To think Prejudice against fat people is NOT as bad as racism.

[goodnessgracious]

To think the article in the Times today claiming that prejudice against fat people is as bad as racism and that it is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice is ridiculous.

Firstly, obesity is normally caused by an addiction and has health implications for the obese person and further implications on society as whole. How can this be compared to racism in any way?

Also, it is not the last socially acceptable form of prejudice because I believe society is just as (if not more) prejudiced against smokers, alcoholics and gamblers and all people with addictions which have costs toward society.

AIBU to think that although it is not right to be prejudice against obese people it is ridiculous to compare it to racism.

Copied article extract below...

"Prejudice against fat people as bad as racism, say scientists "Dr Jackson said that prejudice against overweight people pervaded society and needed to be challenged. “People think it’s one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice. You just have to look at the comments section on media reports on obesity to see that obese people are subjected to labelling and even abuse and attack.”

I don't think it matters that she is a rubbish actress and no one can rationally take her seriously, the ad feeds into and sustains the wider gestalt, the feeling that we all deserve to treat ourselves with food.

Agreed Worra, but 'taking action' can be a lot harder and more complicated for many people than others and anyone sitting in judgement of people purely because they are overweight are certainly not helping anything.

Look at the plethora of television programs devoted to the celebration of food, thread on here celebrating over eating, an equal amount of threads bemoaned the near impossibility of losing weight.

Not to mention those in search of the quick fix, how can I lose weight for this or that occasion next month.

Frequently the measures taken to reduce body fat are counter productive and make us yet fatter in the long term.

I agree Sleep. Judging is never helpful, though sadly that's never going to go away.

We live in a country (those of us in the U.K.) which had a tv programme called "too fat to toddle". There is a need to weigh our children at school and local authorities and private sectors running weight loss camps for children. We need to help those who are overweight and unhappy or ill. What a woman healthy weight is is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things when we have a huge problem with morbidly obese. Judgement no, prejudice no, but we need dialogue on what we are going to do to stop the next generation having more in the super morbidly obese range.

Yes but how to help the obese, criticism exacerbates, excusing them enables them.
Still the problem snowballs, it's not my problem, whilst I find it an interesting subject why should I care about people who don't make an effort to help themselves, who allow themselves to sink into addiction and compulsion

Probably true Worra but if only a few people who typically judge read this thread and start thinking a little differently then it can't hurt...

• maybe that overweight person is on medication that causes weight gain

• maybe that overweight person is actually fitter and healthier than you (or no less than)

• maybe that person has a reason to be so, there is a strong link between sexual abuse/attack and excess weight, a form of protection (same sometimes with anorexia, it's a way of eradicating any sexual appeal), or deeply unhappy because of something else and they use food as a crutch as others use drugs or alcohol

• maybe they are perfectly happy that weight (and it's nobody's business but theirs)

-maybe they are fully aware that they are killing themselves with food, they don't want to love a long and happy life (and how can anyone feel anything but sympathy for a person if this is the case?)

There's a whole realm of different scenarios, other than 'greedy/lazy/immoral/weak'.

I have at no stage said that a genetic predisposition to being large means there is nothing you can do about it, all I am saying is that it is harder for some people. Of course gastric bands work because they allow such a tiny amount of food to be consumed.Most fit healthy people would eat far more than that. Oh course sedentary jobs and increased use of cars and kids spending too much time on computers has added to it and there are now far more people who are morbidly obese but people need to be less judgy and more compassionate. Society is very good at judging people by what they look like and actually it is one of the least important things about a person.

This is the interesting point. No one has said those who are llarge are weak on the thread. no one has said all women must be one weight.

Yet presumably because of the awful abuse or comments large women have to put up with so very often when they read threads like this they see comments that are not actually there.

I think the solution is for families to change what they eat not count calories or go on quick diet fixes. We just drink tap for example. That is the cheapest easiest change even someone on benefits can make in the UK and it just takes 2 or 3 weeks to get used to the change. Many children in particular get their e numbers, sugar, aspartame, calories and all the rest by drinking squash, coke, fresh orange juice and all the rest. Plenty of adults get a lot of their excess calories by sugar in their tea and drinking pints of milk, pints of supposedly healthy fruit juice and of course alcohol.

Hoever I stick with what I have said all through this thread - number one for all should be good mental health - you need to eat foods which are healthy and keep levels of seratonin balanced in your brain; second go for health and yes of course you can be a bit over weight and job and run and be fitter than some 7 stone smoker on caffeine all day; and thirdly it's a good idea to try to have a healthy weight which you can either base on waist measurement or some other sensible indicator (which is not an indicator which amounts to conning yourself you're fine even though you're clearly overweight).

"Society is very good at judging people by what they look like and actually it is one of the least important things about a person."

Well, yes, that's true. But weight isn't just about what people look like, is it?

Someone very close to me is morbidly obese and her weight, as a result, is about far more than what she looks like. She struggles to walk up stairs; she can't buy the clothes she likes; she gets horrendous chafing; she can't go for a run/bike ride/ day out walking; she is tired a lot of the time and she has also been told her weight could prevent her from having the children she is desperate to have in the future.

Hence her weight is not just what she looks like - it is something that is taking over her life. It's not as simplistic as saying weight is just about appearance and is therefore unimportant.

As far as a stranger is concerned, they are judging purely on appearance though aren't they? All the other issues you raise are your friend's alone (although possibly also affecting those closest to her emotionally).

Do you judge your friend Mrs? What about strangers of a similar weight? Does she tell you about/do you see her experience prejudice from strangers day-to-day?

As far as a stranger is concerned, they are judging purely on appearance though aren't they?

If they are sat directly next to me on public transport then I am not judging them on appearance but I am judging them on the amount of space they are taking up on the seat.
If they squeeze past me in a crowded aisle then I am judging them on the fact that they are squeezing past me and possibly bumping into me.
If they park their car next to mine and have to open their door wide to have enough room to get out which means bumping their door into my car then I am judging them on the possible scratch to my car.
On the whole other people's weight doesn't bother me but there are some circumstances where it does bother me and it isn't based on how they look but it is based on how their weight impacts on me.

Oh ffs - other than the example of a seat on public transport you could be in exactly the same situation with a person of any size, if it is crowded or a small parking space!

Missunreason, you are being most unreasonable and taking your argument to the point of absurdity.

You might just as well argue that cars over a certain size ought not to be allowed on the road

Only slim people can manage to get out of cars in small spaces and in small spaces there isn't much room for the door to be swung open wide and cause damage (not enough leverage for impact). Bigger people would need to open the door wider than a slim person (hence more potential for damage).
Yes, a slim person could also bump into me in a crowded aisle and I would still be annoyed but the potential for it to happen is increased when somebody is bigger.
My username does suit me - I am very unreasonable.

Are you aware that accusing people of being trolls is not allowed on here?

OP used the word 'Prejudice'. If people 'think' that it would be better if people were not so fat that would be fine. Prejudice is what people do instead of thinking.
Prejudice eats away at a society and holds it back. It doesn't matter if it's ignorant prejudice again fat people - like those who already posted that it's simply caused by greed or against black people, gay people or smokers.

Some will read that far and think "aha! but smoking is a bad thing" but that isn't reallly why prejudiced people hate smokers and usually their reasons are not thought through. You ask them and they stammer out something they read in the Daily Mail and half understood.

Bigots pick someone or something to hate and then look for some half-way plausible reason to hate them. They hang out with other people who feel the same and say (or post) "yes you're so right!" at every opportunity.

Right now what people can do to you for being the wrong color or religion is generally worse than what they can do to you for being overweight, so in that sense racism is worse, but really it's the same thing and we need to point it out when we see it.

Greengrow not all doctors say that women should be between 8 and 10 stone.

Unless you have sat in on every doctors consultation with an overweight person of course.

Greengrow - I'm 5 ft 10, size 10 - 12 and you can play the xylophone on my ribs, but I weigh a good 11 stone or so. Where would I fit on your obesity scale .

For what it's worth, I couldn't care less how much anyone else weighs or how much they eat (as long as they don't eat my star bar [glares]).

"Do you judge your friend Mrs? What about strangers of a similar weight?"

FWIW, I wasn't talking about a friend, I'm talking about my sister. No, I don't "judge" her.
She is beautiful and talented and clever and witty - her size isn't who she is, but it does make her life an awful lot more difficult than it would otherwise be. Which is desperately sad.

She yo-yos from one crash diet to another but has never attempted to eat healthily and exercise, over a sustained period of time. She says she doesn't "have the time" to do that, which I can't and don't understand.

I don't see her experience prejudice from strangers, day-to-day. I have never witnessed anyone treat her cruelly and, if she does experience that, she has never mentioned it to me. I'm not saying that "fat shaming" doesn't happen, by any means, but to my knowledge she hasn't experienced it.

"The healthy weight for average height British women is 8 stone up to 10 stone."

I do wonder where people get these bald and untrue statements from. Do they think everyone else is just going to fall for their codswallop? Do they not think other MNers are intelligent people who might a. know something about the subject and/or b. be able to look stuff up?

I understand that people can be very overweight due to medication or mental health issues etc.

However given that childhood obesity is on a frightening rise, with experts saying that some children of this generation will die before their parents because of obesity related illnesses, I would say that the above are not the issues when it comes to obesity in general.

Something needs to change very soon, and I would say it needs to start with how society sees food and what is seen as a 'healthy diet'.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/now-theres-proof-that-fatshaming-doesnt-work-its-time-to-change-our-attitudes-towards-obesity-9729294.html

Why can't people read my words? It's strange. I have never ever said anywhere women should be 8 - 10 stone. I said purely for average height women that is the weight the NHS recommends. That is utterly different from saying all women should be one weight. How many times do I need to say it?

"Greengrow not all doctors say that women should be between 8 and 10 stone."

I don't mind debating the issues but why do people keeping saying I have said things I haven't?