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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Rebecca Shaw

Fat people cannot win, regardless of what we do. And I’ve had enough

John Goodman in July 2025
‘If you’re fat, that’s a moral failing, if you lose weight with drugs, you didn’t earn it,’ Rebecca Shaw writes. Pictured: Actor John Goodman, whose weight loss has drawn media attention after a photo of him went viral. Photograph: Lev Radin/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.

As you might know if you read my columns, see me a mile away, or talk to me for five seconds, I am a card-carrying lifelong member of the Fat Lesbian Club. However, ever since I first laid eyes on the television show Roseanne (very important to me) as a small child, the actor John Goodman has held a special place in my heart. It was confusing for me: did I want to be Dan Conner, or be with Dan Conner? I’m still not sure. He has always been so hot to me, from Dan on Roseanne to Fred Flintstone to Walter in The Big Lebowski. His body has now drawn attention in the last week or so, after a photo of him showing significant weight loss went viral.

It’s not Goodman’s 74-year-old body (his choice) I want to discuss, but instead the arguments that broke out about how he lost the weight. On one side there were many people congratulating him on his hard work. Then there were people claiming he had taken Ozempic so it wasn’t actually hard work, and then there were people defending that by saying he’d been losing weight for years, so he’d done it the “right way”, actually.

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