Calling someone fat a hate crime?

[teaaddict2012]

thought this would make a good debate

AIBU to think how would this be policed??

"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...."

The answer to all of those is just to desist. It's not nice to call someone specky four eyes or to berate a ginger person's hair.

Why is it that when it turns out that actually, something IS offensive to certain groups,someone will always come along and say "well what about when you call someone this name?Will that have to stop too?!"

Just stop being rude! Problem solved.

But in what parallel universe do people actually walk around saying to random strangers

"Oi lardy, less of the pies tonight eh?"

It doesn't actually happen does it? Not really. Not to the point of spending thousands and squillions of taxpayers' money to police it.

We all walk round making snap judgements on people's appearance. We don't however walk around yelling it out loud like some Tourette's outburst.

As I write, there is a middle aged man in the garden below me in Very Little Trunks. (might even be a thong, I don't want to peer too closely) I think he'sa prat, I think there'sno need,I think he is on the lardarsed side to be wearing such pantage,but I'm not going to shout abuse at him. That would make me a weirdo, not a hater.

I was called specky 4 eyes though. To the extent that even now, at 46, no-one ever sees me in glasses. I'min them now,but put my lenses in before anyone gets home.

I was talking in terms of how to distinguish a horrible jibe as a 'hate crime' and how to enforce the law should calling people fat become against the law.

I agree with you that the world would be a far better place if people weren't rude or offensive, but sadly, the reality is that some people are and don't seem to care if they hurt or upset fellow human beings......There will always be that element of obnoxious, insensitive,ignorant behaviour amongst people who abuse others in order to make themselves feel superior in some unfathomable way.

Yes Bucharest it does. Of course most people don't say a word as most of us have been brought up with some manners but a minority are just ill educated, ill mannered yobs. A point I enjoy making whenever I am verbally abused.

If they are to bring in a law as such it has to be all inclusive,otherwise it is discrimination.

Hate crime.

Calling someone fat is not a hate crime. It is mean and ride in some circumstances, a fact in others. It is not a hate crime.

It's the sort of thing that can be sorted through good manners. Not by the police who frankly have better things to do with their time.

Bucharest, your description of your neighbour's choice of attire has made me laugh so hard!!! You're not a fan of the old 'budgie smugglers' then?

Aww bless him... as long as he's happy, eh?

What I struggle to understand is how racism and disability discrimination quite rightly have been criminalised to a certain extent, yet sexually discriminatory remarks have not. I'd never be out of the police station if I made a complaint every time I got a sexist remark conceerning my appearance, choice of clothing, sexual capabilities or perceived lack thereof.

I guess fat hate crime doesn't exist yet in a similar way, and we haven't yet reached a society where no-one says nothing nasty to anyone ever.

Being offended is or upset by someone is not a big deal. No one has. Ern murdered for being fat. No one has petrol poured through the letter box, or has had their son stabbed to death and had to deal with the police treating the case as of little consequence, no one has been strung up of repeatedly stopped for driving and expensive car and bring black.

Some perspective please.

Snap geegee. Its cause we is wimmin-folk and should be only delighted that a man lowers himself to speak to us.

Nd I would like to thank auto correct for making my post incomprehensible

I was wondering About .

I know its off-topic, but it is unbalanced. So many women suffer violent crimes because they are women but don't have the same protection in criminal law against derogatory remarks, as for example a person would against racist remarks.

Is being called a "dumb blond" racist or sexist? What if the victim is blond because of Swedish parentage?

Bucharest it does happen quite a lot.

My mother in law was shouted at by three men as she was waiting for the bus, which happened to have a bus stop outside MacDonalds, where they clearly assumed she had been eating (she hadn't). She was called an ugly fat old bitch and they were asking her if she'd eaten all the burgers etc. They didn't move on, just shouted at her until the bus came, other people waiting were laughing and a couple of teenage girls speaking on a mobile phone had a conversation about some old fat cow on the bus being shouted at in the street.

My friend in Canada was also abused in a similar way by some teenage boys who followed her in their car. Where she lives they have country roads and no pavement and they were slowly following her in the car, shouting abuse and saying they couldn't get passed her because she was so fat. They could have passed her easily but they were having fun. She has a heart condition which limits her exercise to gentle walking, which is what she was out doing when they saw her, but she tried to hurry home just to get away from them and was quite ill afterwards. She was frightened they were going to knock her down.

These are two of the worst examples but both of them have had many other occasions where people feel they have a right to comment or make a rude and nasty remark about their weight.

People do comment on strangers all the time. I have red hair and glasses and there must be something about my face that makes people feel the need to say "cheer up love" to me even when I'm feeling quite cheerful already because that happens to me a lot.

I agree with Bupcakes, people should just stop arguing that if they can't call someone fat for a laugh anymore then it won't be long before they can't call someone speccy-ginger pubes either (yes that was me at school).