ATX 50 Shades of WTF

One of the "lovely" things about Austin is that they are not shy about advertising adult stores or strip clubs on air, at any time of day. (There's nothing more jarring than hearing an ad for The Landing Strip at 7am...) Today I heard one of the local porn shops advertising on air that it had its shipment of 50 Shades of Gray in, and encouraging customers to buy toys along with it to bring their fantasies to life. We have gone from "this book could lead to unsafe play situations" to "this book will lead to unsafe play situations." I am so horrified by this, I can't even.

Full. Body. Eyeroll.

So there's been a lovely kerfuffle going on this week, the simple summary of which is, Can you be a hot girl and a nerd?

Leaving aside the irritating use of "girl" to describe adult women, I haven't really had any commentary other than a side-eye.

I finally figured out my response, left as a comment on the above linked post.

Here it is. Ready?

If you can’t be a hot girl and a nerd, what the hell have my best girl friends and I been doing since childhood?

Sheesh.

That’s really all I have to say on the subject, with a healthy punctuation of a full-body eyeroll.

There you go. There's my soundbite.

Why "It Gets Better" is the wrong message to send--and why we should do it anyway

When the "It Gets Better" project began a couple weeks ago, I didn't feel like I had anything actively helpful to contribute. As I said at the time, my not inconsiderable bullying had nothing to do with being queer--except maybe in the older form of the word. But, as we've now reached the "backlash" portion of the news cycle, I do feel as though I have things to say. Things, which I hope are helpful.

We have reached a point where not only has there been backlash over Dan Savage being the head of the movement (nb: that backlash happened immediately, I don't want to make it seem as though I've missed that), but where shitbags are posting things called "It Gets Worse." In these delightful musings, bigoted assholes co-opt the momentum of "It Gets Better" to further bully and hate-vomit on the QUILTBAG community.

But, sadly, that brings me to my next point.

"It Gets Better" is a terrible message, because it doesn't. It changes, sure. But as the blog 49percent asks, what, gets better, exactly? (The link referred to there is also well-worth reading.)

The answer, in short, is that as you get older, you are better able to choose your family and surround yourself with people who love, respect, and support you. So yes, in that sense, it's a wonderful message.

But it does precious little to help now.

"It gets better" is something I told myself for oh, about seventeen years. Or, from the age of five through the age of about 22. I said it to myself for differing reasons, and because of different hardships. I leaned on those words so often that by the time I was 27, and went through the worst fucking year of my life, they had lost all meaning.

They had become so devoid of power, that they became nothing more than pandering to my ears. In my destroyed state of mind, hearing them drove me to nearly ruining two of the closest and most important relationships of my adult life.

So we need to be careful what we're telling these kids. Because if, as an adult, without suicidal tendencies, those words drove me to extremes, I don't want to know how these kids will react.

"It gets better" is a placeholder. What these kids need are the tools and support to make it better now.

One of the other things that I find especially problematic about Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project, is that The Trevor Project was already here. It was already here, and it was already inclusive to PoC and the whole QUILTBAG. While it's good to have more than one organization for an issue, Dan Savage is such a divisive figure, that it's diluting the message, not strengthening it.

And, The Trevor Project is all about giving kids the tools and support to make it better now.

So while I think it's wonderful and important to see celebrities filming videos telling us that they know where troubled youth have been, how many news cycles until It Gets Better peters out and these kids are left, once again, alone?

Let's make it better now.

FLY, FATASS, FLY!!

While waiting for my connecting flight out of Atlanta last Tuesday (a rant of its own), I briefly spoke to a lovely young woman as we all tried to scout out the ever-elusive working outlet for our phones, laptops, etc. I say lovely because I thought she was pretty, and I really liked the shade of green she was wearing. Anyway, that's not important. What's important is she was heavy set. Once we boarded the plane I witnessed the following exchange:

Douchehat: Excuse me, flight attendant?

Flight Attendant: Yes?

Douchehat: Can I switch seats? The girl next to me is big. Really big.

Flight Attendant: Sorry, sir, you'll have to wait until the flight has boarded completely, and then you can switch seats if there is one available.

I must also note the flight attendant said this with her voice dripping with irritation. She sounded just as shocked and offended and I probably looked. Oh, and he was referring to that same woman I'd spoken to at the gate. Also, he said all of this loud enough that the back half of the plane heard him.

Nice, Douchehat.

The flight boarded, and there were a lot of empty seats (it was a late flight), and he ended up having the entire row right behind me to himself.

I almost wish I'd farted in his face.

So by now, you've probably all heard about Kevin Smith getting thrown off a Southwest Air flight on Saturday. (Link goes to the round up and discussion on Shapely Prose.)



I managed to catch the beginnings of this in almost-real time that night, thanks to Twitter. I was absolutely AGOG at what was happening. It was kind of a thing of beauty.

Here's a few other links you may want to check out, if you're interested in the unfolding of this beautiful PR nightmare:

• The Smodcast, in which Kevin Smith tells his tale. Warning: It's an hour and a half long. Worth it, though.


• Southwest's really awful and douchetastically titled "apology" post. Seriously, they TITLED it "Not So Silent Bob." IN AN APOLOGY POST. What?


• More bloggery by Kevin Smith himself.


• Linda, a Southwest Airlines rep wrote another apology blog post. It's better, but still not 100%.


• Even more bloggery from Kevin Smith

So yeah.

There's a lot of discussion to be had over a lot of the stuff being said by both parties. Kevin Smith doesn't apologize for being fat, but he'll often use misogynist or fat-shaming language in his ranting. But then he'll also go on to tell the story of the heavy woman on the flight he was allowed to stay on, who was sitting in his row. The flight attendant came by and tried to take the woman off the flight. Hearing Kevin Smith's ire over that situation was amazing. He also acknowledged his privilege as a man, and a rich one at that. He acknowledged that the average fat woman experiences harassment and discrimination that a fat man never would.

I can't wait to see how Southwest weathers this. It sounds like a LOT of people are taking their business elsewhere.

Oh, McCain. You fool.

DON'T PISS OFF LETTERMAN!

Cute, NY Comic Con. Very Cute.

Due to a good news/bad news sort of turn of events, I will be able to attend lots more of next weekend's convention than originally planned.

In perusing the schedule, I noticed something that really isn't cool.

Friday, April 18th
5pm - 6pm Room 1E07
Women in Comics

Friday, April 18th
5pm - 6pm Room 1E15
Women in Fantasy and Science Fiction

I see.

Well, given that I am not a time traveler, a Time Lord, nor in possession of a Time Turner, it looks like I'll have to choose. I know I certainly can't be the only person who wants to go to both.

Scheduling these panels against each other severely divides their attendance. Obviously, many conventions have panels which compete with each other. That being said, why, in this climate of "Bringing The Womens Into The Comics/Genre/Fandom," would they do this?

The really ugly thing about this is that when programming gets planned next year, one or both of those panels may get cut due to low attendance. I hope the panels are next door to each other, otherwise I'm going to get really tired running back and forth.

I'm also slightly perturbed by the creative choice to list "Fantasy" before "Science Fiction" in the title for that panel. Given that the "generally accepted" shorthand is "SF/F" or "Science Fiction and Fantasy," why list Fantasy first? Alphabetically? Somehow, I think no.

I'm glad both of these panels are happening. I just wish it didn't come with another example of "What? We gave you panels, what more do you want?"

What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate

A friend of mine whose blog I read linked to this article. I don't think I have ever been so appalled by someone who, initially, I would want to agree with.

I was almost willing to go along with the essayist's ideas until she started saying Joss Whedon rapes his wife. Yes, she really said that. And not just once, but several times, both in her essay, and in the comments.

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Joss uses his own wife in this way," from the essay.

"I feel awful for Joss Whedon's wife. From what I've read about him and the interviews I've watched, I'm fairly certain that he rapes his wife and abuses her in various other ways." from this comment

These are the most tasteless, baseless, unnecessary statements ever put in an essay. If she was so bent on focusing on the pilot episode--something she asserts in the comments, why throw that in there? It is an ad hominem attack, even ignoring how inappropriate it is.

"What the fuck is this feminist man trying to say about women here? A black woman calling a white man ‘sir’. A white male captain who abuses and silences his female crew, with no consequences. The women are HAPPY to be abused. They enjoy it. What does this say about women, Joss? What does this say about you? Do you tell your wife to shut up? Do you threaten to duct tape her mouth? Lock her in the bedroom? Is this funny to you, Joss? Because it sure as fuck ain’t funny to me."

If I tilt my head to the right and squint a little, I can see her argument about the racist and sexist take on the Mal/Zoe/Wash thing, as well as the Kaylee thing. But just because I can see it, doesn't mean I agree with it. At no point in the series or the movie, do I get the impression Zoe would put up with an ounce of disrespect from either man, directed at her or anyone else.

I find it very disingenuous that the essayist totally glosses over the fact that the reason Zoe is "violent," and the reason she calls Mal "sir," is because she is a soldier. During the war and on Serenity, Mal is her superior. These facts have nothing to do with his maleness or her skin color.

Lastly, I found her take on Inara and the Companions thoroughly repugnant. She went past hating sex work, and straight to hating sex workers, which is really unconscionable. According to her profile, all comments to her journal which are pro-porn or pro-prostitution will be immediately deleted. Likewise, she says in a later comment, "I would argue that most 'sex' between men and women, in the contemporary 'sex-positive', pornographic, male-supremacist culture, is rape."

This kind of radicalism completely ignores the real world. Yes, there are men who rape. Yes, there are men who emotionally leech from the women around them. Yes, there are men who oppress, and hate, and restrict. But not all men do. Moreover, not all men do so out of an inherent misogyny, but because of an indoctrinated cultural setting that can be unlearned.

I don't believe this woman can conceptualize a man striving to reframe his world view.

Ironically enough, from everything I know of him, that is exactly what Joss Whedon tries to do. Whatever this woman's interpretation of the Whedonverse is, the fact is, he has written the majority of the strong female characters that have graced the small screen in the last fifteen years. This is a man who, whatever of his she may disagree with, consistently proved that a show with a female lead could have staying power. Whatever critiques someone may have about his reliance on archetypes, I never felt for a second that he didn't try to set those same archetypes on their ears.

Joss Whedon is a man who has done everything in his power to present strong, intelligent female lead characters, and to support the female characters of other creators. To call him a misogynist--not even going near the other accusations laid at his feet--is grossly innaccurate.

A phallus is not automatically a weapon. The act of sex is not automatically an act of violence. Context is everything. If you go looking for misogyny, in any and all works, you will find it. But don't go marking things as misogynist that aren't.

And for the love of all that's holy, don't go around saying someone rapes their wife because you disagree with them. That's just not okay.

Yeah, I Don't Know About This

Queen Latifah is the new Jenny Craig spokesperson.

I...what?

1) When I think of the words "gorgeous" and "glamorous," Queen Latifah is one of the first women who comes to mind.

2) Jenny Craig is one of the programs that require you to buy their food. That has never made sense to me.

In both the linked article, and her TV spot, "...a healthier lifestyle, not on getting onto a specific dress size" are the focus.

Call me cynical, but that's no better than Weight Watchers' "Diets are Mean" ad campaign. You can spin it all you want, but it's still a diet! (And one that worked very well for myself, my mother, and many of my closest friends. I want to emphasize that, because I realize I've come across as very anti-WW lately, and I need to fix that.)

Seriously, though. If Queen Latifah wanted to raise awareness for diabetes or "a healthier lifestyle," I feel like there are better channels through which to work. Even Weight Watchers, if associating herself with a weight loss program was her aim. That being said, I can understand feeling that this would be a more accessible conduit for her message. If that was her reasoning, then excellent. If not? I'd be very, very surprised.

Stop Ripping Off Artists!

Depila-story

Australian Backlash Against Brazilian Waxing Marketed to The Tween Set.

Um, yeah. I'd hope so!

God love (or hate) you if you even had pubes at ten. No, really.

And I say this as a person who shaved their legs incredibly early. I Nair'd for the first time at 10. Too young, you say?

Consider this: My legs looked like those of a chimp. Why? Because I'd had major surgery, and was in a body cast for three months. My mom got vitamin E strips to place on the scars, but they had to be stuck on with bandaids. I still can't listen to the Unplugged version of "Layla" and not think of that morning, wincing as I pulled each bandaid off, trying not to scream as all those hairs were pulled with them. (That song was on heavy rotation on the radio that year.)

The following March, we were going to Florida for spring break. Yeah, as a ten year old, no one would be looking at my legs. But I was still a blonde with thick black hair and stubble on my legs, and I was really self conscious about it. Moreso than the scars, to be perfectly honest.

A friend of my grandmother's was scandalized, even when she heard the reason. My mom shrugged her off. (Note: My mom also let me use an excessive amount of Sun-In right before I'd had the surgery. I was pretty indulged that year. I also looked like a raccoon two months later.)

But really, bikini area depilation? Before 14? Aw, hell no. Once you've got 'em, do whatever you want with 'em. I know I was more concerned about stray hairs and bathing suits long before I was concerned about what an "activity" partner thought.

Of course, you have to wax if you're going to wear your A&F tween thong, right?

Boo Urns.

The movie Idiocracy is on cable right now. I'm excited about this, because I never got a chance to see it.

The wonderful Sara Rue has a small role. As usually happens when I watch movies with my laptop in front of me, I looked her up on IMDB.

I saw some photos of her there, and I was so appalled by what I saw.


Sara Rue, before and after

Why did she lose weight? She didn't need to lose weight! She was so gorgeous!

This makes me so sad.

I definitely believe in people making weight management choices for themselves, but I can't help but be disappointed by this turn of events.

Here is someone else upset about this.

Oh for the love of... - FOLLOW UP

IT WAS EIGHTBALL.

You have got to be KIDDING me.

Yes, there is a lot of nudity and discussion of sex in Eightball, but none of it is gratuitous or pornographic. Of course, it contains just the sort of sexual realism that sends nervous hands to clutch at strands of pearls.

The thing I find most amusing about this revelation is that Eightball was handed to me when I was 16. I was already reading comics at that point, Strangers in Paradise, Young Heroes in Love, and Gen13 being my favorites. (That I can recall.)

And who, pray tell, handed me Eightball?

A counselor at my camp where I was a CIT.

It was a David Boring story, the one where he dates a girl because of her big ass. I loved the story so much, I went out and bought my own copy at Million Year Picnic on CIT Night Out. (The camp was in Boston, obviously.)

While a camp counselor/CIT relationship isn't quite comparable to a teacher/student one, the similarities are there.

I imagine my parents would have been much more upset about the teacher handing me Hothead Paisan than a "fellow" counselor handing me Eightball. Knowing my mom, she probably would have liked the Eightball story.

In the case of the teacher and student, I'm curious as to what inspired him to give her that comic in particular. If there was discussion and a relationship that would have inspired that choice, then what's the problem? Just as my teacher from junior year wouldn't have given me Hothead Paisan without us talking about queer culture and sequential art, I doubt this guy would have done the same with an issue of Eightball.

That said, if a teacher gives a student any kind of reading material (questionable content or otherwise) out of nowhere, then it's time for some questions.

Oh for the love of...

A Connecticut teacher has resigned after getting in trouble for giving a student an "age-inappropriate" graphic novel.

Huh.

Well, we don't know what the graphic novel was.

A teacher I was friendly with my junior year once lent me a huge Hothead Paisan collection. Does that mean she should have gotten into trouble?

(Yes, she was gay. I lent her my Strangers in Paradise collections in return.)

Watch the graphic novel in question be something like Wereslut, or something similarly inappropriate. Then we'll all feel silly.

Although Wereslut's actually a pretty good read.

ATTACK OF THE EVIL SEXUALLY HARRASSING MONKEYS

No, I'm not kidding.

Actually, I find it really ridiculous to call this "sexual harrassment," but it is definitely harassment of a sexual nature.

Which is both humorous and horrifying.

How To Compliment A Lady

My hair is streaky pink and blonde with ever-emerging brown roots. I know that this marks me as Other in any number of ways.

It also looks interesting, artistic, and if I may be so egotistical, fucking cool.

I received two comments on my hair in the last 24 hours, and while the actual words used did not match my emotional reactions to them, the ways in which they were given dictated such.

Yesterday, I went to a fancy tea with some lovely fannish ladies I know.

Outside the hotel, a late-30s/early-40s woman said, "Oh wow, excuse me, how many colors are in your hair?" There was a note of awe in her voice that suggested that even if she didn't like pink hair, per se, she appreciated the uniqueness that two-weeks-out-from-dyeing hair can have. She even said as much.

Her comment, while not explicitly a "I like the way your hair looks" comment, was said politely and with a tone of respect, and it made me feel good for the rest of the afternoon.

This morning, as I turned the corner to get to the subway, a dude called out at me, "Ooh baby, I love the way your hair looks like that, yeah!" (Or some similar Smarmadon sentence.)

I found myself wanting to shout, "NOT YOURS!" at him, as he seemed hipster enough to know LOLspeak when he heard it.

I contented myself with musing on the differences between what had been said to me, and how the less "complimentary" of the two comments had felt so much better.

Of Endings And Beginning

In this post, my friend Racheline strikes many nerves.

This is an essay I've been pondering for over a month now, but her words helped it all coalesce.

In this season of life and growth, the death of three pop culture phenomena occur:

On June 7th, the final issue of Strangers in Paradise came out.

On June 10th, the final episode of The Sopranos aired.

And this Saturday, July 21st, the final Harry Potter novel will be released.

The ripple effects of these three series have been felt around the world. While The Sopranos doesn't hold the emotional impact for me that the other two do, its ending informed me how it can be done well.

Much like the rest of the world at 11pm that evening, I voiced a loud and frustrated noise and proceeded to call everyone I knew. (My parents received about four phone calls in a ten minute period.)

I was outraged. I did not yet know true fannish outrage.

You see, I procrastinated on buying Strangers in Paradise #90. I wasn't quite ready for it to end. I attended the CBLDF wrap party, and that was quite emotionally difficult.

The CBLDF hired a band to play the songs Terry Moore wrote for the series over the years. The most poignant of these, I Dream of You, is the title of the second collected edition. Ten years ago, I photocopied the sheet music from the back of the book. I sat at the piano in my parents' house with it and taught myself to play the song. I recorded myself. I put it on a mix tape for a boy.

As Racheline stated so eloquently, it was a mile-marker of my life. And when the band played that song, I cried. I felt all ten years flood past me. I remembered each moment of the emotional journeys, both of the book, and the situations I attached them to. It was a rough three minutes, I'll tell you.

So you can imagine my fierce exasperation when I finally purchased Strangers in Paradise #90 and the ending was totally lame. Don MacPherson put it best in his review:

"My biggest gripe about the story is how Moore, after so many years, continues to beat around the bush about the connection between Katchoo and Francine. It’s clear here that they’re a couple, deeply in love and committed to one another. The problem is that Moore limits the physicality of that love to hugging. They talk about marriage. They have pet names for one another. I’m not saying I need to see them in bed naked together, but how about a kiss? In the midst of such joy, delayed after so long, I just don’t buy the restraint we see here. There’s no need to show us panting, humping or fornicating, but I don’t see why Moore avoids a certain level of physical intimacy between the two characters."

Ten years (fourteen for the whole series), and we never get so much as a damn kiss.

Katchoo's passion is reiterated over and over, and in the end, we never get to see it fully directed at the object of her desire since the age of fifteen. This makes no sense.

Having seen the neat little Bowdlerized package that was the last hurrah of Strangers in Paradise, I finally understood the end of the Sopranos. It ended that way, because it had to end that way. Anything else would have been too clean. We needed the messiness of ambiguity. The closure we got was that no matter what happened, it was what Tony "deserved"-- be that death, or having to deal with AJ's manipulativeness, or having to witness Meadow emotionally struggle with the law and the money that paid for her degree. Ambiguity was nothing new to The Sopranos, it was just pushed to the extreme in its last moments.

Which brings us, finally, to Harry Potter.

I started the series right after graduating high school in 2000. I did so because I realized most adults I saw on the subway were reading the books, and I was curious what they knew that I did not. I was hooked.

However, I didn't step my toes into Harry Potter fandom until the summer of 2003, when the fifth book came out. The first of the books, by the way, I had to wait for. That summer I delved into the fan fiction. I started making friends because of it. I cared on new levels.

Harry's been with me for seven years. I care deeply about the story, the characters, and their destinies. So please understand when I say...

I hope JK Rowling is a bigger Sopranos fan than she ever was a Strangers in Paradise fan.

I know my heart will be broken over the next few days. The question that remains is how.

Well, shit.

As of August, Jane magazine struts for the last time.

Dammit.

Now what am I going to read on plane trips? The violent fits Cosmo causes me are generally frowned upon in the air travel community.

Jane was one of the few women-targeted magazines I enjoyed consistently. The articles were (for the most part) intelligent and well-written. The interviews were interesting. The fashions didn't make me feel inadequate or make my eyes bleed.

That, and I kindof admired Jane Pratt for starting it. She may have gotten shit for it (see the Daria episode "The Lost Girls" for what is likely a pot shot at JP herself), but she also produced a worthy publication.

I'm sorry to see it go.

MJ, and Pete's Laundry: A Comparison Story

By now, many of you have probably seen the Sideshow Comiquette of Mary Jane Watson-Parker washing the Spidey-Suit.


The offending statue, in all its glory awfulness

If you read most comic blogs, and even some feminist blogs, you've probably seen this already.

You've also probably seen the crit. I agree with a lot of it, so I'll let that lie for now.

Here is the Adam Hughes drawing it's based on:


Look at that smirk! Sassy!

Full disclosure: I really love Adam Hughes' art. His women are attractive, and very real-looking. The drawing of Power Girl used for the Power Girl Bust actually looks a lot like a friend of mine. When he draws women, he draws realistic, if very attractive bodies.

You don't look at the women he draws and think that their spines couldn't possibly support the breasts, or wonder where their internal organs fit, or want to feed them a sandwich. They're slim, fit, women, who look real.

Which Sideshow promptly fucked all up.

On another blog, I read a fantastic commentary on the Hughes art: "I really don't mind the original concept art so much, because MJ looks cute and human and a bit goofy, and I can imagine she's just teasing an unclad Spidey who's just out of frame."

YES. I can totally see, and agree with that.

I have been disappointed by Sideshow's figures before.

The sculpts on their Buffy figure line are notoriously awful. The only sculpts they got right were the vampires, and I can only assume that's because they shrunk down the dimensions from the original mask designs. I may not be a Buffy watcher, but I do know what Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan look like...and it ain't that.

But this goes beyond bad sculpting.

This is taking the subtext from a moment, and removing it entirely. There's a confidence to the Mary Jane in the drawing that just doesn't seem to be there in the statue. The look on the face on that statue seems to be "Do you see me doing this? Are you watching, Peter? Am I sexy enough here?" She just seems so...self conscious.

Which is, absolutely, the last thing Mary Jane Watson is. (Let's not even discuss the ego shredding she receives in Spiderman 3.)

To sum up...

The disappointing thing, to me, about this figure isn't just its awful chauvanism. It's that the designers took a fairly awesome, sexy image, and turned into mysognist crap.

Weak sauce, Sideshow. Weak sauce.

My City Keeps Bleeding

"Remains of 9/11 Victims Were Used to Fill Potholes, Contractor Says"

One day, I'll sort out how I feel about September 11th, 2001.

I'll sort out how I feel about how the city and the nation has changed since that day.

I'll sort out the guilt I still feel, almost six years later, that I was upstate at college, and not here to comfort my family, or even do anything immediately to help.

I'll sort out the horror and panic I felt when I accidentally took the Path train right into the site, totally unaware that Ground Zero is the terminus.

Today, however, is not that day.

One Burrito Should Not Contain My Entire Day's Worth of Calories

This is the scariest website I have ever been to.

Mexican, or in the case of the North East, Tex-Mex food CAN be healthy. Burritoville succeeds quite well at giving its customers healthy substitutes on its menu. Brown rice, soy cheese, and soy sour cream can go a long way to reducing the caloric value of a meal. Not to mention the fat content. Other similar restaurants offer low fat or fat-free yogurt in lieu of sour cream.

People have had their backs up this week with the 1,000 calorie appetizers, entrees, and desserts at places like The Cheesecake Factory and similar. Let's also keep in mind that a fast food restaurant that purports to be a healthier alternative that's made to order, and then has 1,000+ calories and almost 50 grams of fat is really misleading.

If I eat at Uno's and get the pizza skins, I know I'm eating something that's bad for me, and I'm okay with that. However, if I order a Burrito Bol, and the only non-vegetable items I order are rice and guacamole, and there's still 30g of fat in there, something is wrong. How much guacamole are they putting in there, anyway? Are they putting butter in the rice? Are they frying the lettuce?!?

Mmmm...fatlicious...

It's becoming increasingly difficult to eat well, especially on the run and inexpensively. We have become accustomed to eating over 2,000 calories in one meal, and it really needs to stop.