Calling someone fat a hate crime?

[teaaddict2012]

thought this would make a good debate

AIBU to think how would this be policed??

Hully - you so fat, yo ass has it's own postcode.

It does! Send it a postcard, it hardly ever gets any post

So what does constitute a hate crime. Surely just saying 'you are black' isn't a hate crime is it? So saying 'you are fat' also can't be a hate crime. Saying 'you're a [insert word of choce] f*cker and I hate you' would be a bit different and in that case the use of black would make it a hate crime and the use of fat wouldn't. Just very rude and unpleasant.

I agree with Ormir,
if someone says, oh you're it's not racist
if they say "oi you fucking fuck off home and stop taking our jobs" - it is!

the fat thing is dangerous because people who would have been fat 20 years ago are considered normal today, the threshold by which one is considered fat keeps creeping up, and making the word itself taboo is only going to make this worse!

When someone wants to insult you they will pick on the most obvious thing they see. I used to be called Concorde, Schonker, Big Nose. Yes, I did have a big nose (had a nose job). Unfortunately, thats life.

To criminalise someone for calling someone else fat when they more than likely are is just PC gone mad.

Eating is an addiction and weight is a product of that addiction. So, do we stop calling drunk people "drunks"?

Ormiria... well that's the problem, what offends some people wouldn't offend others, it's totally subjective. Police are more likely to take note if the victim says it's a hate crime and some people will play the game to get a house move etc. Also what about calling someone a ginger tosser? The victim isn't able to claim it's a hate crime, but a Jewish pig would be classed as hate, but what's the difference? I wish all nasty people who name call and carry out other anti-social behavior could be rounded up and dumped on an island somewhere to make each others lives a misery and let everyone else live in peace.

Sorry, should have said "Eating too much is an addiction" obviously

I'm fat, (hugely fat if standards on MN are anything to go by), and I am regularly abused in the street (usually by idiots in shit cars). But I wouldn't class the abuse towards fat people as a 'Hate Crime' although you do feel hated and very upset during the name calling. One bloke came up to me and said slowly through gritted teeth 'You dirty, disgusting fat cunt! You should kill yourself.' Then he spat on me and walked away. Ever since then I have avoided shopping there, my confidence halved (I had lost 4 stone at that point) and I quake if a stranger comes to talk to me. That was 5 years ago and I think about that incident every day. People are different. If you don't like how someone looks then keep it to yourself. You have no right to abuse them. You may not like the way I look but at least you aren't me. Smugly remind yourself how perfect you are and let that keep you going.

thinking someone is fat is not a crime - but mis-treating someone due to their weight, verbally / physically abusing or actively discriminating against them should be but then that should stand for anyone receiving such treatment for their perceivable differences.

So next time my friend tells me *Free,you're so skinny,I fucking hate you... thats ok but if I say Friend,you're so fat,I hate you....,she'll be posting my bail money.

The world has gone mad.

will you be doing it in an abusive way in order to belittle and humiliate your friend?

somebloke123 no I think they acted as there had been cases where people were driven to killing themselves,

I've never called my friend fat but she always calls me a skinny bitch/skinny cow/stick insect. Is that not equal to calling someone fat?

Calling someone fat - hate yes, crime no.

However: "One bloke came up to me and said slowly through gritted teeth 'You dirty, disgusting fat cunt! You should kill yourself.' Then he spat on me and walked away. "

This goes further. Hate crime or not, I'd have thought it would be a breach of the peace maybe, or assault?

freebird - i think it depends on whether you dislike being slim, or it worries you in some way. In that case i would say your friend is being very unkind. Otherwise, I suspect she is just voicing her envy at your figure and trying to do it in a humorous way. Most people are quite envious of the slim and would love to be like you. Imagine the difference between saying 'Ooh you are so gorgeous-looing, I hate you' and 'Ooh you are so ugly, I hate you'.

But if you don't like it I'd tell her.

Oh AllPast, I would definitely call that a verbal assault!

Spitting on someone is considered assualt.

Ormir I've always been very thin,its just my build,no matter what I eat. I'm a small size 6 but in my youth I was a four. I could only buy size 6 clothes though. I was called annie (code for anorexic) and skelly and spare ribs. I now accept my size,and my friend means no meaness in what she says but other people do still make comments. But if I say something about them being fat then I'm the bitch. It gets to me sometimes,thats all.

"I've never called my friend fat but she always calls me a skinny bitch/skinny cow/stick insect. Is that not equal to calling someone fat?"

its not equal, its MORE socially acceptable to point out if someone is "painfully" thin (when often they are just healthy) because now "normal" = slightly overweight, so even slim people who are within healthy limits are fair game!
Its not as "bad" as calling a "curvey" or "real" woman names, and it is FINE to say that if you're slime you're not "real" (what are you? a computer generated illusion?)

lookatallthefucks -

I hate that that happened to you, but the person that did that is a nutter and full of hate. Your size was an excuse. He'd do it to someone else with a different insult too.

It's not a hate crime it's an observation. (or a lie).

I suffered a lot of bullying when I was young because of my weight, I was "too skinny", and became obsessed with eating lots to try and put weight on because i would constantly get negative comments about my weight. Now I'm definitely not skinny and I have huge food issues.

Whilst I don't agree that calling someone fat should be a hate crime as I agree with what a previous poster said earlier that it takes away from real discrimination, if calling someone fat does become a hate crime then any negative comments about weight, fat or skinny, should be included.

This is political correctness gone insane!! Call me cynical, but I think this has a distinct whiff of 'injury lawyers' looking at new means to make a buck by taking people to court on behalf of overweight clients and pressing for compensation on the grounds of 'mental and emotional distress' caused by being called 'fat'.

As a former overweight woman, I have been called fatty, lardarse, walrus, etc but have also been taunted for being slim (I have never been morbidly obese nor anorexic). These are just hurtful, unnecessary and upsetting comments, but I'm afraid you just have to build a bridge and get over it!! For goodness sake!!! Will people who wear glasses and have been called 'specky four eyes' now be victims of 'hate crime' ? What about those who have ginger hair? Bald men? My Scottish mother who now resides in England being repeatedly called 'jockstrap' by male customers....?? Is that a 'hate crime' ? No answers on postcards please....

Oh I hate that ''real'' woman crap.

Slim women are seen as fair game for ridicule. I was in a restaurant ages ago with some friends and my salad starter arrived. A woman at the next table said loudly to her friends *State of her,is she afraid to eat some chips,here Jackie,give her a bite of your burger... looking at me and they were all laughing. Its hurtful. Its not nice to pass comment on anyones size.