The English Debating Society Wants You !

 

The 1998- 99 season is proving to be a particularly busy one for the English Debating Society which held its first meeting in the early days of November with the motion : " This House Believes Fat Is Beautiful ". Nine people debated the motion, the tenth person, a member of the opposition team, having had to cancel his appearance at the last minute. To make up for this, the jury ruled that the opposition would get the first chance to speak.

Anna Raynaud, of the opposition team, started off with an energetic denunciation of the current thinness ideology, with examples from literature (Paul Auster’s Moon Palace) and from glamour magazines (wafer-thin top models). With a flourish, she produced an incontrovertible piece of evidence : the poster for the then upcoming Political Science Institute Ball, featuring a sylphid-like dancer languidly wrapped in the arms of a slim young man. This, she said, was what we had to do battle against.

Martin Zeller intrigued both the jury and the audience - not to mention the proposition team - when he rose to speak with an aluminium foil package in his hand. After listing the medical damage wreaked by fat, he suddenly opened his parcel to proffer a few blobs of congealed fat to the startled jury. This eye-catching - albeit somewhat nauseating - performance was matched by the other members of the opposition team, all of whom had colourful arguments : Julie Verlingue rhetorically asked whether anyone in the audience would really want to marry Roseanne Barr - which prompted a gleefully warm response from the proposition benches. Alexia Duten told us in no uncertain terms that fat people were not victims, but merely overindulged themselves. Finally, Michael Vallet gave us the political point of view. Comparing the relative weights of the candidates to the office of Chancellor in Germany, he reached the inescapable conclusion : Kohl had lost because he weighed twice as much as Schröder. Fat was a political liability.

The proposition counter-attacked forcefully. Jan-Erik Starlander set off on a sweeping historical overview of the way fat was worshipped all over the world, then reverted to the heart of the matter and quoted a rock singer as well as French King François I, both of whom loved their women sweet and plump. Though challenged from the House as to his male-chauvinist bias, he persisted in encouraging women to grow sensuous curves.

Vincent Houver heaped scorn on Kate Moss while extolling Marilyn Monroe and chubby girls in general who, he said, looked motherly and comforting - which prompted Anna Raynaud to retort : " Do you go out with a girl because she reminds you of your mother ? ", sending ripples of laughter in the House. Alexandre Roesch gave a lyrical description of the good life and of the numerous love handles sported by Pavarotti, Sophie Rahm gave medical evidence about the benefits of fat, Jean-Baptiste Rivail fondly described Orangina bottles, Groquick and the Michelin dummy and indeed managed to raise pleasant memories among audience members and finally Olivier Michel ended the demonstration with aesthetics : from Boticelli to Rubens to Botero, fat was beauty and beauty was fat !

The three-member jury (Véronique Brom, Véronique Deiller and Grégoire Tardy) deliberated lengthily, for theirs was a hard choice. They finally declared the motion carried and awarded Vincent Houver the hotly disputed title of best speaker.

Like tarte Tatin or crème renversée, the best things in life often derive from errors : due to a communication problem, for the second Debating Society session, only the public showed up - and was promptly asked to improvise a debate. This was graciously accepted. Motions were written down on folded up pieces of paper and picked at random, with debaters having only three minutes to prepare their arguments. The two motions discussed were " This House Would Go Dutch " and " This House Believes Hamburgers Should Be Eaten with a Fork ". The fast-paced procedure proved exciting enough to be repeated during the third meeting and to become, by popular demand, the habitual procedure : from now on, all debates will be impromptu ones. So if you feel like airing your views about such vital subjects as " This House Believes Christmas Comes Too Early " or " This House Would Burn Feminism, Not Bras ", watch out for the English Debating Society posters or contact first-year student Anna Raynaud, who has kindly agreed to be in charge of team coordination.

Viviane Serfaty

English Teacher

English Debating Society Chair