Fat acceptance?

[Old_Scratch]

I ran into someone the other day who claimed to be a supporter of fat acceptance. Apparently he felt discriminated against for being overweight and wanted "fatness" to be accepted instead of being something to be ashamed of.

Does anyone here think this is a good idea? I don't believe anyone should be harassed for their weight, but I think it's dangerous to become totally accepting of obesity. It could have a detrimental effect on the public health much in the same way a smoking acceptance movement could if it existed. People can do whatever they like with their own bodies, but it shouldn't be accepted as good if it's detrimental to health or society I think.

[Himster]

Fat people are immoral......

..........so are skinny people........

------and medium weight people.

[Jack04]

Generally, obesity is not something you are born with, it is the consequence of a life choice. As such, it should be free to be mocked at will, frankly. Obviously, certain genetic conditions that cause obesity shouldn't be mocked, however.

My view is that anything that is a result of your own choices/actions deserves no external protection provided by society.

[Dubh the dark]

There's a fine-line between accepting obesity and enabling obesity, not a very good idea in my opinion.

No-one wants to hear the truth any-more, we're expected to walk on eggshells around each other, rather than give and accept criticism. In short we need to toughen up and realise harsh words can help us.

[Denny Crane!]

Generally, obesity is not something you are born with, it is the consequence of a life choice. As such, it should be free to be mocked at will, frankly. Obviously, certain genetic conditions that cause obesity shouldn't be mocked, however.

My view is that anything that is a result of your own choices/actions deserves no external protection provided by society.

People sometimes struggle to act responsibly for themselves, sometimes overeating is a symptom of stress or depression or sometimes even mental illness.

I think we need to think very carefully before thinking something is either genetic or choice. In the short term (as I consider impulsive eating to be) then free will doesn't really exist and long term value choices such as health can be very difficult for people to implement in the face of short term pressures.

Genetic causes or biological causes can be major or minor and in of themselves aren't enough but are backed up by other causes in peoples life and trigger points.

Its complex, certainly not black and white.

[Jack04]

People sometimes struggle to act responsibly for themselves, sometimes overeating is a symptom of stress or depression or sometimes even mental illness.

Yes and I'll forever have sympathy for those conditions, however I do not see why that should lead to fat "acceptance". Depression acceptance certainly but at the end of the day, weight is something that (generally) can be done about by the individual. It is not generally the condition in itself. Not accepting fatness/obesity is, I'm sure you'd agree, a long way away from criticising people for having the conditions that can cause it.

I still maintain, if it is a problem that is within your control and up to your personal choices and priorities (however understandable those priorities may have been, as indeed yours were), it deserves no kind of protection from society and certainly not a wider acceptance as being something that shouldn't be discouraged.

[Denny Crane!]

Yes and I'll forever have sympathy for those conditions, however I do not see why that should lead to fat "acceptance". Depression acceptance certainly but at the end of the day, weight is something that (generally) can be done about by the individual. It is not generally the condition in itself. Not accepting fatness/obesity is, I'm sure you'd agree, a long way away from criticising people for having the conditions that can cause it.

I still maintain, if it is a problem that is within your control and up to your personal choices and priorities (however understandable those priorities may have been, as indeed yours were), it deserves no kind of protection from society and certainly not a wider acceptance as being something that shouldn't be discouraged.

Discouraged as in made economically unattractive yes, but discouraged does to some mean discrimination as opposed to support and educate.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

anybody who fails through their own fault should be mocked and harrassed until they grow a pair.

it's far crueller not to do it.

[Blaze86420]

I used to be overweight and I wish people had made fun of me because of it. I would have hit the gym a couple of years ealier than I did if they had done that.

[LSJ]

You know, before you place all the blame on a fat person, you should think of how many people really get fat. It isn't always a result of choices made at an adult age in the same social circumstances as the so-called 'jocks', whose parents were active, encouraging, and actually fed their kid decent food.

As a fat person, it is incredibly difficult to go out in public to exercise and better yourself. It is incredibly difficult to become involved in sports due to the insults and humiliation, and rejection. You can't play sports because all the other kids insult you, don't want you on their team, and treat you as a second class individual. If you go jogging or join a gym, you have to deal with the stares, laughs, and sneers. And in school, movies, and tv, people go on about how ugly fat people are. There is a great deal of physical and verbal abuse that they go through, mostly before they are 20 years old.

While we should not treat obesity as an acceptable thing, we should not make fat people's lives hell for it. They already are the target of jokes everywhere, and have a lot of issues to deal with. By insulting them you are making their problem worse. Treating fat people like crap is responsible for some cases of depression, annorexia, suicide, and lifelong obesity. And don't think that people who are overweight and are insulted use their abuse as inspiration; you would be fooling yourself. If you had no friends, were rejected by your peers, and faced verbal abuse on a daily basis, you would be a totally different person.

[Dubh the dark]

As a fat person, it is incredibly difficult to go out in public to exercise and better yourself. It is incredibly difficult to become involved in sports due to the insults and humiliation, and rejection. You can't play sports because all the other kids insult you, don't want you on their team, and treat you as a second class individual. If you go jogging or join a gym, you have to deal with the stares, laughs, and sneers. And in school, movies, and tv, people go on about how ugly fat people are. There is a great deal of physical and verbal abuse that they go through, mostly before they are 20 years old.

You can lose weight by jogging on the spot in your room behind a locked door with the curtains drawn. You don't need to play sports, you don't even need to go outside.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

If you go jogging or join a gym, you have to deal with the stares, laughs, and sneers.

I don't believe you. I can't imagine any fitness enthusiast being anything but encouraging towards those who desire a healthy body. Every single one of them started with an unhealthy body, after all, and you are actively taking steps to improve yourself yourself, why would they? I'm skeptical you have experienced this in an environment dedicated to fitness, even though I'm sure you have in other areas of your life, and I'm sure it's horrible.

And in school, movies, and tv, people go on about how ugly fat people are.

They are. It's important people realise that, so they will be encouraged to lose weight.

It's not like your weight is set in stone. It can be adjusted quite readily with a bit of willpower. So download some inspiring music and get to it!

I think you should to to the personal help and advice forums and create your own thread. We can help you. You'd probably be very attractive if you lost a bit of weight, and I'm pretty sure as a side-effect you'd also become a far more confident, fulfilled and courageous person. And lets face it, you're not a 50 stone guy who can't walk and doesn't have a hope of ever being thin. I'm sure you're just a bit overweight compared to that.

Obesity is quite often (not always) the sympton of a larger emotional problem. Bullying or even cajoling these people into bettering themselves can having devestating counter-productive effects.

I think most fat people just became fat in childhood and have never bothered to lose it. I think LSJ may be a bit unhappy with his lot in life though.

[Himster]

I think most fat people just became fat in childhood and have never bothered to lose it. I think LSJ may be a bit unhappy with his lot in life though.

Check out the harmony group in Blackrock (I assume you're from the pale judging by your fancy words and excessive use of smileys) there you'll see the blatant co-relation between eating disorders and emotional disfunction: Fat parents, more often than not; have fat kids.

Surely you are aware that some people can lose weight easier than others?

[removeduser_4536284751384]

(I assume you're from the pale judging by your fancy words and excessive use of smileys)

Mayo

[Claudius Gothicus]

Non-hormonal related fatness(this means being fat because of laziness+eating bad) is not and should never be accepted as some sort of disease(maybe a health related social problem but never a disease in itself).

Given the large amounts of ''healthy food information'' that more or less every person in the Developed world is able to catch from the internet, newspapers, TV, radio, dietary physicians etc. I'm more than willing to accept that none can argue ''ignorance'' for being fat.

Not only that, but also, there's this ''recent'' move on trying to treat fatness as some sort of disease like alcoholism or Drug addiction, in my opinion it's tremendously fallacious to do so. Especially considering that ''non-hormonal related fatness'' is the product of overconsumption of unhealthy products that not only are publicly described as being so but also don't generate a proved correlation to compulsive eating or ''addiction'' AND a real alteration of the rationality of the individual while exercising the consumption of said food.(this means that you know what you are eating and you also know the consequences while doing so)

Burgers do not generate a physical dependency or an alteration of rationality during it's consumption(like Heroin, Alcohol or Coke) therefore it should not be treated as some sort of disease, a condition maybe.

[Voodo chile]

Like a lot of similar 'flaws',i dont support it, i dont discriminate.
Its not always a life choice though. I mean, some people have to regulate what to eat and they are all like "oh i cant eat too much...etc" You've seen the biggest loser, they eat a friggen slice of cake and they gain like 2 bloody kgs. People like me on the other hand can eat as much as they want and not gain anything nor feel guilty at all.
Big mac/other Mcdonalds burger... "o if you eat this you have to run 2km to burn it off" or something ridiculous like that. I can burn that off by wanking for crying out loud

[CamilleBonparte]

People like me on the other hand can eat as much as they want and not gain anything nor feel guilty at all.

Same here, though I hear that goes away later in life. God, I hope not. I am addicted to chili cheese fries.

On-topic, no we shouldn't accept self-destructive lifestyles, but we shouldn't go out of our way to be hurtful to people living them either. For the people who have a condition, obviously any criticism levied at them is entirely non-productive. Seeing as how you can't know for sure, it's better to hold your tongue. Besides, bullying others is just a way of compensating for our own flaws.

[Taiji]

Comfort eating is bad, mkay.

[Himster]

Obesity is quite often (not always) the sympton of a larger emotional problem. Bullying or even cajoling these people into bettering themselves can having devestating counter-productive effects.

Charities to help depression and mental illness should take the place of "supporters of fat acceptance"

[MathiasOfAthens]

Nobody is stripping their constitutional right away from them but any sort of national acceptance of being fat would undermine anti-obesity health plans in our schools, may even go so far to get lawyers defending fat kids who dont want to run a mile in PE. Fat not a choice... its a condition they acquired through poor choices either by themselves or their parents. Regardless if they could choose to be strong or skinny they would. Same as a sick person would choose to be healthy. Both have options or cures but only one can be attained easier than the other.

I bet those trying to defend fat people are also conservatives who would argue gay people should be locked away (metaphorically).