Weeellll, that’s diabetes for you. If you’re diabetic and you get cancer and die because of it, it’s cancer that killed you. Likewise heart disease, kidney failure and any of a host of lethal issues that diabetes causes…
Something an interview SuperSize showed said is pretty interesting. A guy mentioned that people bitching about smoking (how it’s gross and you should stop et cetra) is pretty accepted. I can bitch about smokers and the cost to health care (in Canada and the US. Face it folks, fat people increase the cost of medical insurance and soon it might become difficult to pay for).
But you criticize a fat person and suddenly you’re a bad person.
I wonder why you don’t hear about the “pro smoking” rallies.
I’m not sure how this is relevant to the OP.
I think the idea behind this is that someone can be stuck sitting beside a smoker, and they have a noxious substance entering their bodies which they do not want, and which may harm them. While the general answer to this is “If you don’t like it, leave,”, this is not always possible. On the other hand, with fat people, it’s not like the fat in their bodies can leach out and invade someone who’s next to them. Their “problem”, for lack of a better word, is therefore their own and is not endangering anyone else.
Agreed.
That wasn’t the impression I got from the Ryan_Liam’s linked article. The leaders of NAAFA (or at least its spokesperson) seemed to be focusing more on the “persecution” that fat people have to deal with. It seemed she wanted them to believe the are fine just the way they are, which I disagree with. While being fat doesn’t mean you are any less of a person, it does mean that your body is unhealthy. Building up some self-esteem is a very, very good idea. But convincing someone that they don’t need to change is not going to engineer any change.
Just my $0.02.
Might be because every day there are fewer and fewer smokers, but more and more fat people. It might also be because it’s still legal to be fat in public places.
During the previous “‘Fat people are people too’, ‘No they’re not!’” thread, the issue came up of American-sized portions. Just when that thread started falling from the board, I went on vacation. I’d like to share an observation I had while away.
The first night we were there, we went to a French restaurant. The prices were expensive (cost $82 for two of us, no appetizers, no drinks, no dessert, just entrees), and the portions were tiny. My meal, quail with raisin sauce, was, in itself, barely an appetizer. The meat was about the equivelant of 3 chicken wings. There were maybe 2 grapes and a little sauce. There were also 2 small lumps of pom frites, and some mashed carrots (one small dish that we shared). We went away thinking we should get a pizza somewhere. But after about half an hour of walking around, I realized that I was quite full.
The next morning we had breakfast prepared and served by a Polish girl. 2 crepes, filled with a little cheese-like stuff, and topped with a tiny bit of jam. On the side were maybe 4 modest slices of fruit. Once again, disappointing in the size, but I was amazed at how ultimately satisfied I felt.
That night we went to a Southern restaurant. Huge bowl of bread, huge bowl of salad, and a trough of pasta. Walked away feeling bloated and miserable. Normal, in other words.
You’re not hitting the right websites.
Convincing someone that they don’t need to change to satisfy the social expectations of others may indeed be the beginning of change. It was for me. It may clear the way for the person to see what he needs to do on his own terms.
Did either of us get that from the article? No. But there may be several reasons for this:
The reporter only focused on certain aspects.
The spokesperson was particularly inarticualte or ignorant.
They’re truly in denial.
They’re giving the world the finger.
I have no idea which, if any, of the above are true. But I still maintain that accepting yourself is the first best step you can take.
You seem to be equating these two things. They are not the same. Lack of health and persecution are very different things. I can fully accept that I need to make changes to my health. I do not have to put up with being called names. Let’s liken it to alcoholism. AA doesn’t teach that it’s OK to drink. Far from it. But they do realize that support from peers is essential. That’s what I’m seeing NAAFA trying to do. But as I said, it looks like they’re only halfway there.
But yes, if they are trying to convince people that a BMI of 70 is healthy, then bad on them.
quote]Originally posted by Otto
Quote:
Originally Posted by x-ray vision
Discrimination? What discrimination?
I take it you’ve never been fat?
[/quote]
Well, I could lose a few pounds right now but I’ve never been considered fat. I wasn’t asking, “what discrimination?” as if there weren’t any discrimination against fat people (everyone is discriminated against for something). I was just wondering what specifically? Not enough fat flight attendants?
I don’t think anyone here is suggesting that fat people shouldn’t have support from their peers or that they should be called names but judging from the article, these are the things that some of us (well, me anyway) have a problem with:
Sympathy is not what she needs from her failures. What she needs is to seek knowledge about how to lose weight correctly.
Their hero is someone who argues that there isn’t an obesity epidemic in the U.S. and that obesity isn’t necessarily unhealthy. Talk about spreading ignorance!
How the hell can anyone see that kind of weight gain as a positive choice?
I have to post this one again. It made me chuckle before but now when I think about how dangerous this type of ignorance is when its being spread to our youth, it pisses me off.
Ever work in the health field? Denying that obesity is a huge ( no pun intended ) health problem is as ignorant as denying that cigarettes cause cancer.
Well, there are plenty of situations where their fat may “leach out and invade” you. I’ve had situations where I’ve had to sit next / near fat people who’s fat invaded my personal space (really icky on an airplane or, much more commonly, the subway/bus).
Of course I don’t really say anything and simply move (who cares if it looks rude, I’d rather not have warm fatty body goo rubbing on my leg/arm).
But apart from space violations, I’m talking about the direct medical cost associated with smoking or being fat. Lots of fat people defend themselves with “I’m not harming anyone else” but infact these people are. They’re clogging up the medical system and you could even argue that they are promoting unhealthy diets to young people (mostly their kids). Most fat parents have fat kids who like to excuse it with “we have fat in our genes”. Oh please.
I didn’t know we had “pro smoking” sites. I was, of course, kidding there. So do we have pro-DUI sites? Pro “no seat belt” sites? Pro “no helmet” sites? I’m too scared to look.
I tend to agree that negative campaigning, in the form of pejorative stereotyping, and so on, is counterproductive. A lot of the earlier anti-smoking campaigning tried to harp on how “dirty” or “disgusting” the habit is, and hence, what total slobs smokers are. Mostly this just pissed people off, and/or made them defiant. I wouldn’t advocate shaming, not the least because it doesn’t work, or can even make things worse.
But it seems some part of the anti-smoking message has gotten through. Maybe its because, instead of simply telling people who smoked that they’re bad, they showed advts with, say, that spokesmodel who lost her larynx to throat cancer; they appealed to empathy and the natrual human desire for self-presevation, rather than casting aspersions. Maybe those who care enough about themselves and their loved ones finally started tuning in.
Perhaps the OP has identified those who rebel against the insults, but have lost sight of the dire warning those insults were meant to convey: Lose weight, or maybe pay serious consequences.
So, fine, maybe fat can be beautiful. So, in the eyes of some, is anorexia; but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy, it just means those folks have unhealthy tastes.
Kirstie Alley is not even obese, I would consider her attractive and curvy, no matter what hollywood says. Queen Latifah is another actress I consider extremelly atractive. She reeks womanhood and ‘I don’t care’. If I were a man I’d be drooling when looking at her.
We should insist that the media does not insist in the unhealthily thin stereotype (although I know healthy people that are naturally skinny, nothing wrong with that). Healthy people come in different sizes. Morbidly obese is not healthy not matter how you spin it.
Sounds to me like what she needs is both.
How noble of you.
And what “goo” are you talking about? Are you suggesting that fat people secrete some sort of gel-type substance that thin people do not? Pray, tell us, in medical terms, what this goo is.
Kirstie Alley is obese. She weighs over 200 pounds. I don’t know her exact height, but she is obese. I’m not saying you can’t find her attractive, but it’s inaccurate to act like she’s a healthy size, especially since she was thin for years and years.
I’ll give you Queen L, but she has been dieting and exercising and has lost quite a bit of weight to get to where she is now.
Geez, I think “goo” is a pretty good discription of the over flowing fat that I sometimes encounter. I could have gone with a more PC term but I’m in the pit, so I won’t bother.
Sorry if I don’t like being touched by other people who fill up 1.5 seats and “overflow” onto me. I’m a normal sized asian (my ass fits about 80% of a typical bus seat) and I hate getting crowded when I’m sitting someplace, minding my own business on a bus when someone over flows their seat onto mine.
Probably why I shun public transit and pay to drive.
So by “goo”, you mean skin? Or is this goo sometimes covered with cloth? Is that it? You don’t like being touched by skin or cloth?
I admit that the the last time I saw Kirstie A. she definitely wasn’t 200 lbs. She was curvy, but not obese. I suppose I haven’t seen her recently. A quick googling doesn’t show her in any recent picture in the first 3 pages.
Q.L. should be their role model instead: not skinny but healthy… and great attitude.
This is what I found particularly scary about the article…
First of all, people with eating disorders typically DON’T receive sympathy or understanding from others. When my ex-wife had anorexia, she was constantly hounded by friends and family to “just eat this sandwich (or piece of bread or whatever) and you’ll start getting better.” Eating disorders are right up there with mental illness in the list of misunderstood disorders. Ironically, anorexics and bulemics are often wrongly assaulted for the same reason as are the obese: the misconception that the sufferer’s problems are solely related to food. In nearly all cases, the underlying cause is psychological, not physical.
Secondly, and more disturbingly, the woman quoted in the article is almost–and I can’t find a better word–jealous of the attention paid to those with eating disorders. Look, anorexia is a serious illness, with a very high rate of morbidity. Up to 9% of those diagnosed with anorexia will die of the disease, with suicide claiming the lives of another 2 to 5% of sufferers. There is no excuse for anybody, even those who also suffer from a problem related to eating, to look longingly at the “attention” (attention which, as I suggest above, may not even exist) given to anorexics.
Having been on both sides of this (280 lbs and 130 lbs), I have to agree. I always wondered if it was just my perception of how I was treated when I was fat.
It was not my perception. Fat people are treated like crap. I am treated completely differently now at 130 lbs, by just about everyone.
Discrimination? Oh yeah. Job discrimination against fat people, for one, is rampant - I work in HR and I’ve seen it.