Fat friends good for self-confidence?

Recently, this picture of Kate Moss surfaced, depicting her hanging out with Gossip singer Beth Ditto and another friend. Normally, I wouldn't pay much attention to the picture, but it came alongside this article, which explains why every girl needs to have a 'fat friend' to make them look more beautiful and feel better about themselves. My first response to the article was, is this a joke? I suppose it doesn't matter because I've seen similar, very serious articles in many different magazines, including Cosmopolitan.

For someone who believes that inner beauty is every bit as important as outer beauty, I think the idea of 'using' your friends to feel good about yourself is shameful and unbelievably shallow. The attitude that one should keep fat friends around for self esteem is hurtful to anyone who has ever carried a few extra pounds, and if the author, as she says, has been on both sides of this kind of friendship, she should know this. I also feel sorry for the author, who obviously has very meaningless relationships if her girlfriends' sole purpose in her life is to boost her confidence at the expense of their's. Good girlfriends, whether fat or thin, are an amazing gift -- something she apparently doesn't grasp.

I'm interested to find out what you think of the article?