To think you get less respect if you are fat

[Jojobears]

I’m currently fat (16/18), but have been slim previously.

I don’t know if it’s just my self esteem levels, but I really feel that I have less respect from people when I’m fat. Although I could be imagining it.

So, can I ask, do you treat people with less respect if they are fat.

Ps I’m not a daily fail journo. Heaven forbid they employ anyone with a house worth less than 500k

I'm a 16 and don't get any nasty looks but I noticed loads of sideways sneering and horrible looks at my sister when she visited (she's a 28). Thankfully all behind her back so she couldn't see

I don't think this thread should turn into a debate about why people are overweight. The size of someone else's arse is no one else's business. It makes no difference why, the point is, it's becoming / is discriminatory.

don't think this thread should turn into a debate about why people are overweight.

The original point was that people look down on fat people because they see them as "lazy".

I bet the heavy smokers are having the last laugh now as they were turned out their seats at work to sit out in the cold and can't even have a pint and a fag in the pub anymore. I don't smoke , but I know lots of people that did or still do and they have had to put up with the sneering and anti smoking publicity / changes in the law over the years. I know I'm being lighthearted here but this is becoming the same thing.
I bet takeaways and unhealthy restaurants are targeted within a few years. May be a good thing and will be subtlety done but I can see it happening. The obesity ads on the cigarette packets around is a big clue

"There seem to be a fashion of people becoming very fit and competing in all sorts of events around the work place. The ones who don't join in stand out"

I think people who judge others for being overweight need to start admitting that as well as judging them for that they would also snigger at them for excersising and take the piss. Remember Dancing Man?

So either way they cant win. Because nasty fuckers will always need .............CRAVE someone they can feel superior to.

Im 14/16 but i was a size 28 so im happy as i am.

OP You want to see a good example of less respect. Pop on to any thread about social housing tenants and see the attitudes towards them.

Its not just overweight people

I dont agree that smokers get/got the same vilification. Two decades ago when i was a size 28 i was also a smoker. Gave up 14 years ago.

I got a lot of moose , fat bitch fat cow etc while out and about

You smoking bitch. You smoking cow............Never happened.

I think the only person who has suggested that is you tbh, by saying they don't participate in your workplace sports day or whatever. No one else has said anything about anyone being lazy.

I work in the NHS and the two most senior members of staff are both very obese. There is no doubt it undermines their credibility in that setting. I'm sure this will enrage a few but nurses in management seem much more prone to obesity than other clinicians. Don't know why.

I have lipodema which i inherited from my gran

Short of inventing a time machine , travelling back to August 1935 and handing my grandad a condom so they dont concieve my dad, there is fuck all i can do about it.

The anti smoking thing was a bit more subtle but it was there all the same
I used to judge smokers but I wouldn't say anything to them , sometimes I did wonder how they could afford it or why they did it but I'd keep my opinion to myself. It wasn't my business. In the 60s everyone smoked and were mostly thin.
Governments have done loads to outlaw smoking I think and now it'll be food or not being overweight that will take all the attention

Some of the attitudes on here prove the point. There are many reasons for being overweight. For me it's because I'm greedy with food and i'm lazy with exercise. I don't have the discipline to stick to any diet long term and years of yoyo dieting have made it even harder to lose weight. Some people have more serious health reasons. However none of this means I'm lazy at work and deserve less respect than others. It's just an aspect of my physical appearance that makes no difference to anyone else and yet they still feel the need to come on here and explain why they look down their noses at fat people.

I have been everything from underweight to morbidly obese, and I have never found that I get more respect when I'm thin.
I do get more (unwanted) attention from men when I'm thin, though.

Its only a thing now, in a world where we have too much food, thin people are respected because it is a sign of self control, in a world where there is no food big ppl where seen as successful.

I've also never been shouted at or called 'fat names' during the time when I was fat.

This happened several times when I wasn't fat, though.

@HelenaDove that's a good point. There was a huge thing in the running community recently about the flagship Nike store using a plus size mannequin. So many people saying it was promoting obesity. Then others said well you vilify them for being fat, then you say they shouldn't have access to exercise clothing to help them lose weight.

I just thought 'Nope. She's exercising because she bloody well wants to, not so she can lose weight and be more accepted by people like you!!'

I was sat on a bench a couple of days ago eating a piece of cold chicken - a very slender older lady walking past said to me pleasantly ‘are you enjoying that?’ I smiled and said ‘yes thank you’ to which she then replied ‘does in not make you feel guilty!?’

I suspect she was a vegan making a comment about the fact that you were eating 'flesh'! It's interesting that you automatically assumed it was about calories though.

"Governments have done loads to outlaw smoking I think and now it'll be food or not being overweight that will take all the attention"

Yes and we all know why dont we Theyve got a bloody cheek after what i watched on Thursday night.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3635631-Mad-Cow-Disease-The-Great-British-Beef-Scandal

LadyTiredWinterBottom2

it's not about me, are you denying that fat people are seen as lazy?
I wasn't making a judgement, just pointing out the perception. That's why they get less respect.

When they also inconvenienced other people - see the thread about the poster squashed in her seat by an obese person, they are judged too.

@NiceLegsShameAboutTheFace

I'm (still fat) and honestly most people are generally lovely to me too. I have no confidence and can talk myself out of things really quickly which i think means the lens i view interactions through may be flawed. I assume people see the things i hate about myself, maybe they don't. I guess ill never really know.

I'm losing weight and will be interested to see if it changes how people perceive me as i get smaller. I suspect that, for me, i MAY start getting male attention for the first time in around 15 years. Maybe not. Was always told i had a lovely face, shame about the rest of me. I have internalised that and cant seem to shake it off.

@JaceLancs I would have thought she was maybe a veggie/vegan and was talking about the meat rather than your size?

Not at all - calling fat people lazy is the pastime of many a thoughtless person. And of course they are judged - the thought they are lazy is judgemental.

I didn't see that thread. I suspect the overweight person was as mortified as the OP was annoyed.

@LadyTiredWinterBottom2 EXACTLY They want it both ways.

I have a link on here of five examples of housing associations demanding that their tenants remove their childrens play equipment from the garden. (these are families who are going to be more likely not to be able to afford fitness/gym classes for their kids.) The same HAs then have the gall to put out patronising tweets about how tenants and their kids can eat healthily and excersise. The disconnect is really something else.

@JaceLancs I would have thought she meant eating meat?! I wouldn't have taken that to be about body size.

I am a highly qualified professional with senior roles in healthcare and education. 2 years ago I was a size 22-24. I have lost 7 stone and am now a size 8-10.
I’m still doing exactly the same job. I can categorically confirm that people’s attitudes towards me have massively changed. I get much more recognition and respect now. Professionally I’ve always been very confident and that hasn’t changed; it’s amazing how people manage to ignore the size 24 elephant in the room.
I don’t know if they thought i was lazy but it’s definitely a thing.

10 stone took me from a 28 down to a 14

There is a very overweight lady at my work, maybe mid 30s, does the job fine. However two incidents I've noticed in last few weeks with her, lead me to believe bigger people are treated differently. Firstly one colleague said to me that she thought the bigger lady should be passed over for promotion as she "seems lazy", didn't have any good reasons why either. Also a small group of 3 colleagues were given end of term gifts by our boss. Myself and another lady were given flowers, the over weight lady was given chocolates! Our boss said she thought that's what she'd prefer! It was really awkward and a bit bitchy.