Fat Bias: Why ISN'T it Majority Rule?

I am not sure if anyone has noticed an increased number of fat discrimination articles making the rounds in newspapers lately.

Remember the story about the middle-aged woman who was physically attacked on the London underground for being fat...by another woman? The best (worst) part was the comments made by readers, some of which were just so painfully mean to read. I especially hate that people comment on it as if it were acceptable because fat people cost money to the public health system. The truly thoughtful ones say that if the fat people don't like like being treated this way then they should lose weight (there are just so many things wrong with this way of thinking that I'm speechless). Then of course, there is the concern about it just being unhealthy. It's the automatic response to anything having to do with fat people, even when they're being beat up, and such a great way to wrap up your hate in fake concern. I've seen these same types of comments on all these articles I've read, and even here on CC.

So...why is it that a majority of people in the US are overweight but we seem to be accepting of these kinds of attitudes and everyday insults? Self-loathing? Fear? Is it because we think that if we keep quiet, maybe we will be spared some of the ridicule, like the rules of the playground? Invariably, there is always a thin person who claims that she should be the one to be pitied because she's thin and all the fat people hate her. "Oh poor healthy girl," someone else will say, "did those awful lazy, overeating, UNHealthy fat ladies bother you? I can't imagine why they would. No one should take it out on the healthy people!" And then suddenly the focus shifts away again from the more systemic and underlying problem.

Being repulsed by another human due mainly to their appearance and the accompanying assumptions/stereotypes is not and never will be OK. Even if those stereotypes have been spoon-fed to you by a so-called acceptable source. Save your repulsion for the people who have earned it please. I know that there's something wrong when a person can use the same descriptor, "repulsive", for a repeat child molester and that lady in the size 20 jeans.

So most overweight people are overweight because of their own behavior right? There have been plenty of diseases in the world that could have been prevented by human behavior but this is the only one that I have seen as a target for laughs. Usually, other diseases are stemmed by education and directed health efforts. But, somehow bullying and mocking is going to solve the hideous obesity problem. Look how well it's working!

It's not rocket science - If you want people to be healthy, you approach them in a healthy manner. What's healthier- respect, compassion and love or derision, repulsion and loathing?

I wanted to know how many people sit and just smile blankly while their friends make fun of fat people, or rail against the obesity "epidemic" due to American "laziness." I ask because I do. I just sit there, seething. I would like to tell them they're wrong and in fact they're idiots.

Mocking and deriding other human beings is not ok. It just reeks of elitism, and it's far more telling that the overweight (inferior, unhealthy) majority just seems to take it. Why don't we take control of our own humanity and inherent worth as human beings and stop this?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/fat- bias-worse-for-women http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8 327753.stm

I actually stopped calling myself fat when I started to lose weight, even when I still was. To me, it seemed a waste of time to talk about or spend energy thinking about something I was changing. I asked my bf a month or so ago, have you noticed how long its been since I said anything bad about my body? He used to hate that.

I think the problem is that fat has such a bad connotation. The main voice we respond to is our own. So I refuse to use my energy calling myself anything that I have given myself the power to change. It might have been a fact, but a temporary one. I decided to spend my time appreciating and building up the body I wanted, not making any statements about how it was then.

Have not called myself fat since June, and since June I went from a BMI of 30.1 to a BMI of 24.9. I've been happy the whole way, and that is why I don't have it in me to call other people fat.

People like to think of themselves as empathatic and such, but everyone makes little ''exceptions''.For some people, its the obese. Others choose other absurd targets,Like being glbt, or muslim. This sort of thing wont stop until everyone realizes that we are all human, and that the inherant value of life has nothing to do with how 'good' of a person someone is.

I can't stand when ANYONE stranger of friend, makes a derrogatory comment about someones weight, fitnees, shape, etc. It's the worst thing I know, everyone is different, and yes maybe some people could have lived healthier and it's their own fault. But I know for some it's not their choice. I personally know 1-5girls who are quite obese due to an eating disorder in their younger teen years, their bodies fritzed out, and there's nothing they can do. And I don't say that in a way to indicate they've given up, for they certainly have not.

But I always imagine, if that over weight, fat, ugly or obese person was me... I would be devastated to hear some of the comments people make. Already now I'm super self-concious about my body and weight, and I'm not overweight. My heart goes out to those who maybe don't have it as "easy" or good as some of us, the ones who constantly struggle against the rest of humanities evil remarks and comments. Who's to judge anyways!! It makes me so angry. Some of the sweetest people I know, range from chubby to obese. we always talk about how the media is so wrong, promoting the "skinny" image, yet many still go with it. If we'd all just decide that bones are not what's normal. Life would be easier on a lot of people.

And yes vertigal, nicely written post.. ;-)

When I run into somebody covered with tattoos or face piercings I think to my self "I cannot believe what that person DID to themselves!!" 

And yes, I admit that when I see somebody morbidly obese, I think to myself "look at what that person DID to themselves." 

I don't think I am wrong for this.  I cannot control my thoughts.  I can control how I behave.  And so I don't treat that person poorly.   But yeah, I share those thoughts with hubby, my best buddies, my siblings, children, etc.  And sometimes I am poking fun. 

Let's be real.  Most people feel that being fat is a self-inflicted condition.   For me, it was.  I got fat because I ate too much.  15 pounds later I am "chubby" and within 15 pounds of a "normal" weight ~~~because I am controlling my behaviour.   

But people who are mean and do make fun of people for their weight usually do the same for just about any difference, whether or not the person can control it.   And yeah, all it takes is for one person in the group to say "not cool" to stop it.  Bullies always back down to people who really are strong.