British citizens and citizens of other countries may have recognised the latest developments in the woke movement. It concerns sensitivity readers who edit out non-woke words from already published books and books to be published in partnership with the author. There has been a big discussion about it because it corrals the freedoms of a writer to express themselves. We are losing basic freedoms. Is it necessary?
There have been two high-profile cases one of which concerns Roald Dahl whose books have been rewritten to a certain extent by removing what is today deemed as offensive language. And what is deemed offensive language would have been perfectly normal language not so long ago.
For example, Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory one of Dahl’s most famous works is now described as “enormous” whereas in the original version he was simply fat. And you can’t describe characters in children’s books or indeed books for adults as “ugly”. They are two prejudicial. They aren’t inclusive enough.
Another concerns the American author RL Stine, whose Goosebumps series of children’s horror books has sold more than 300 million copies. He is one of the world’s most successful children’s authors and he has self-censored more than a dozen of his books to take out references to mental health, ethnicity or weight. Weight is a sensitive topic and nicely falls into the woke category.
The problem with many domestic cats is that a lot of them in the UK and America are fat. Sorry, I meant enormous. Well, not actually enormous because they are ‘overweight’. The veterinarians like to describe these cats as obese.
The new language in the world of cats must be woke in line with the human world. This will require a lot of rewording because the Royal Veterinary College has recently published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery the results of a study concerning the medical records of more than a million moggies in the UK.
They were looking at the most common conditions suffered by companion cats which are as follows:
- Gum disease (15.23%)
- Obesity (11.58%)
- General dental disease (9.23%)
- Overgrown nails (5.23%)
- Flea infestation (5.07%)
- Heart murmur (4.44%)
Well, there’s good and bad news in that list. I’ve always been told in articles that I have read on the Internet that there is an epidemic of obesity among the feline population in the UK and America.
But at 11.58% of the domestic cat population in the UK it cannot be said that there is an epidemic. It’s about 10% of the 10.9 million domestic cats in the UK. Which is about 1 million cats that are obese in the UK. Come to think of it that is almost an epidemic 😎.
I wonder if the word “obesity” is unacceptable under the woke movement? It would seem to be as strong a word as “fat” to me. I wonder how you draw the line between descriptive words like ‘fat’ and ‘obese’ in deciding which one is and which one isn’t acceptable?
I’ve made another mistake in this article. I’ve used the word “suffering”. You can’t use the word suffering in conjunction with obesity because it sounds like obesity is a disease when it’s not. Or perhaps it is? It also makes the cat sound as if they are a victim. Under the woke movement we can’t describe cats as victims.
You can still use the phrase fatcats to describe greedy, wealthy businessmen working in the City of London apparently. Or perhaps you can’t.
RELATED: Talking about cat obesity can be difficult for both veterinarians and owners
You can’t make the presumption that your cat is greedy when they are obese. That, too, is a sign of prejudice. There should be no moral implications to body weight according to Giles Coren who has given me the idea for this article.
If a cat is enormous, it is the fault of their caregiver. That ultimately is true by the way. I’ve always said that if a person normalises their obesity and if they look after a cat, it does predispose them to allowing their cat to become obese as well.
Taking this attitude to the next stage, the woke movement would forbid people to describe their cat companion as lazy. Inactivity would have to be put down to the cat’s caregiver as well. It’s because the owner has confined their cat to the indoors and not provided their cat with enough stimulation. That by the way is a truism and not a wokism.
Obese cats should not be seen as undesirable under the woke movement as obese cats can be sexy because they are curvy. Conveniently forget the health implications.
We can also blame the food that we give our cats if they are obese. It’s a combination of manufacturers providing dry cat food which contains too many carbohydrates because that’s part of the manufacturing process and cat owners who are too lazy (politically incorrect) to provide their cat with high quality wet food rather than the more convenient but less natural and arguably less healthy dry kibble.
Enough. I think I’d rather be politically incorrect. So much more convenient even if my cat is a little person with equal rights to humans.
Below are some pages on feline obesity.
