Why the vitriol and hatefulness toward fat people?

I’ve been on here and other message boards for several years now, and I never fail to be astounded and amazed at the vitriolic anger, condescension and all around hatefulness I see directed at fat people on the Internet.

In this thread the OP describes the guy whose car hit his as:

[ul]
[li]Fatty Laptop Man[/li][li]Stupid fucking fat fuck.[/li][li]twice describes the man as “fat” in phrases like “stupid fucking fat fuck”[/li][/ul]

Then later on, somebody says

And… earlier today on Fark, there was a thread about SW airlines’ policy about making fat people buy an extra seat if they’re too big. The tards over there were even more hateful, saying things like:

[ul]
[li]Southwest has been biatch-slapping the tubbies for years. As someone who doesn’t want a Jelly Roll in his lap to go with their pack of peanuts, that suits me fine.[/li][li]I dont know why them fatties are complaining about buying an exrtra seat. It’s gotta be a lot cheaper than sending their fat asses on a big cargo jet where they belong![/li][li]In response to some fat acceptance quote, this: “What the little fat fairy comes along at night and sprinkles fat dust on you does she???”[/li][li]Disgusting horrible fatness needs to become as socially unacceptable as smoking.[/li][li]The only thing worse that a fatass in a plane seat next to you is a stinking sweating heifer on a bus. Imagine. Middle of summer, fatty just made the bus at maximum waddle and is panting and sweating next to you![/li][li]fat people are mouth breathers[/li][/ul]

Don’t get me wrong- I agree with Southwest- if you take up 2 seats, pay for 2 seats. I also think that the incidences of people taking up 2 seats are far less common than some asshat bringing 5 huge-ass carry on bags to his SW flight and clogging up the overhead bins. THAT is what SW Airlines need to crack down on, not fat people.

Anyway, back to the OP- why are people so damn angry and awful toward fat people? It’s like these dickheads think that if someone’s fat, that it implies all sorts of character flaws and crap like that, and/or that they’re somehow not worthy of the basic respect that people deserve.

probably because you don’t choose to be black or crippled, but you can choose to be fat. It indicates poor personal discipline.

I’m alarmed by this, too. It seems as if the only kind of hate speech that is acceptable these days is the anti-fat slur. As a former fat lady, I take this very seriously.

I guess people who have never had to fight the battle of the bulge may think that overweight people are just lazy gluttons.

But why do some people consider it OK to abuse people for “poor personal discipline”? This is especially puzzling to me when the person’s being fat is not directly affecting the person criticizing them, as in the “fatty laptop man” story.

This issue has been slammed around over and over.

While it may be true that some – even many – overweight people have “poor personal discipline,” so do some thin people. They just show it differently.

And some fat people do NOT have PPD. Some have tried valiently to lose weight, getting the dreaded yo-yo effect that only makes you fatter. Some have mobility issues – ever try to exercise vigorously when every step you take hurts? Sure, it’s possible, it’s just not as easy as some young and spry people would have you believe.

Bottom line is that there can be lots of reasons for overweight besides sloth and greed. Don’t judge if you ain’t been there. You don’t know what other burdens the individual you’re judging has to bear.

Yeah… but what I’m curious about is why, even if it does indicate “poor personal discipline”, does it generate such hate and derision in people?

To hear some people on this board, or those fuckers on FARK talk, being fat is in the same league as screwing children or animals, or being a violent criminal, in spite of the fact that fat people impact them in the most tangential ways (and yes, I’m including insurance costs, etc… in that).

It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Out of curiosity, is this really the question you’re meaning to ask? Because IMO, there’s the hate & derision because fat people conflict with societal norms in a highly visible manner. A couple of related questions are, Why is being fat not regarded as conforming to societal standards?; and Why does breaking societal standards in any highly visible way generate such hate and derision in modern society?

I have not run across the truly vitriolic comments that you allude to (at least as far as I can remember), but I can well believe that they are there. I have seen a number of disparaging (and very likely unfair) comments regarding overweight people.

I think MK VII’s point about “being fat indicates poor personal discipline” helps explain it somewhat. Also pinkfreud’s comment that “anti-fat slurs are the only acceptable hate speech left” probably helps explain it as well.

I don’t believe that fatness indicates poor personal discipline, but I can see how this perception might arise. Since fatness is a choice, following the preceding (flawed, in my opinion) logic, it is much more acceptable to be fling vitriol at “fatties” than at the racial or cultural groups that once were the targets of the flinging.

Fatness, especially extreme fatness, is a very noticable feature for a person to possess. It can seriously affect the way you interact with a person. For example, sitting next to someone on an airplane, or trying to play football, or hugging someone; all of these things definitely are different if the person very fat. It’s an obvious thing to stereotype people by.

I really don’t approve of hate or derision directed at people who are overweight. It just seems stupid. Having said that, a person’s weight is something that can be changed. Personally, I generally feel better when I am more active and hence skinnier. It may not be possible or desirable for everyone to be rail-thin, but I think it is generally a good thing when a person is not too overweight, good for the person and good for everyone else. Actually change that to it’s definitely not desirable". What I mean to say is that being seriously overweight, while not a negative attribute per se, is not really a positive attribute either. And it might be worth trying to change.

A final, and important, note: I most definitely think we in the US (and probably most of the western world) have a distorted view of what constitutes “fat” or “overweight”. Too many people think they are too fat when in fact they are just about right.

Speaking of offensive language . . .

Laptop Man was also wearing flip-flops and he had really long, yellowed and quite ugly toenails. He was in shorts and his stumpy legs were covered in thick black hair. By the looks of the rug escaping from his t-shirt I suspect (but can not prove) his back looks much like a black shag rug. His facial hair was shaggy and contained, what I believe to be, lunch crumbs. His clothes had that clean yet somehow musty look to them. Like when you wash a white shirt with a new dark blue towel.

Did I mention he was fat as well? Perhaps 375-400 pounds on a 5’ 10" frame.

I could care less if someone is overweight. But if your actions wreck my stuff and you show little if any interest in the health of my involved family and belongings, then your fatness is fair game.

I didn’t pit him because he was fat, I pit him because he was an ass (who just happened to be fat)

To the OP question. Someone who sits on their ass and eats junk food in front of the TV all day and gets called fatty-fatty 2x4 has as much right to complain as the guy who shaves his head and gets called baldy. It is self inflicted.

People make fun of smokers because they “stink”, punks because they have silly hair and Paris Hilton because she’s a skanky ho-bag. All those things are fair game because the subject does it to themself.

I’m 99% sure Fatty Laptop Man fits under this umbrella of taunting. Mostly because everything else about him was sloppy and unkempt.

For what it is worth.

Because, well, they’re fat! Physical looks are the first thing you see about someone and it’s easy to make a judgment based on that (believe it works the other way too, with beauty). I agree with Mk VII in that fatness is (usually) due to poor discipline. Yes, there are some people who really can’t help it, but I don’t think that’s the majority of the cases. Most of the time, I would believe that it’s simply a lifestyle choice.

That said, “fat” isn’t the only acceptable insult? Other similar lifestyle choices that are ridiculed by society include “pothead”, “nerd”, “geek”, “loser”, “goth”, “hippie”, “slacker”, etc.

If you do a certain set of things (like eat a lot, do drugs continously, obsess over homework, etc.) and deviate too much from societal norms/ideals, you’ll naturally get ridiculed.

People (rightly, IMO) consider fatness disgusting-looking and unless the fat person is afflicted by some sort of disease, it’s just laziness that’s holding them back from getting thinner.

On one hand, I don’t think there’s any reason to make fun of them, but on the other hand, I don’t believe they are really “victims” of anything but their own laziness. Just go and exercise or seek help…

(Of course, none of this applies to people who really have an uncontrollable weight issue… in that case, it’s not their fault)

Indeed, putting others down can make you feel better about yourself. I think most of us are guilty of that at some time or other.

Speaking from a UK perspective here there is reason for obese people to be targetted in the same way smokers are targetted. Put simply they are a drain on the NHS and take money away from the hospital treatment of those people who’s conditions are not self-inflicted such as cancer patients. I’m not 100% sure how hospitals in the USA work but I believe people pay for private healthcare so this may not apply to such an extent there, though you could argue that having fat people on their books causes the health insurance companies to raise their premiums across the board to cover the cost of treatment caused by being overwight.

Have you ever noticed the most of the people who bag fat people a thin and spend a lot of time and effort staying that way?

This may not sound very profound but bear with me. The reason (most of) these people do this is because they think they would not be capable of being happy if they were fat. Then when they see fat people who seem happy they are intimidated and feel that they must do something to make themselves feel above this person. So they abuse. They then feel justified in spending the time and effort that they do on staying overly thin.

BTW, if anyone is wondering which side of the demographic this is comming from - I am a young, thin member of a genetically fat family. I put a small amount of effort into staying that way but see no problem with those who have better things to do with their time.

Here’s some information taken from www.nhs.co.uk

In 1998 obesity accounted for 30,000 premature deaths and 18 million days of sickness absence.

It is predicted that by 2010 treatment of medical conditions caused by obesity will cost £3.5 billion ($6.7 billion), that is £3.5 billion that could be invested into the treatment of conditions which are not self-inflicted.

So the anger direct at obese people is similar to the anger directed and smokers and alcoholics (avoinding the discussion of whether alcoholism is a disease or self-inflicted) in that these people are a drain on society.

Of course in USA the healthcare system works differently but as I stated before the cost of treating obesity related conditions is going to effect everyone’s insurance premiums.

Don’t you mean the opposie, that you could not care less?

Fat disgusts me. As a smoker, I could not care less about how unhealthy obesity is.
I’m not worried about insurance costs. Really, it’s just the fact that looking at a huge fat person is usually unpleasant. They’re fscking everywhere, too.

And, you don’t have to exercise vigourously to avoid fatness. Any at all is a good start.

And what about the effects of passive fatness?! Those bstrds don’t care about your health…

An opposie? Don’t you mean an opposite?

Unless you were at a decent weight all your life, and then had surgery to remove an organ which changed your body chemistry somehow, and now you keep gaining weight even though you ate LESS and BETTER than when you were thinner.

Think before you voice ignorant thoughts.