Is fatphobia a real thing?

[AnxiousApocalypse]

Having watched the Panorama documentary on the Met Police and the police officer making rude comments about a fat woman and how "she was so fat she had two pussies", I'm wondering how much hate and disgust most people truly have against fat people? I'm not excusing it and saying it's not dangerous for your health to be overweight or obese, but surely being rude and ignorant isn't the answer?

So before the rise in obesity which coincided with fast food deliveries, larger dinner plates/portions, 100s of TV channels as opposed to 4, the snacking industry booming and the rise in internet popularity, mothers didn't used to sort everyone else out and put their own needs last? 😳

Bit of a coincidence then?

And how does it explain the rise in child obesity?

@SilenceInside

I run around after the kids, no pets though! I am an excellent cook and have been since a teen. I am “well educated around food” if you mean nutrition and not just cooking. I don’t know what other “poor choices” you mean?

the poor choices I was thinking of when I posted were buying unhealthy foods/relying on take aways.

in my experience it’s unusual for people who are generally active and are also good, nutrition-aware cooks to be fat.

There are a lot of reasons but I’m fairly sure the most common reason is consuming too many calories vs what they use. I’m not discounting the other reasons but let’s not shy away from the fact the problem exists.

You don't know the reasons a specific person is overweight and it isn't anyone's business why they are

Why can't she work? Couldn't she train for a sedentary job like an office role or something ?

What about all the middle class drug users? Maybe that keeps them thin but it’s extremely undisciplined and even criminal. Food is something it can be very hard to get right because we all need to eat.

Well, perhaps I’m deluded about my cooking skills and nutritional knowledge. Or a peculiar outlier. It wasn’t the meals I was cooking for the family that made me fat, it was the extras that only I consumed that caused it. Of course when I was morbidly obese I wasn’t an active gym goer but I was not sitting around all day ignoring my children and not moving.

I know that people want to think that obese people like me are ignorant, poorly educated, bad parents, lazy, and so on. Clearly we are not active enough to counteract the overeating, and clearly we over eat. It’s the idea that this is the worst kind of moral personal failure that is absurd.

Cooking family meals is a real way to pile on the weight. You are so busy thinking of everyone else’s needs. Nowadays I only cook for myself and that is easier to control.

Also there can be other reasons people gain weight. An injury for example that makes exercise harder, maybe a sick relative or family crisis stops people exercising. Too much stress causing a cortisol spike in the bloodstream which piles on the pounds. Night shifts - notoriously bad for health. People who have endless free time to spend at the gym are often not rushing round after others.

There are skinny people who live can on fast food and takeaways and can get away with it in terms of appearances. But the damage is still being done from their diet.

I’m not talking about a specific person but if you’d prefer I’ll refer to the specific obese people I know:
FIL - awful diet, drinks a lot, zero exercise
DH’s nephews - awful diet, no exercise
Work colleague - drinks a lot, zero exercise
Work colleague 2 - eats Maccies/KFC like it’s a competition and a lot of crisps each day
Two of my parents friends - see FIL

As I said in my post, that you’re clearly incapable of understanding, or possibly too blinded to accept reality, there are multiple reason for obesity. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the most likely fact is diet and exercise.

You’re a charmer @brunettemic . Do your in-laws and colleagues think as highly of you? Are they good people? Kind? Good citizens? Why the complete character assassination?

How rude and aggressive. You sound like you have much bigger issues than people who are overweight do, I suggest you work on your own personality issues rather than worrying about other peoples weight.

Yeah but 64% of UK adults are overweight or obese.

We can come up with all the whataboutery we can think of, but still the statistics would point to the fact generally people are just eating too much and not burning it off.

And does that make these obese people worthy of being despised or just people of all sorts with a bit of a problem? Fat people still have people who love them and who are loved by them who need them and value them as individuals and see them as more than just a waist measurement.

Is this in answer to my last post?

I'm confused if so, because it doesn't address anything I said in it?

Someone dossnt understand poverty and diet

Wow mumsnet has hit a new low. "I despise" fat people. The fact that someone feels comfortable enough to admit that, even anonymously. Wow.

I’m shocked reading some of the comments, someone also said weight conscious mums are selfish, like you need to be fat to be a good parent,

people are so messed up about weight, so bitter, resentful, jealous, smug, it’s shocking,

I dont think it is. We have some of the most violent, disrespectful, underachieving kids ever today, and we can see who parented them.

Slim mothers???

Complete character assignation, of how? What do they think of me? I get on well with my FIL, my MIL is no longer with us so I’m the theme of assumptions maybe try not to assume things in the future.

At no point have I passed judgment on the people I’ve mentioned, in fact I like them all. Like many on MN you’re taking a post, adding 2+2 and getting outrage. I’ve stated an opinion about the cause of obesity, been told off for picking at specific people (which I wasn’t), then backed up my opinion with specific examples.

As I said in both posts, which clearly you’ve missed, there are many medical reasons for obesity but the main cause is most likely diet and exercise choices. It’s really not a difficult concept. In fact, if you go on the NHS website it backs that opinion up.

No the generation of people who largely make up the membership here

I’m sorry but I’m really not sure what you’re saying, who exactly is responsible for raising violent disrespectful under achieving kids?

Rude and aggressive? I’ve called out your response that was, in my opinion, incorrect and didn’t address my post. Look at your post, I made a general observation, backed up by the NHS website, you didn’t like that fact my general observation ignored specifics (I’ve no idea why), I gave you specifics and you’re still not happy. You’re blinkered as to the causes of obesity, of course there’s medical reasons but those are clearly the exception to the rule.

Let’s take a different case…the USA. It’s full of mindblowingly overweight people, can you hand on heart tell me they’re all medical issues?! Of course not, diet and (lack of) exercise. If you want another specific example…a boy who used to be in DS’s football team. His mum had been buying him large meals at McDs a few times a week since he was about 6. He was a good little player but could hardly play because of how overweight he was (he may still be, I’ve no idea). The cause…diet.

As for my apparent personality issues, given everything has a medical reason in your view, why are you judging me? Bit hypocritical…I’m obviously joking.

The very same people who would say the terrible things that have been said in this thread.

I think it's an inbuilt trait in humans to associate obesity with poor health and hygiene which triggers the disgust response. Several academic studies have confirmed this link. Obviously the majority of people have the common decency/education to deal with this response but many will still feel it. I say this as someone who has been overweight for periods of my life.