Want to Punch. 

Feeling pleased that it wasn't followed by: You. Meet me in the parking lot after 4:00, I read on. Turns out the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is a douchebag and has been since at least 2006 and we're now just taking notice.

The gist of his story is that he won't carry large/plus sized clothing (particularly women's) in his stores because he doesn't want "fat chicks/dudes" ruining the super-cool, in-crowd image that his brand evokes.

Now, here's the thing. I just wrote a few nights ago that I thought it was irresponsible to use plus-sized models in marketing, because I feel it encourages the masses to think that obesity is OK (and, thus, not seek more ambitiously a healthier lifestyle). So, what is the difference here? Had he refused to sell x-sized clothes under that rationale, rather than one inspired by exclusion and discrimination, would I have felt OK about it?

How different is it to show larger-sized clothes on a model than to sell them in stores? Does selling sizes up to quadruple XL enable just as similarly? Maybe.

But here's the thing: there is a vast difference between actions of conscientiousness and actions of cruelty and intolerance. If you're not perfect, you can't buy his clothes? The perfect answer here is: OK. No problem.

The interesting part of this is that I have never set foot in one of these stores. It is better that I say nothing about it than continue to give it more attention. Except that I did consider it a thought-provoking anti/complement to my other recent feelings.

Anyway, on a final note, this guy is especially a DB because he has so obviously had an exceptional (shall we say, surprising) amount of plastic surgery. When hatred starts from within, there is really no help for a person, is there?