The story of Pauline Potter was reported in the Huffington Post under the “Bizarre News” section. Bizarre news mean’s something strange but true. Well, almost everyone, this news is taken very seriously but not strange because it reinforces their belief that obesity is caused by overeating.
The first story was reported in the Huffington Post in June 2011.
Pauline Potter Crowned Guinness World Records’ Heaviest Woman
And the second story was reported in the Huffington Post in July 2012.
Pauline Potter Weight Loss: “World’s Heaviest Woman Loses 98 Pounds With Marathon Sex
On the Guinness World Records online, there is a post from September 14th, 2011, with the title “The 47-year-old from Sacramento, California has been confirmed as weighing 291.6 kg (643 lbs.) by Guinness World Records™. (Updated on 05/02/2021, the title was changed to Pauline Potter, confirmed as the world’s heaviest living woman
Reading those two stories, I came to the conclusion that something was wrong. Something makes me think that she (Pauline Porter), who is regarded by almost everyone as the “World’s heaviest woman”, doesn’t exist.
According to the media, she has contacted Guinness World Records, but there is no mention that anyone from Guinness World Records contacted her in person. This leads me to the conclusion that she is crowned as the heaviest woman on Earth by Guinness World Records with just one phone call. It seems to me that the credibility of Guinness World Records is questionable, but that is another subject.
One more thing is that on the 18th of August 2011, just a few weeks before Pauline Potter was accepted by Guinness World Records as the heaviest woman in the world, the Sun and other media reported the story about Susanne Eman, “World’s fattest woman at 52 STONE scoffs more than 20,000 calories a day” published in the Sun 18th August 2011. (52 Stone = 728 lbs.)
If it is true that Susanne Eman weighs 728lbs, then how is it that Pauline Potter, who weighs 643 lbs., 85lbs less than Susanne Eman, is crowned as the heaviest woman in the world by Guinness World Records. This is another fact that seriously undermines the credibility of Guinness World Records. But as I said before, that is another subject because this post is not meant to be concerned about the credibility of Guinness World Records.
I tried to find something on Wikipedia,” List of the heaviest people”, but there is nothing about Pauline Potter or Susanne Eman.
It seems to me that the story about Susanne Eman, “World’s fattest woman at 52 STONE scoffs more than 20,000 calories a day”, published in the Sun on 18th August 2011, and many other newspapers is a hoax.
Side note: If you take a closer look at the picture of Pauline Potter and the picture of Susanne Eman, you may find plenty of similarities between the two, but you will hardly find anything similar to them real obese people.
According to the media, Pauline Potter eats 10,000 calories daily, and Susanne Eman eats 20,000 calories daily. Almost everyone believes, and no one thinks it is necessary to prove whether it is possible to eat 20,000 or even 10,000 calories daily.
The story about women eating 20,000 calories a day, among other media, is published on the Opposing Views website. People from Opposing Views are opposed to many views, but they do not oppose the belief that obese people can eat 20,000 calories, and it is not expected from them to oppose the belief that obese people eat 30,000 calories a day or 40,000 calories a day. Also, it is not expected from people on the Opposing View website or from the general population, including university professors involved in the research of obesity, to oppose any possible claim that obese people eat 100,000 calories a day.
The story about “Pauline Potter Crowned Guinness World Records’ Heaviest Woman” is very likely invented by someone to make money and/or strengthen the belief that severe obesity is caused by overeating.
The story in the Daily Mail from 22 November 2011 strengthens my belief that it is invented to strengthen the belief that obese people are obese because they eat too much.
According to the article published in the Huffington Post by pop culture journalist David Moyes, “Potter’s amazing story will be featured in the 2012 Guinness World Records, which will be released Sept. 15th. The new book will feature a section on Extreme Beauty.”
The second story published in the Huffington Post and many other media, “Pauline Potter Weight Loss: World’s Heaviest Woman Loses 98 Pounds With Marathon Sex”, is very likely invented to reduce attention on the claims that she will be featured in the 2012 Guinness World Records, which will be released Sept. 15th. Claiming that she lost 98 pounds makes everyone think that she doesn’t regard herself as the world’s heaviest woman, which will consequently lead to no one being interested to examine the trustworthiness of the claim that she will be featured in the 2012 Guinness World Records..
Well, Sept 15th 2012, is around the corner. Let’s see if “Potter’s Amazing Story” will be featured in the 2012 Guinness World Records. Maybe they already have an excuse that she wouldn’t be featured in the Guinness Book of Records because the 20012 edition wouldn’t have “The Section on Extreme Beauty”. As I said, Sept 15th 2012, is around the corner. Let’s see if I am wrong.
There are plenty of people who express concern for Pauline Porter, like on this blog (suethsayings), but no one expresses the concern about how this story will make it a more miserable life for millions of people, including millions of children.
I’m not sure, but I think that someone was inspired by the American comedy film “ Norbit” directed by Brian Robbins (stars Eddie Murphy and Thandie Newton in 2007). It seems that the character Rasputia from Norbit had given the Idea for the fictional Pauline Porter.
In the Norbit movie, Rasputia and Norbit are played by Edie Murphy. If the story of Pauline Potter is invented, it will be interesting to know who played “The world women” and who played the world’s heaviest woman in Dr Phil and Dr Oz’s show.
For Dr Oz, Dr Phil and most other people, it is much more comfortable to talk about extremely rare cases of people who don’t care, or at least they publicly pretend not to care about their weight, but it is not comfortable to talk about the vast majority of obese people who try everything to lose weight, but still, they remain obese despite following all advice about weight loss, they continue to further gain weight.)
I hope that some serious journalists will do some investigations and prove or very likely disprove the truthfulness of these stories.
Even though there are many other things that lead me to be suspicious in the stories about Pauline Potter and Susanne Eman, there is still a possibility that I may be wrong.
In the case that I am wrong, I will ask everybody to accept my apology. Let’s see what the response will be of Dr Oz, Dr Phil and many journalists, bloggers, etc. who are responsible for the publicity of stories about Pauline Potter and Susanne Eman, in case I am right.
From journalists and the world’s most renowned university professors involved in obesity, there is no apology when they are wrong about the cause of obesity or about their treatments for obesity. They can come up with any theory about the cause or solution for obesity with impunity. It doesn’t matter how their theories make the lives of so many people more miserable.
Luka Tunjic is the author of the book “Mechanical Stimulation Low-Grade Inflammation Weight Gain“
Biomechanics and Health 