Refutation through mastication ;). My man loves me Ruebenesque.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Fat People - the last unprotected minority in America
Fat does not equal ugly, however I think Weedeater’s mindset = ugly. The physical ideal that we are urged to emulate in ads for Bally’s and Jenny Craig are simply unachievable for most people, and not really healthy. You need some body fat to keep you warm in the winter and to have an energy reserve to draw on when you’re sick. Do you really think models look like that all the time? To show abs and muscle definition, fitness models and bodybuilders have to diet down like everybody else.
What you need to concentrate on is fitness. Can you walk up a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing? Can you lift groceries to the kitchen counter without straining your back? Can you do 30 pushups at one time? Those are the questions you need to worry about. If you work on being physically fit, then the aesthetic question will solve itself.
Anybody who has followed my posts knows that I am a strong advocate of eating right and working out regularly. I also think it is stupid and cruel to demonize people for being overweight. If the person you’re concerned with is a friend or family member, encourage them to join you at the gym and to eat healthily in a positive and supportive manner. If the person is some stranger, then shut the hell up 'cos it ain’t none of your business!
FTR, my BF is tubby, but he is also amazingly sexy with a warm and generous heart, and I’d take him over a battalion of selfish, small-minded hardbodies.
I dunno. If I were in a locker room and there were a bunch of naked people around me, the people to whom my eyes would be drawn first would be those who are different-looking from what I see every day. I don’t see black people naked every day…my eye might linger. I don’t see fat people naked every day…my eye might linger. I don’t see old people naked every day…my eye might linger. I do see little kids naked every day (YOU try to keep clothes on a 3- and 2-year-old 24/7)…so my eye wouldn’t linger.
I was waiting for the PC police to leap on that post. I don’t recall anyone saying, “Did you consider that they might have been staring at her fat, gross, disgusting, blobby, grotesque, cellulite-ridden, jiggling, veiny, cottage cheesy-body?” I knew, though, that as soon as anyone said “fat” there’d be a pile-on.
Buncha’ hypocrites.
Are you serious? You don’t happen to smoke, do you? And just try being a fat smoker!! 
Ummmm… Are you sure that wasn’t a Buddha?
::d&r::
-Rav
I’ll confess I haven’t read the related thread yet, but FWIW:
Are you sure they weren’t staring with envy?
One thing I’ve always admired about black women is that they can carry their excess weight (those that have it) with such dignity and pride. Would that we white women could revel in it the same way!
I attribute it to less black women being exploited/exploiting themselves in magazines, TV, movies, etc. So black women don’t have a “standard” to live up to like white women do. I also read this in an article years ago, before Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks were around. But I still think it holds true today. Most overweight white women are made to feel inadequate by the perpetuation of the skinny body = good standard we have established.
Can you butter a bagel without using the monthly butter output of the state of Wisconsin? 
An excellent point, gobear !
I feel like it goes to personal tastes…and no farther.
Do I find Rubenesque women maddeningly appealing? Yes I do. Does it matter to anyone else in the world besides me ( and, the denziens of Rubenensque women I adore )? No, it does not.
Fitness. That’s the key. Fitness, and a Trust Fund. 
Francesca?? I love ya Rubenesque, too.
Cartooniverse
Are there any protected minorities? I don’t see how fat people could be more protected without the protection being ridiculous.
First of all, black people are “protected” (for lack of a better word) by the NAACP and Affirmative Action. Disabled people are “protected” by the Americans with Disabilities Act. I think what THespos meant (THespos, correct me if I’m wrong) was that it’s still okay to not hire someone for a job because they are overweight, whereas it is not okay to not hire someone based on color or disability. That’s just one example.
How do you think overweight people are protected now? And what kind of protection would be ridiculous in your opinion?
Hell, I expect people to stare at me when I’m naked. I may be chubby (or rubenesque, or zaftig, or whatever the hell you wanna call it) but I look great naked. I’m not ashamed. Everytime I see a commerical for those herbal-breast enhancing pills, I chuckle. Everytime I open Vogue and see someone’s rig cage or hip bone, I eat another Nutty Buddy. I love my size (I’ve been thinner, I’ve been fatter, I think I’m just right). I look beautiful in or out of clothes, and all of the people who’ve seen me in the latter agree.
I’ve argued this point many, many times, and it’s not worth it anymore. It’s all a matter of personal taste. If you don’t want to see a fat chick naked, then don’t. But you don’t have to be an asshair about it. I’m not interested in seeing any really skinny dudes naked (I like my men chubby too), but I’m not making a federal case out of it. I’m not going to ridicule skinny men or suggest that we all stare at their nakedness in wild wonder.
IMHO, weedeater doesn’t deserve a flame. Hopefully, we’ll just ignore him and he’ll scuttle away eventually.
I could be wrong, but aren’t fat people covered by the Americans with Disabilities act?
Even if they aren’t there are plenty of other ways someone can look that are unprotected. To say that fat people are any less protected than any other way people look that can be considered ugly is wrong.
I hope the blueberries were perfected otherwise you might have to be rolled off to the juicing room.
I got it! Juicing rooms for fat people!
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Sterra,
I didn’t see anything specifying that being overweight is a disability. The first bolded passage above says to me that maybe SOME overweight people may qualify. For example, someone with a medical condition which causes them to be fat and it impairs them in some way, may qualify. Of course, I’m just interpreting the text above. I may be wrong. If I were to make another assumption, maybe the second bolded passage would include overweight people who live perfectly normal lives that can’t get a job just because an employer doesn’t like the way they look or assumes they can’t do the job because they are fat and will choose a, perhaps, less experienced thin person over the more experienced fat person.
So, I will give you the benefit of the doubt unless there is someone more knowledgable about this act that could interpret this for us.
Sorry to revive this thread after it’s been dead a couple days…Just wanted to clarify what I meant.
I meant that it’s socially acceptable to bash fat people. Or at least it’s more socially acceptable than bashing specific races, religions or what have you. You can still drop disparaging comments about overweight people and get away with it.
One of my co-workers (an older gentleman, who I actually respect) recently told me in the middle of a meeting that I needed to lose some weight. Yes, he was “corrected” by others who were attending the meeting, but if he had said something disparaging about my race or religion, he would have been fired. He also would have been fired if he had made sexually explicit comments that resulted in a ‘hostile work environment.’
I think it’s a little hypocritical that I have to put up with these comments while everyone else seems to be protected. If, in the same meeting, I had said to one of the female meeting attendees, “Hey, nice ass…” I would have been rightfully shitcanned on the spot. So where’s my protection?
Boy, if there was ever a subject actually designed to push my buttons. . . black and fat!
You’d be surprised at how many people think being fat is some kind of moral failing. And how many people think it’s not only O.K., but actually right and good to prejudge and downright laugh at fat people. Even right here on the SDMB, where some of the most intelligent and critically people I’ve come across on line.
Want proof? See this thread.
That should be critically-thinking people. As in people who think critically. Maybe fat, black people really are stupid!
Thin ain’t for everyone, check this out…
OK, that made me laugh. The harmony vocals were the best.
Biggie friii-ees
Super-siii-eeze
well, see, that’s exactly why you didn’t have the extra $750 - you keep squandering those valuable $0.02. It would take a mere 37,500 of em to get that $750 - get crackin’ girl!
(d&r)