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Isn't about Fattism was added to the list of prohibited 'isms'?

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Fideliney · 30/06/2014 06:45

I've read one too many rather squawky assertions recently on MN that 'skinny bashing' has the same socio-cultural connotations and (ahem) heft as fattism. It doesn't.

Isn't fattism the only socially widespread discrimination/ hatred NOT specifically banned on MN now? Have I got that right?

I've been mulling this overnight and things are routinely posted about overweight people on MN which, if the words 'asian' or 'gay' were substituted for 'fat' or 'obese', nobody would even attempt to defend.

I know haterz gotta hate or whatever the expression is but could we just leave them something insipid and harmless like nylon hating or persecution of cockroaches to get on with and make a clean sweep of the 'isms'?

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MNHQ

KateSMumsnet · 02/07/2014 16:45

Hi everyone,

Thanks for this. You're right that we list a lot of 'isms', but there's a potential problem in that approach, which is that we could end up in a situation where it's assumed that it's OK to be vile about any group that isn't specifically exempted. The isms are really there to illustrate the kind of thing we take seriously (you'd be amazed how many people have never heard of 'disablism').

Of course, that doesn't mean with think it's OK for someone to rock up and start saying pointlessly mean things about overweight people. As ever, we like to consider this sort of thing in context: if someone is making a seriously argued point about the effect that obesity is having on the NHS, that's fine - and it can be difficult to make this sort of point without talking about the ways in which some obesity is down to personal choices and behaviour (just as with lung cancer and smoking). If, however, they're just taking the opportunity to laugh at people without making any sort of thoughtful point, that would almost certainly put them on our radar. If they do it repeatedly, it would start to look a lot like deliberately inflammatory behaviour. We have both mailed and banned posters for this sort of pattern of behaviour, and we're happy to carry on doing so.

So as ever (sorry) the best solution for now is to report anyone who you think is just being pointlessly unpleasant. Even if we don't take action straight away, it all helps us to build a picture of how some posters are behaving.

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