To think that thin people get unfairly bullied?

[OracleInaCoracle]

in response to the other thread, a few people have made the point that thin people come in for just as much (if not more) stick as those who are overweight. it seems to me that its perfectly ok to tell someone who is a size 6-8 that they look ill, and they need to put on weight or eat more. yet if anyone suggests to someone who is overweight that they look dreadful, they need to lose weight or eat less then the response is outrage.

just curious, does anyone else think that these double standards are unacceptable?

Nooka-I get that with my Ds too.
He definately got my height genes but being ASD he has food issues so doesn't put weight on easily.
Some people feel like they have the right to call him a 'runt'
Also he's possibly hyperactive so he never stops either!!

Am always told I am too skinny, I just don´t stuff my face and eat healthy food rather than the deep fried, high sugar, dairy foods that make people overweight.

Saw a woman yesterday who is in her 90´s and as usual she said ´she still not put on any weight, so thing!´she herself is a rake...

the thin getting at the thin

There certainly is plenty of bitching and teasing directed at thin people - just look at the comments Victoria Beckham gets!

But I don't think I'd call it bullying though; as a society overweight people are still generally viewed with more disdain than thin people.

Over the years I have got sick of comments from numerous people about my thinness, usually quite patronising comments.

I agree completely, I hve had this throughout my whole life!, I now have my mother constantly telling me that I need more sleep and to put weight on as I look ill and tired; my children are 13 and 27 months ffs!!!
It's so rude, by critisising someone for being too thin, people are making judgements about their mental health, with the suggestion that they have anorexia or bulemia. It's unacceptable.

people are always telling me i need to eat more...i would if i could but by the same token when i was pregnant i put on soooo much weight that i looked like a small house and everyone kept telling me how fat looked. at what point do people mind their own business?

This size 0 nonsense is a red herring imo.

Well I'm not thin. And people are always telling me I look 'sooo tired, are you ill?'. No I'm not! But I just have very pale skin and I tend to get dark rings at the drop of a hat. And it gets a bit much. Perhaps I should complain about that too.

But I think there is a difference between people expressing a concern for your health (and a little bit of jealousy let's be honest) and secretly thinking someone is a bit fat porker! Let's face it, there a lot of people who do beleive that fat people are stupid, lacking in self-control etc etc. Even my otherwise right-on DH has little sympathy - inspite of his 20 a day fag habit that he can't seem to shake off

Ormirian is thinking "bit fat porker" worse than thinking "scrawny wench"?

And as has been pointed out here, a lot of people seem to think that if you are thin you have mental health issues. There is obviously a grain of truth there, as eating disorders aside, the overly anxious tend to be the ones who can't keep weight on and won't sit still. There is something in the "lacking in self control" if you are fat enough that it is a real health issue too.

For years people have always said to me 'your too skinny- you need some meat on your bones' How bl rude, they are basically saying I look bad in their eyes.

I ended up feeling guilty about being skinny. I can't win.

I eat SO much food in one sitting and snack every night in front of the tv. It's not my fault.

Saying that, recently, I have been putting on weight and now they are saying I look better with a 'bit of meat on'. Now I think i'm putting on too much weight!

I think it is worse upwind. Because being thin is generally seen as desirable in our society. However never having been either overweight or underweight I can't really judge. I can only go on the attitudes I see around me and judge accordingly. Maybe i'm being influenced by how I feel too - I'd love to be thin and I do work quite hard not to be overweight.

I agree with Clegg. Sometimes people make it seem that if you are thin you therefore must be obsessively counting calories and starving yourself.
After having both children i lost the weight quickly and naturally. you would think i had committed a crime from the comments.

Orm, believe me you would not want to be thin. Slim yes - there is a difference ime/o

In general larger people get more criticism. It does annoy me when people suggest someone who is say 8 and a half stone and size 10 is somehow too thin and anorexic when that's normal weight and size for average height. It's as if there's a conspiracy amongst fat people to make us all thing size 16 - 20 is the normal nice size and anyone thinner is the one with the problem.

Too thin you can usually tel and see - there's a lady at bikram yoga with anorexia, it's absolutely dreadful to see, she has downy hair all over the body etc. Another lady I know from work things I think obssessive runs, is very very thin and I think I can notice that anorexic extra body hair they get - that's unhealthy and thin (my brother's work is devoted to eating disorders - he's giving 24 radio interviews this week... we're very impressed). But someone just a natural size 8 or even 6 and otherwise healthy is fine.

So most comment to think people are just jealous fat people being jealous.

i dont think it's worse to think "porker" than "scrawny", but i do think that its equal. some of us cant help being thin, just like some people cant help being big, yet to call someone fat to their face is considered rude (as i said before) but to call someone skinny is considered ok if not a compliment.

i like being slim. but i resent being told that im too slim, i should eat more, i look ill, i look like a small boy, im not womanly etc. just as bigger women must resent being told to lose weight, they're chubby, they are unhealthy etc.

the media show pictures of Keira Knightly, highlighting her ribcage and accuse her of being anorexic.

and as a functional (ie able to maintain "normal" weight since last big fall) recovering anorexic i agree that there is a big difference between thin & slim.

Yes I suppose I mean 'slim' mercy. You see therein lies the problem. For many women they don't think they are slim unless they are thin. So they will never be 'slim' according to their measure.

i agree, lissie.

i'm naturally slim, but DD1 is naturally skinny. she's also tall.

gets all kinds of comments about it.

My Mum used to get phone calls from junior school about my eating, because I hated the nasty school food, I was tall and slim too, My Mum used to get fed up with it because I alwys ate really well at home.

My Mum was asked by a neighbour whether my sister and I, both naturally very slim as children but big eaters and snackers, were 'undernourished'!!!
I had a friend at school who was much thinner than me though she ate constantly - I remember her standing in the midst of our class with tears pouring down her face because other girls had been calling her names and of course if you were teased for being thin you couldn't say anything or tell a teacher - you'd have got very short shrift.
Bit like when I was junior school, any comments made about the one Afro-Carribean child were (quite rightly) dealt with severely - but people could take the p**s out of me for being German ('you're a Nazi' etc)and the teachers just joined in..
Me, bitter...??

It's funny though isn't it, I would never give my child "fatty" nicknames because I would worry about their self esteem, but I did used to call my ds "skinnybinny" as a term of affection and only recently stopped when he started to say things like "I'm not normal all my bones stick out" and "I'm all bones, there's nothing of me" and I realised that I needed to be more affirming. He's a fairly resilient little boy and when I just asked him if he wanted to be fatter he was horrified and said he liked bing the way he was (so result there). I guess I should have been more careful because I can't say I liked it much when my mother called me and my big sister (not so tall but thinner) spagetti or elastic. Altough not so bad as banana (she was worried about my posture).