AIBU to think being obese and being a scrounger are NOT related?

[cryhardandswim]

I have noticed often IRL and online , if somebody knows someone who is a benefits cheat (or at least, this person claims they are) and happens to be obese or overweight, then the person (or newspaper etc) will often mention their weight describing them as "Fat disability faker" or "Obese Benefit Scrounger" etc.

But claiming benefits (either genuinely or falsely) is not linked o being fat- the medical tests for them are very difficult and people do not get handed a wodge of money just for eating too many pies. Nor is having a dishonest or criminal nature.

I am 24 stone. a size 26-28, and I am on ESA and PIP and Housing benefit due to serious physical and mental health issues. I am of course claiming genuinely, but as a fat person I worry that this perception so many have of fat people being scroungers will lead to genuine claimants like me who are overweight being treated even more badly than we already are by the general public. As well as the disorders I am claiming benefits for, I also have a Binge Eating Disorder. In my OA fellowship, I have known people who have shoplifted food but that is the only link I would make towards crime and obesity- I think surely criminals come in all shapes and sizes?

I love it when people (in general, not here) rant about how much all obese people cost the NHS. Comments sections of newspapers are good for spotting. You can paractically see the spittle on the screen where the frothers have frothed.

I’m quite a cheap fatty to maintain on a day to day basis, being as I just take inhalers for lifelong asthma, an annual flu jab, and the odd course of antibiotics and steroids for when my chest decides that cultivating a fucker of a chest infection is the only way to spend the autumn.

I am on benefits, but that’s due to my child’s disability, and he’s not fat.

It does get you judged, but only by the terminally hard of thinking.

No fucks to give though.

If you were on a bus or train though and someone asked you to let them have the priority seat (assuming that you yourself are able bodied, not pregnant, elderly etc) and they were very fat would you assume things about them or would you treat them the same as say, a slim person with a disability?

Are your disabilities visible? The two examples you've given, blindness and cerebral palsy, are usually obvious at a glance. I don't think a slim person with no obvious disability would be treated differently from you.

Yep I agree that's a hidden disabilities issue.

We all like to think we're non judgemental, but the amount of judgement would probably depend upon how old and knackered I was feeling myself that day. I'd give up my seat for someone with visible disabilities or pregnancy, or an elderly person or a parent wobbling dangerously trying to hold a baby or toddler every time - I also offer kids who can't reach to hold on my seat because I believe that they are very vulnerable in a crowded moving vehicle if sitting on the floor would risk them being stepped on or tripped over. I can't promise id be non judgemental if someone asked for my seat if I was tired, my back ached and I had my youngest on my knee and I couldn't see a reason except weight. I'm overweight myself and it makes me more likely to stand to prove to myself that my weight doesn't hamper me.

We all (on MN) know about hidden disabilities, but that doesn't mean we're capable of maintaining an ideal, unselfish, sunny absolutely neutral and non judgemental state at all times and give everyone the benefit of the doubt even when we're having our own bad day. Everyone judges and is unsympathetic sometimes, even if they only judge people for being inferior for being judgemental!

You could have my seat if you asked for it as I'm ok standing.
Having been 15 and a half stone due to a spinal injury I m not judging anyone.
Nobody knows how people end up obese and it's not just eating too much and being lazy.
I m a normal weight now but will never forget how dehumanizing it was to be obese and in a wheelchair on dla.

and the only reason they needed it was due to weight

Ah, but that is an assumption that it i sonly due to weight. They may also have a hidden disability as well, like me. I am obese and disabled. But I have had people assuming my disability must be weight related, even though I have a functional neurological disorder.

Although to be honest, it shouldn't matter even if if my disability was caused by excess weight. I would like to think I wouldn't judge if I were slim, but to be honest, if I were slim, I probably would. We are all human and al prone to prejudging. I just wish there was a way we could all be tolerant of each other.

cryhard I think everyone with invisible disabilities gets unfairly judged though. Imagine a 17 year old, healthy looking boy or girl asked you for your seat without explanation. Many people love to judge a teen or young adult who they can mentally label an entitled snowflake or lacking respect/ manners / not knowing they're born or whatever...

I think it’s because people unfairly think that obesity = laziness. And then once you’ve decided someone is lazy its easy to assume that they don’t want to work, rather than that they can’t work.

I also think some people like to think that obese people and people on benefits are in that situation because of something about them (ie laziness) not because of circumstances, bad luck, an illness that can happen to anyone etc because then they can feel like it won’t happen to them. If you see an obese person on benefits and think “there’s only a handful of wrong calls and bad luck between them and me”, that’s a lot scarier than thinking “they are like that because they’re lazy, I’m not lazy and so that will never happen to me.”

Yeah, I get it, I call it fattitude.

Sheer nastiness and judgement when they know nothing about you and any issues you may have. I'm fortunate that I don't have to claim benefits so I can't confirm a link myself, but I can imagine that superiority would have a part to play.

If you see an obese person on benefits and think “there’s only a handful of wrong calls and bad luck between them and me”, that’s a lot scarier than thinking “they are like that because they’re lazy, I’m not lazy and so that will never happen to me.”

Argree - I think unacknowledged fears are at the root of all prejudices.

Yes, some people desperately need to blame a person for being poor and / or on benefits;

fatness is a physical characteristic that is easy to see
and hence to fixate on as indicafing that person's "lack of moral fibre" that caused their poverty

I had a period when I was overweight. I wasn’t exercising enough but I ate no more than the next average person, I am genetically prone to putting on weight easily.

I worked the entire time I was overweight, have never claimed benefits and have not been to the doctor more than half a dozen times in the last decade.

It is infuriating when people make this obese and lazy connection. Last year (I have been at a normal weight for a few years), somebody in my team refused to consider a candidate for a job because he was overweight.