The other day Fox News was doing a segment on President Obama’s Surgeon General which got wildly out of hand, to say the least. Neil Cavuto had a guest named Michael Karolchyk, the owner of a gym, who explained how Dr. Regina Benjamin is too fat to be Surgeon General. Apparently Dr. Benjamin, who with no apparent evidence Mr. Karolchyk alternately described as “size 20” “50 pounds overweight”, 60 pounds overweight” and “obese” would set a bad example for the American people suffering from an obesity epidemic. You can see the video here or see it with comments and a clip of a truly repulsive ad for Mr. Karolchyk’s gym here.

I’m not saying that health shouldn’t be a concern or that obesity is not a health risk particularly prevalent in this country, but to claim with no knowledge of her health that a perfectly lovely woman and presumably highly intelligent doctor is not fit to be Surgeon General because she isn’t model thin is repulsive. Dr. Benjamin is hardly what I’d call morbidly obese, and anyway it is her skill that should be the deciding factor, not her looks. But thank you, Mr. Karolchyk, for showing us that misogyny is far from dead.