Why the vitriol and hatefulness toward fat people?

Factual Questions
21

I think we’re waaaay overthinking this. Unless somebody pisses you off for some other reason, you’re probably not all that likely to criticize that person for being fat, i.e., you’re not going to say, “hey, look at fatty fsck face” just because you see him pumping gasoline at the gas station. If he sprays you with the hose, though, you’re going to want to criticize every damn thing about him, and the fat is an easy target.

Think about a thin person with, say, a mullet that pisses you off. Of maybe she’s blond, or just female. Of maybe glasses are four-eyes only distinguishing feature.

22

I am absolutely stunned at the level of ignorance being generated in this thread and, further, the amount of hateful ignorance being generated.

Let’s set down some basic principles –

What is the line between “fat” and “not fat”? I’m sure each one of us could set his or her own boundary (please don’t start!), but we’re not going to come up with a universal definition. Given this, there is no way of saying “you only have to do X to avoid being fat.”

No one wants to be fat. No one likes to be fat. No one makes the choice to be fat. (Okay, now someone’s going to give me a cite to a person who claims he or she likes being fat. Do I have to say “there are exceptions” at the end of every statement?

On average, there is no significant difference between the life styles of the average thin person and the average fat person. Yes, there are people who work hard to stay fit, but most of these people would still not become “fat” even if they stopped working hard at it. Most thin people also spend most of their time sitting on their asses and eating junk food.

Yes, overeating makes you fat. To people who have lived their whole lives eating moderately, it seems so easy to just “stop overeating,” because to them it takes to effort to avoid overeating. It’s not an act of discipline to just keep doing what comes naturally to you. To people who have overeaten all their lives, it takes tremendous effort to control their appetites – must more than an ordinary level of personal discipline.

Utter nonsense. Do you follow every fat person around to see exactly how much exercise they’re getting?

23

I’m not saying that I don’t understand why fat people are ridiculed or otherwise singled out- it’s pretty obvious that if you weigh 350 lbs and are 5 feet tall, you stand out, and standing out tends to get ridiculed/put down.

What I really don’t understand is how that standing out translates into such hostility, derision and general hatefulness. I mean, think about the shitstorm you’d generate if you substituted something like “niggers” or “chinks” for “fatties”, “fatasses” “fat fuck” or “tubbies”. You’d be accused of being a hateful and intolerant asshole, and be roundly castigated by all, whether it was on the internet or in real life.

Yet, make some comment about a fat person, and many people will chuckle or add one of their own.

24

In my experience on fitness boards, the most hateful people are the ex-fat who are now physically fit. This reminds me of a section of ‘black like me’ where the author talks about meeting a light skinned black guy on a bus who was passing as white and how much he hated blacks. I do not know if that was a common thing 60 years ago (for light skinned blacks who tried to pass for white to really, really hate dark skinned blacks) but if so then its probably just a desire to not end up anything like the object of your hatred. At least in part it is, I have no idea why so many people hate the fat and not just those who are trying hard not to become fat.

25

BTW, I still can’t understand why the hell anyone gives a good goddamn as to whether someone else is fat or not. Really. It’s not you who has to live in the other person’s body, so just where do people get off saying anything negative at all?

26

I like the buffet in the mall, but it always seems like rotund people have gotten their first, and eaten everything. Thus:

But to give a real answer, I often see people who have no idea that they are blocking an aisle, and seem surprised and insulted when you want them to move out of the way. It is very easy to see a person and believe they are just like the last one you met, and to fear the same reaction from them. When you see a story in the news about an obese person, it is then easy to felt backed up on that idea. Thus the idea that all overweight people have no interest in their health, and are rude spreads.

27

Warning: Written as stream-of-consciousness

Put me down as another who doesn’t understand the vitriol. Think of how negative the term ‘fat’ normally is, as in; “Big fat loser.” “Big fat nothing” etcetera. Even when the thing being spoken of isn’t ‘fat’, fat is the negative adjective of choice.

I think as a society, we’re kind-of conditioned to equate ugly with bad, and fat with ugly. Been overweight all my life, and I know it hurts every first impression I make, except, perhaps, over the internet. I was teased a lot about my weight my entire life, and I really suspect those people in high-school or college weren’t particullarly thinking about rising health costs when they did it. Rising health costs are, I feel, a justifying ‘shield’ for those that would insult me.

But insults, I find, come down to a dehumanizing. If you can lump the person or people that frustrate you into a group, it’s a lot easier to say anything bad you wish to about them; be it a racial minority, a body type, heck, even simply a religion that isn’t yours. Amongst those, being fat is the one that is currently completely and utterly acceptable in today’s culture. If you knew me personally, however, I doubt you’d say fat insults in my presence (Well, unless you hated me specifically…).

I will admit to being angry as I read these posts. Part of me said, “Why do those who are supporting fat bashing care what the heck I look like?”, while another part of me said, “I -am- in an exercise program now, and I’ll be talking to my doctor later today.” The second part kind-of stung me. I realized that, while I was doing things to better my health, I was also directly buying into the problem; Fat is bad, and I need to feel horribly guilty about it.

Of course, guess what I do when I feel horribly guilty?

Double cheeseburger time.

Yep. Endless cycle.

I still don’t condone or understand the vitriol, nor it’s acceptance. If you’re going to see me as a human being, you need to see me as a human being with flaws. Flaws I’m working on, but flaws you need to accept. So there.

28

(First I’ll apologize to Scott_plaid for using his post as an example. It’s just handy, not any worse than many others here.)

Another bigoted assumption. I often see skinny people (or lean but muscular ones) loading up like they’re going on safari, and then coming back for seconds.

Like the slender woman I saw in the supermarket the other day, standing in the centre of the aisle with her cart straight out to the left while she inspected something on the right-hand shelf.

I don’t think that’s true. It’s more likely, IMHO, that the predjudice comes first, so people look for reinforcement for their hatred and ignore anything that goes against their preconceived ideas. In any case, it’s still bigotry. Even in those posts that try to be ‘understanding’ and ‘accepting’ it just comes across as condescension. See above for a few like that.

29

Might the resentment also be due to the fact that in the days of yore (and still true in modern times) that only people above a certain income level can afford to be fat? (Hence all the “fat friar” jokes way back when.)

30

Statistics on this in the United States do not bear this out. If what you say is correct then obesity should remain fairly constant if it was all strictly a matter of genetic predispositions. However, the trend to obesity in the United States is dramatically increasing. Unless someone is suggesting that a genetic tendancy to being obese has spread throughout the country it would seem that it is lifestyle choices causing a great deal of this.

That said I abhor the notion of people blaming fat people for higher insurance rates (or what have you). I have no desire to live in a nanny-state where all anyone is allowed to do is that which is “good” for them. While a fat person may enjoy a bag of Cheetos another might enjoy a beer and another might enjoy horse back riding and so on. All of those things technically puts you at higher risk of being injured than if you just stayed at home and ate an apple.

To each his own and all that jazz. Barring a person’s existence actively impinging on yours (e.g. smoker blowing smoke at you or an obese person sitting half in your seat on the plane) then I see no reason to get on their case. It is their life…let them live it.

31

No, that’s “prejudice” and I do too know how to spell.

(Typing is a different matter. Any other typos stay in.)

32

No need to apologize, it is just a theory, and it feels nice to get quoted.

33

I think you’re right about that. Some formerly obese people, like some ex-smokers, seem to have put themselves on a pedestal from which they can sling barbs at those who still suffer from obesity or tobacco addiction.

I used to be fat. Have had it under control for thirty years, but I still see myself as a fat girl. To turn the old saying inside-out, deep within my thin body there’s a fat person trying desperately to get out and go on a binge.

Perhaps the former fat folks who have become self-righteous bigots on the issue are fearful of acknowledging their pasts, as if that would somehow lure them back to old, self-destructive habits.

34

At the risk of sounding like an asshole, I’ll give this a go.

I don’t hate fat people. Overweight people do thend to require more medical attention for chronic issues than nonobese people. Everytime that myself and my co-workers have to lift an obese person, there is a chance I could have a career ending back injury. When an obese person is honestly sick, I don’t mind having to lift them. However, with the pervelance of obesity on the rise, a large number of people who call 911 are both obese and have nothing really wrong with them. (Of course, thin people call 911 for no good reasion as well) Now some of these people both have nothing acutely, emergently, wrong with them. These same people expect me to lift and carry them. That is frustrating.

Of course, when someone is obese they tend to have other health issues. Diabeties, hypertension, celluitius, heart and respratory problems are common. When someone is both obese, and does not have the self decipline to maintain their other health care needs (medicine, checking their blood sugar, ect…) It is even more maddening. The rases the thought that this person dosen’t have the self decipline to maintain their weight, or take responsibility for their own healthcare. Especially when dieting is a simple mathmatical equasion. If you consistantly burn more callories than you take in, you have to loose weight.

I’ll freely admit that my experiences are purely observations. It’s like tech. support, you only hear about the bad computers. Obese people who take care of themselves do not need to call 911.

35

I’m not surprised this topic has come up, though it’s often been addressed before. It might be better off in IMHO, or even better, Great Debates.

It astonishes me that people I would normally consider reasonably intelligent and empathetic have no problem showing downright vicious cruelty towards fat people. Then they turn around and manufacture reasons to support their hatred.

Yes, hatred. Some of the nastiness I’ve seen and heard about has been on par with Fred Phelps, the notorious gay-basher. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t had anyone here declare that “God hates fatties!”

Fat people get in your way? No, sorry. Thoughtless or distracted people get in your way. Some of them happen to be fat. The ones you choose to notice because you already have issues are fat. Fat people look disgusting? Nope. Some fat people look disgusting. Others dress in as complementary and flattering a fashion as they can. If it were about looking disgusting, the insult then wouldn’t be about being fat. It would be about being unkempt, smelly, disheveled, or disgusting (seven, I’m looking at you.) Fat people cost you extra money on your insurance. Perhaps, but so do smokers, sky-divers, people who refuse to wear seatbelts, and tourists who pick up exotic diseases and bring them home. And, anyways, I’m sure that’s exactly what was on the mind of those frat boys that once moo-ed at me as they drove past. No, that’s a pseudo-intellectual excuse people use to prop up their bigotry.

Fat people choose to get fat? That’s an interesting take. It’s much like saying smokers choose to get lung cancer. I will be the first to stipulate that eating too much and not exercising enough lead to obesity. However, for those who are not familiar with the human race and its appalling tendency to focus on short term goals as opposed to long term consequences, I’d like to point out that it’s far more likely for a person to decide they’d rather eat those slices of bacon than go half an hour on the treadmill because it’s more satisfying than think to themselves “gee, I think I’ll take one tiny, incremental step on the road to obesity today”. People who insist that the only things a fat person needs to do is eat less and exercise more are extremely deficient in the concepts of ‘primary cause’ and ‘proximate cause’. The background behind eating too much and exercising too little is far, far too complicated to go into in one single post.

All that being said, I think there are several reasons that lead to the - to me - heartbreaking amount of hostility dumped on fat people in this day and age.

  1. Being fat is an obvious flaw. It’s right out there. There’s no hiding it (except perhaps on the Internet.) Another person might have flaws that we think are much more contemptuous or disgusting, but it’s not right out there. Gamble away your family’s grocery money? Like stepping on kittens’ skulls and hearing them pop? Think black people should be sold like cattle? None of these are readily apparent, so none of these can spark that instantaneous, automatic hatred. Being fat does.

  2. Hating fat people is one of the last acceptable bigotries. Start bagging on “niggers”, “spics”, “kikes”, or “chinks”, and you will get a world of disgust from the people around you. Make an unfortunately comparison between one person’s intelligence and another’s disability, and you will be called on it. Even gay-bashing isn’t the free for all it used to be. As a subset of this theory, I suspect that the people who are the most hateful and vicious about obesity are channeling the hate they feel for other segments of the population into this one outlet. If they could get away with using the pejorative terms I put in quotes, they would, and the fat people would get off a little easier.

  3. Obesity is an easy target. There’s a lot of free floating hostility out there to begin with. Most of the rest of the world fights back when you try to dump on it. So far, the obese don’t so much. Perhaps that will change.

  4. People are frightened of obesity. This is a very big one, I think. The stats on obesity have been rising for the last thirty years. Currently, sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight or obese (cite). As the years pass, more and more people will become obese until we either completely change our public health mandates, alter our culture, society, and environment, or figure out how to adapt our physiology to a world where cheap, unhealthy food is plentiful and exercise is no longer necessary. There are a lot of people out there who find the idea of becoming fat very frightening. (Please repeat after me in your best Yoda voice: “fear becomes anger, anger becomes hatred, hatred leads to the dark side.”). Instead of taking the time and effort to learn about obesity - because that would be work, and humans as a rule avoid unnecessary work - people instead choose to view obesity as a personal flaw which they themselves do not posess. As they do not posess this flaw, they cannot then become obese. Obese people are flawed and deserving of derision and contempt. In fact, the more derision and contempt one piles on them, the further away one must be from obesity. This reinforces both the fear (“If I were fat, people would treat me with derision and contempt.”) and the mechanism to defeat the fear. It also explains, I suppose, why formerly-obese people show the most vicious attitudes.

Me? I’m tired of it. Look, folks, I’m fat. I’ve been all my adult life. I’ve thought I was fat since I was twelve (can you say “self-fulfilling prophesy?” I knew you could.) Dealing with my fat is exhausting. You don’t like fat? Great. I’m right there with you. Don’t want to see fat people around you? Honey, we aren’t going away, so the best thing you can do is shut your yawp. The criticism, meanness, mocking, cruelty, and hostility leveled at fat people do absolutely no good. Shame only keeps us out of the gyms and into the cheesecake.

If you really want fat people to be thinner and healthier, you need to shut up with the insults and either stay quiet or work on the supportive language.

It’s my guess, though, that this won’t happen. People - and by that, I mean sheeplike, thoughtless, monkey herds of people - aren’t hateful towards fat people because they want us to be skinny. They’re hateful because we’re an obvious, easy target, and they want everyone to know that “they” are not like “us”.

36

Phouka, that’s the most articulate, well-thought out post I’ve heard on the subject in a long time. I salute you whole-heartedly, and will likely read it several more times in the upcomming days.

37

Again I’ll ask, is it really hatred? I’m overweight, probably fat by any definition (although at 6’2" it’s my height most people see – I never get fat-hate, it seems).

Interesting enough, when someone that’s fat – fatter than me? – pisses me off, it’s very easy for me to start thinking or voicing “fat fuck” sentiments. It’s an easy, meaningless target. If a person doesn’t piss me off, I wouldn’t ordinarily pay attention to their fatness unless to tell myself to be glad that I’m not that fat.

38

Oh I agree. And believe me, I kick, spit, and piss on every alcoholic I can. :rolleyes:

39

Great, insightful post, phouka!

Even if that were true in all cases, it wouldn’t make it OK to harass fat people.

People are capable of choosing their religion, as is evidenced by the many people throughout history who have converted from one to another. Does that make it acceptable to abuse someone for their religion?

40

I don’t think it’s hatred. It’s contempt. And that is, in some ways, more painful for those who are the objects of verbal abuse. I would rather have people hate me eye-to-eye than have them view me as a pathetic, worthless inferior.