Anthea Turner - fat shaming and disablist (covid)

[FTMF30]

So Anthea Turner has felt the wrath of pretty much everyone for her recent Tweet. Very silly of her, being someone in the public eye.

I felt she was trying to make a valid point but failed terribly with that offensive cartoon. And what did she mean with the caption "Go for it"?
www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/anthea-turner-twitter-fat-shaming-covid-face-mask-b919526.html%3famp

I’m not sure Covid gives any shits about kindness, it likes bodies that aren’t metabolically healthy, and the size of the waistline is a good indicator of that

It likes older bodies more than anything.

@wowier but aside from someone with Downs and the person on steroids, the others have a choice. Yes there may be cultural differences etc but they are in control of their weight. The person waiting for a hip replacement needs to lower their calorie intake because they can't exercise. These examples are not people who are unable to control their weight

Yes there are people who have to take steroids and it makes them out in weight but those are a small percentage of the population who are obese

Do you have statistics that obesity is generally down to people not making the effort?

Ime a lot of weight issues are related to other problems eg depression, abuse & often once food becomes the coping mechanism it's a very hard cycle to break.

I don't need statistics I just have to look around me

Communications campaigns aren't just limited to pamphlets through the door though are they?

Well i was being facetious but i think it's unrealistic to launch a national campaign to promote the benefits of exercise & healthy eating against the backdrop of a pandemic & all the restrictions that's comes with that.
Mask wearing is not really comparable.

I don't need statistics I just have to look around me

🙄 Well I live in a wealthy borough with very low rates of obesity so I suppose by looking around me I can extrapolate there is no issue.

To be fair on here they would be applauding someone who is underweight, after all on MN eating half a tin of soup makes you greedy.

True dat!

I can’t bear the woman but I think the very valid point that others have made is why is the government always going on about how BAME people are more at risk yet nothing said about the obese? This has been going on for a year. Imagine how many people could have had the right support to lose weight in that time.

@wowier I also live in a wealthy borough. Many people I know have type two diabetes. 63 percent of the U.K. is overweight and about 30 percent morbidly obese. We are the second most obese nation in the world and first in Europe. You must live in a very unusual place if you have no obesity in your area.

You must live in a very unusual place if you have no obesity in your area.

didn't say no obesity did I?

We are the second most obese nation in the world and first in Europe

Never denied there is a problem. My point is treating it involves looking at socio economic factors & causes as opposed to trying to guilt & blame.

But when you look around you you don’t know who is disabled. Many many people live with invisible illness. And I am actually a little jealous of the attitude that you can take charge of your health and make free choices. That’s really not the case for someone with a chronic or progressive condition.

Public health England . It’s worrying that it starts in childhood now
All age ranges are consuming above the recommended proportion of daily calories from saturated fat and sugar
Sugar consumption is more than double what it should be, and among 11-18-year-olds is nearly triple.
The five-a-day recommendation for fruit and vegetables is also being missed. Just a third of adults and fewer than one in 10 of teenagers are meeting the target
Activity levels decreasing as we age

Blaming the fatty arbuckles for this lockdown just distracts from the fact that this whole shit show of a carry on is down to the government's mishandling of the pandemic.

It's also going to have the opposite affect on many of the fatty arbuckles who already feel shit and will just feel a bit shitter that lockdown is apparently their fault and end up on a downward spiral of eating and feeling shit and eating more and feeling more shit.

We’re not the second most obese nation in the world. Someone above has posted the actual statistics and we are 36th. That’s not to say it isn’t a problem - it is - but the hyperbole on here is crazy.

And AT’s image implies that healthy, slim people shouldn’t have to wear masks to protect unhealthy people (implying that’s of their own making). So essentially that some lives are worth more than others. In a pandemic you don’t treat health as a moral issue - that’s a very dangerous path. This all seems to be backing up an anti-mask point of view that is beyond selfish. I just don’t understand how wearing a mask is so terrible to some people that they are willing to imply that others are “not worthy” of being protected from transmission.

In a pandemic you don’t treat health as a moral issue - that’s a very dangerous path.

Exactly because where do you draw the line.

It is very revealing that the over riding assumption is that people who aren’t active and exercising are lazy. Many people living with disability have mobility issues. And everything that would help - pools, gyms, physiotherapists- aren’t available in lockdown.

Add on to that, when you can no longer go for a walk, undertake your beloved hobby or even climb stairs, food and drink can be the only pleasant thing in your day.

And for some it is a 'safety net' of making yourself less attractive to your abuser.

As for 'lifestyle choices', well I have not married one man and then slept with another woman's husband, sold chocolate wedding photos or had plastic surgery.

I'm hoiking up my smug pants.

I mean go to a hospital & you will see overweight staff. Is it because they are not aware of the dangers of being overweight despite working in healthcare? Unlikely.

We are the second most obese nation in the world and first in Europe
Absolute rubbish. We are 36th for obesity and not the fattest in Europe either
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate

Meh. Out of work has-been desperately trying for the Hatie Hopkins slot. People really should ignore her.

I read a different report and the ONS says 26 percent of adults were obese in 2019 so even by that ranking we would now be higher. It's irrelevant where we rank anyway. What is relevant is that nearly a third of adults are obese and it's getting worse.

I don't believe a cartoon featuring two normal people was intended to question why the government isn't investing more in health. That's her attempting to dig her way out.

I also don't think even AT is stupid enough to think a smug cartoon is actually going to change anyone's approach to their own health. It was designed to hurt, not help.

If she genuinely wanted to help and encourage people to think about their health in a different way she would have chosen a different tactic.

She didn't. She just wanted to feel superior - which has been a trademark of hers for some time.

Absolute rubbish. We are 36th for obesity and not the fattest in Europe either
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listofcountriesbyobesity_rate*

Interestingly NZ which is often praised on here for their covid response has higher obesity levels than the UK. 🤔

I've been overweight and losing weight is really really hard. It's laborious and has a significant impact on your life and in many ways enjoyment of it because eating out (used to be) one of the joys of life. I can't understand all this pretence that we don't have an obesity issue in this country and that the majority of it isn't caused by inactivity and eating too much. Using disabled people or people on medication as the reason why so many are fat is just not accurate and regardless of covid obesity is a killer. As a nation it needs to be dealt with

@ThenCatoJumpedOut

Oh, I thought the cartoon had a different point: we ruin our own health wilfully (hence the fast food bag) yet are very sensitive about others not looking after US. So it’s very me me me. Also blaming potential illness on others and taking no personal responsibility for our own health. I thought that was the point of the cartoon (and Anthea)

That is exactly the point