Respect Authority

I imagine I’m fairly late in jumping on the bandwagon that is “hating MeMe Roth,” the publicist and mother of two who was profiled in the New York Times today for starting shit with her kids’ elementary school over their apparently terrorist-level distribution of junk food.

Roth, who the Times carefully avoids labeling an out-and-out crazy, has engaged in an ongoing e-mail battle with administrators at the school, over “junk food served on special occasions: the cupcakes that come out for every birthday, the doughnuts her children were once given in gym, the sugary ‘Fun-Dip’ packets that some parent provided the whole class on Valentine’s Day.” Indeed, rather than simply instruct her health-conscious children to abstain from the frivolous snacking, Roth has the kids pack up whatever non-meal food they’re given in Tupperware and bring it home to her, ostensibly so she can craft her vitriolic e-mails with more detail… and vitriol.

This woman has actually tried to get the school to begin using permission slips for food served outside of meals. Permission slips. Nor is it her first foray into terrorizing educators: she had a similar problem at their last school in Jersey, where a fed-up PTA member finally e-mailed Roth “Please consider moving.”

Ironically, despite its subtle mockery of Roth — the story quotes school administrators and fellow parents who imply she’s little more than a health-crazed psycho-mom — the Times ran the story the same day as an opinion column from Maureen Dowd, criticizing Barack Obama for touting healthy living at the same time that he professes a love for things like french fries and Five Guys burgers.

I’ve made no secret of my disdain for the obesity backlash. Don’t get me wrong, I hate fat people as much as the next person, but I feel about overeaters the way I do about drug addicts, or country music fans, which is to say, I’m plagued by an overwhelming sense of apathy. Everyone in our great country is surrounded by the same plentitude of unhealthy eating options, yet a great many of us — Barack Obama included — manage to weigh less than 300 pounds. So is it really a school’s responsibility to institute a carte blanche rejection of non-meal snacking? Or is the onus on a public figure to answer for every cheeseburger in which he dares indulge? Methinks not.

Perhaps the silver lining will be Roth’s story: by coming across as a legitimately unwell person — in a Guardian article, she admits foregoing breakfast and lunch and not eating anything until she’s worked out — she draws attention to the need for personal responsibility over busybody-inspired policy changes. One can only hope her kids grow up to be incredibly fat.