Why does society hate fat people

[welshcakes4]

For most of my 20s, I struggled with being overweight, mainly because of my unhealthy eating habits and not exercising enough. I definitely turned to food for comfort, especially when I was feeling down. I’ve never really been a drinker, smoker or taken drugs, so food was my go to. I’m 32 now and I’ve completely changed my life around. I’ve adopted a much healthier lifestyle and lost 4 stone, which has made me feel so much happier. Since I’ve slimmed down, I’ve noticed a big difference in how people treat me, especially men, but women too. Their attitudes have shifted, and they seem a lot friendlier now. I know this is a bigger issue, just look online and you’ll see all the nasty comments and jokes about overweight people. I came across one earlier, and it was surprisingly the women who were being vile.

It’s fine to disagree with someone’s choices. I guess the same could be said for alcoholics, drug addicts, etc, but why all the hate and vitriol? Why are we treated like second class citizens? We’re not bad people, we just have our struggles with food. We haven’t killed or harmed anyone. It’s so strange to me that people can get so worked up and angry over someone being overweight. I’ve genuinely never understood this.

Because people see them as lazy and a weakness to the human race.

Have you seen the vitriol to fat people using weight loss injections. It’s off the scale, daily threads. A bingo card of abuse, false information, it’s shocking;

As a fat person, I think I look horrendous. Nothing fits me and I avoid mirrors.
However, I don’t think anyone has been openly rude about it to me and mostly it’s quite a relief to be invisible now. I feel safer, like no one will want to spike my drink, rape me, harass me, etc. anymore.
I know that’s not necessarily true and it’s partly because I’m older too but not getting male attention is quite peaceful. Women seem a lot more relaxed now too, they can see that I’m “no threat”.

'Superiority is a powerful drug.' Isn't it just!

I haven't noticed any difference. I've been slim and not so slim and haven't been treated any differently.

I’ve been overweight my entire adult life, currently size 22. I have to say I’m generally spoken to with respect and only feel invisible with the opposite sex. I’m 50 and size 22. I’m quite a confident person, white, and well spoken, so those may be factors.

im sure you are right though - numerous friends have said similar. I just can’t personally compare as I’ve never been slim.

Giving back? FFS. Not everyone in the tribe would have hunted, would they? In a modern world, I’m fat and work bloody hard all day every day teaching, tutoring, exam marking. Never bloody stop. I give plenty to society. Plenty.

Some people are far due to other reasons and not for overeating. It is ignorance to pile all the people who are fat under the same eating habits. Also, I am pretty sure this is a European thing of hating fat people.

@dottiehens Many Asian cultures strongly discourage being overweight -look up Japan’s Metabo law, for example.

This is an interesting theory!

Personally I think some of it is because some people are very attached to rules, and can't deal with perceived 'rule breaking'.

Becoming fat is against the 'rules' and therefore they feel fat people should be punished and unhappy, if they see a happy fat person it angers them.

Similarly, people feel that adults have to be in a relationship and prioritize that, or that everyone should have children. Happy single or childless people anger them.

You have to get a corporate job and climb the ladder- people who are happy with alternative lifestyles or who or jibs that pay less but that they love, or aren't interested in a career make them angry.

Of course, three know their anger is irrational so they come up with what seem like rational reasons for it- fat people lack self-discipline, single people are destroying society, childless people are threatening our future etc.

Gluttony, yes - but "greed" is (as it's sometimes rendered in texts about the deadly sins) avarice - greed for money.

I think that's right though - the only sin you can see the evidence of at a glance.

Do you think that it might also be a change in your demeanour and confidence that might change people’s reactions to you?

My theory is that seeing a person who is very overweight or very underweight triggers feelings of distress because you are confronted with a visible "dysfunction" and there is a feeling that it is somehow a self inflicted problem rather than an unfortunate accident which makes you feel extra uneasy. I know that when I see someone who looks anorexic I feel distressed.

Well, some misogynist men seem to be personally offended by the existence of women they don't find fuckable.

I think for the people who don't get food noise and are naturally slim without trying, it's an easy way to feel morally superior. It's a bit like when most people would have condemned homosexuality - anything else that was judged to be wrong, you might have at least been tempted to do, but with homosexuality you're either that way inclined or you're not, and most people aren't. And a lot of people decided that made them superior, although obviously it doesn't really make sense.

This was mind blowing to me: Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. which argues that modern fat phobia isn't about health but stems from anti-Blackness, linking fatness to savagery and racial inferiority to establish white thinness as a moral ideal, using history, art, and science to show this racialized body hierarchy.

Society is fat people.

It's because they take up more than their fair share of space, and the threat they pose to the planet. If they all colluded to simultaneously jump, they could theoretically knock the Earth off it's axis and plunge us into another Ice-Age.

Well I don't know about society hating fat people, I'll take your word for it though. One thing MN has really opened my eyes to though is just how much fat people hate, not fat people. I had no idea.

Also there is a cognitive fallacy that we tend to overstate the effect of circumstances on ourselves, and overstate the effect of ‘fixed’ personality traits, understating the effect of circumstance, on others. In other words, if I’m fat it’s because I’m in difficult circumstances, ill, have a low metabolism, etc but if youre fat it’s because you’re lazy and self-indulgent.

Yes and before injections there was vitriol to people attending diet clubs or thosw who had weightloss surgery.
People want them to suffer and slim down on sheer willpower but even then they will say things like "what about saggy skin?bet they will regain it all again."

it needs to be recognised most people are fat; two thirds of the adult population are overweight or obese, so it’s fat people against other fat people, as the other person is even fatter. It’s not all slim people; it’s often fat people being horrible to other fat people as they are fatter.

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy sorry i quoted you by mistake ignore my earlier comment

The facebook algorithm just showed me this charming clip…
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BZjFpJVQc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Physically attractive people are treated better than less attractive people and that's basically it.

I had a style/health/beauty makeover as a teenager, including losing around 2 stone, and it was unbelievable how much people changed toward me. Suddenly I wasn't just an annoying unnecessary presence, I was someone who was treated nicely and with respect, as someone people wanted to be around. I had thought the impact would mainly be internal but I was really shocked at the difference.