This started off in the suicide by mod thread, but it’s a complete hijack there so I wanted to start a new thread about it.
I don’t think body - shaming insults should be allowed in this forum, including aimed at off board people. I think such a ban should also include things people apparently have control over - such as perceived excess spray tan - as well as things they don’t.
I don’t think it’s necessary, and it’s not usually anything to do with the problem the poster has with the target. For instance, if there’s a fat politician, you may have a problem with their policies, but I don’t think you should insult them for being fat.
The moderation would have to be careful about such topics as whether being overweight increases your chances of certain diseases and whether anything should be done about that, but I’m not a moderator so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. I mean, I think the moderation team would handle it with aplomb!
Well, IDK. I mean, I agree in principle, but this board does fairly well when it comes to body shaming insults.
Over the years I’ve seen many pit threads tank before they even get started because the OP has a legit gripe, but he winds up getting flamed himself because he used descriptors like “fat bitch” (or whatever).
We tend to look the other way when it’s a public figure that’s especially obnoxious.
The moderators have been cracking down on unnecessary comments about females’ appearances in response to feedback from women here on a larger issue. Body shaming remarks are a subset of unnecessary comments.
If body shaming weren’t allowed anywhere and that were enforced I think there would be a ton of sanctioning in the Pit for remarks about the POTUS alone.
I think it’s unnecessary and distracts from the actual problems you may have with the person.
I’m not sure about the Pit, I’ll be honest. It is designated as a place where you can go and let off steam, and as Grrr! says, tends to self police a little. It would already be pretty inappropriate in GQ, but I don’t think such insults are necessary in GD either, and probably even less so in the other forums, but there’s less chance of it happening there.
Let’s be honest, the problem people have with Trump is not that he has small hands.
I really wouldn’t. I’d say insults related to how much they lied were fair game. If a politician indicates that he thinks his daughter is a hot piece of ass, I think he’s opening himself up to ridicule based on that.
If a politician were to go on twitter and announce that they think Mexicans are rapists, I don’t think the correct response is to mock their hair.
I don’t think I follow. If Trump, for example, lied about his weight, you could say, “well, he obviously weighs more than X” without saying “that fat fuck lies about everything”. The second one seems more like body shaming to me.
To the OP, I don’t really like the body shaming either. And I don’t like the childish nicknames used for politicians (outside of the Pit). We have a poster that always refers to the president as “thump” and it just grates on me. Outside of the pit, we should attack politicians for their positions and screwups and lies, and that’s easy enough without bringing in their weight or skin color or using childish names. I didn’t like it for Bush (Shrub) either, and I didn’t like it for Obama (Obummer, etc.). What’s the point?
In the Pit, sure, go ahead and try to make fun of someone’s body or looks and see how it works out.
Excessive use of spray tan is a choice that a person made at that time. A bad choice. Otherwise harmless to the person. It’s like a weird haircut like shaving a spiral in your hair.
But if the man lies about everything, then lies about his height, weight and general physical condition, then gets a physician to publicly release a statement that says that he is in remarkable physical shape, I would say that this particular lie is part of the overall package of dishonesty and should not be taken off the table.
How would you know the info about his weight or “general physical condition” is a lie? You might be able to make an educated guess about his actual weight (within some range), but you’d have no way to do that for his “general physical condition”.
I"m still pondering the OP, so not sure where I stand. Just want to point out that folks here are often certain about things they simply can’t be certain about.
Does it make the board a better place–especially when we’re trying to talk about political positions–to make fun of someone’s cosmetic choices?
I’d love to see the body-shaming mockery banned from GD and Elections. There are borderline cases–what if someone is complaining about poverty, but has a $400 haircut?–but if those borderline cases are swept up in a bright-line ban, I don’t think we’d suffer that much from their loss.
“Trump says he’s in remarkable physical shape, but it doesn’t take a physician to see that he’s overweight. To the extent that it matters for his suitability as president, he’s clearly not in the best possible health; and what’s more concerning is that he’s enlisting a physician to lie about his health.”
"Ha ha, listen to that fat fuck! I call bullshit on his claiming he’s in good health. He can barely drag his ass from the golf cart to the burger stand! "
Discussing a pattern of lies as part of a pattern of lies is one thing. Using that pattern as a jumping-off-point to make a bunch of insults about their body is another thing.
I think including such things as spray tans and hair styles is taking it too far. But I agree that insulting body type and shape should be restricted to the pit.
Does mocking a spray tan get you anywhere in a debate? Probably not. But it is not inherent prejudice, and isn’t that what we are really trying to avoid here? Differences which are choices, rather than the dictates of DNA or religion, should be fair game.
It is very tempting - when the object of the mockery has similarly mocked others - to say “He set a low standard of discourse, let’s apply it to him!” Public declarations of contempt and derision are accordingly becoming all too common.
I like the idea of holding the Dope to the former standards of decency, and even elevating them by applying the #metoo standards to both men and women.
This makes sense to me. I was honestly trying to parse the OP in terms of where I stand on this, but I think this post makes it clear and I agree. Seems to me a lot of posts have gotten gratuitously insulting wrt physical traits, and they are totally unnecessary (outside of the Pit of course).
I would approve of the former outside of The Pit, and the latter inside The Pit.
Would the OP(or anyone else) consider the former to be “body shaming”?
What about when a person has a habit of publicly commenting on the (non)attractiveness of others-is it fair game to bring up the fact that this person doesn’t meet the standards he sets for others?
