Douchebag Decree: This Right-Wing Hero Is Blaming Gaps in Ebola Research on "Fat Lesbians"

In the midst of American media’s Ebola panic, from the dark recesses of the far right, Fox News contributor Erick Erickson emerged this week to reveal the villainesses behind the lack of Ebola research funding: fat lesbians. In his quest to foil a leftist plot even more evil than Sappho could construct herself, Erickson alleged this week on his ultra-conservative blog RedState that a CDC-funded study related to obesity in the lesbian community is more to blame for gaps in Ebola preparedness than GOP-led cuts to medical research funding.

Erickson’s recent post was a real hit for the Atlanta-based Fox News pundit, radio host, and Evangelical seminarian who has built his soapbox on misogynistic and homophobic rants over Twitter and the blogosphere. The title Erickson crafted for his post, “Fat Lesbians Got All the Ebola Dollars, But Blame the GOP,” is in line with his typical shock-value-laced schoolyard bullying tactics. But looking beyond the offensive title, there are so many holes in his argument. He ignores the fact that the GOP led the budget sequester in 2013 that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) cited as one of key hindrances to medical progress. During the sequester, the NIH warned that the budget crunch would significantly delay the process of reaching critical medical breakthroughs, including better cancer drugs, a potential flu vaccine, and preventive treatments for chronic conditions and rare diseases. The sequestration followed a decade of budget stagnancy. The cost of the study he references on obesity among lesbians hardly compares to the potential billions needed to adequately fund treatments for infectious diseases like Ebola. In addition to “fat lesbians,” Erickson also targets the CDC’s apparently pointless research on gun violence and smoking cessation, even though the U.S. has the highest number of gun-related deaths per capita among developed countries and smoking is the nation’s leading cause of preventable death.

Erickson’s post was a ridiculous response to a midterm election ad and, while frustrating, it’s easy to dismiss. But it does speak to the larger issues of fat-blaming and scapegoating, particularly of women and the LGBT community.

We’re all familiar with the unending fire-and-brimstone stories of how the Lesbian and Gay Legion of Doom is set on running America into the ground—myths that Erickson fully supports. In her book Fat Blame, author and professor April Michelle Herdon recently illustrated how fat-shaming and fat-blaming—such as that so eloquently portrayed in Erickson’s blog post title—ultimately leads to discrimination against women and children. While acknowledging that obesity is linked to certain conditions and some populations may have a greater propensity toward obesity than others, Herdon explores the ways our fatphobic culture supporting obesity interventions can cause more harm than good and are especially likely to target women and children who are marginalized by class and race. Only by identifying members of this group as victims of discrimination can we hope to return them to a fuller and richer kind of agency, she argues.

Erickson is far from being the only political commentator using his platform to crack fat jokes about women. In August, Fox News contributor and psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow stunned viewers and the female hosts of Fox’s Outnumbered when he made a crack about Michelle Obama’s weight during a discussion around her platform to fight childhood obesity. Despite the hosts’ obvious discomfort and awkward protests, he soldiered on: “Let’s be honest, there’s no French fries ever, that’s all kale and carrots? I don’t buy it… She’s up at night in the White House kitchen.”

Following the episode and public outcry, Ablow defended his comments to Politico with this gem: “I’m not taking food advice from an American who dislikes America, who in many photographs during her tenure as first lady is obviously not fit, and who has a record of saying things that show that she’s two-faced. This should be obvious; I don’t know why it isn’t.”

At the end of the day, cheap shots are eventually revealed for what they are, but what price do we pay while we’re waiting?

Want the best of Bitch in your inbox? Sign up for our free weekly reader!