Being Mean to Fat People Is Pointless: A Good Old-Fashioned Plea for Civility

[Ian David]

Being Mean to Fat People Is Pointless: A Good Old-Fashioned Plea for Civility

"Obesity will crush the United States into oblivion." That's the final line of the trailer for HBO's upcoming fatpocalypse documentary Weight of the Nation (which, as far as I can tell, was directed by Roland Emmerich and ends with Will Smith blowing up the fat-people mothership with a nuclear warhead). That's right, you guys. The fat people are coming. To crush the entire nation. Into oblivioooooooooon. This is why we can't have nice nations.

<snip>

Now. Here's the thing. Maybe obesity is a gruesome scourge that's going to literally sink the United States like a new-timey Lost City of Fatlantis (w-evs, suckers! Fat is buoyant!)—but that's actually not what this post is about. I do not want to talk about whether or not BMIs are bullshit, or whether or not the obesity "epidemic" (PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!) actually leveled off more than a decade ago, or the way that pretty much everyone erroneously conflates size with health. I'm not going to sit here and try to convince the internet that real-world weight loss is infinitely more complicated and painful than calories in/calories out. I want to put all that contentious shit in a jar right now (and put a cloth over the jar so the contentious shit goes to sleep like some idiot parrot) and just talk about the way we talk about fat people.

Fat people in America are reduced to nothing but fatness. A fat person has a health problem of any kind? It's because they're fat. A fat person is single? Well, duh. Fat. They deserve it. A fat person is poor? That's not surprising—obviously they have bad judgment and no impulse control! Because why would a smart person choose to be fat? If a fat person goes to a restaurant and sits on a broken chair and the chair collapses under them, it's because they're fat. But if a thin person sits on the same broken chair and the chair collapses under them, it's because they sat on a broken chair.

And that kind of reductive, simplistic thinking makes it incredibly easy to rest a whole nation's problems on the shoulders of the "obese."

I know this is a terribly uncool, bleeding-heart thing to say, but language like "crush the United States into oblivion" hurts people. It sets up fat people—in case you forgot, fat people are people—as not just the adversaries of our own health or some lady's airplane elbow room or your boner (the usual crimes), but as the future downfall of humanity itself. The assumption that you have a right to legislate another person's body "for their own good," or "for the children," or even "because they're gross," is its own kind of crazy—but to inflate that assumption to apocalyptic proportions, railing against the nation-obliterating medical bills of nebulous future straw-fatties, is fucking bonkers. Actively pushing this idea that fat people, via their choices or lack of willpower (or whatever it is you've decided turned their body into a shape you don't like), are ruining the country just makes the country a worse place for fat people to live. Which isn't going make fat people any less fat; it only makes them more miserable and you more of a dick.

More:
http://jezebel.com/5908787/being-mean-to-fat-people-is-pointless-a-good-old+fashioned-plea-for-civility?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Gee didn't you know that fat people want to be fat. They just love being made fun of.

Tubby, fatty, all kinds of names. We enjoy that. We love being fat. Just like a person loves being to skinny. Believe me I know all to well. It isn't fun. I go nowhere because I feel safe at home. Only go to the doctors and to the store for groceries for the family. I wish I could afford to buy better healthy food.

[bluestateguy]

2. I will continue to make fat jokes and insults about Chris Christie, Maggie Gallagher & Rush Limbaugh

T'sall.

[Logical]

3. And racist jokes about Michael steel are ok with you I assume???

[hlthe2b]

4. I wish we could all realize that these jokes/insults directed towards RW foes do nothing

but cause hard feelings among our own. Given the incredibly high proportion of Americans that are now considered obese or at least seriously overweight, I would imagine a very large number have likewise experienced cruel taunting, painful bullying, and overt bigotry in their lives. So, while one might think they have a "laser" focus with these jokes/insults, I can assure you the impact scatters in all kinds of unintended directions.

[Brickbat]

5. Way to stand your ground, man. Way to hold strong to the line.

[Initech]

9. I'm told there's a support group you can join

[cynatnite]

11. You think their weight is what makes them horrible people? n/t

[eridani]

6. The percentage of women who are obese is already levelling off

There is most likely some kind of upper limit on how fat people can get.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34832702/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition
America’s rapid rise in obesity appears to have leveled off, with new government figures showing no significant increase in a decade.

But there's little reason to cheer. More than two-thirds of adults and almost a third of children are overweight, and there are no signs of improvement.

Experts say they’re not sure whether the lull in the battle of the bulge can be attributed to more awareness and better diets — or whether society has simply reached a maximum level of tubbiness.

“Maybe in this environment, this is as overweight as we’ll get,” said Gary Foster, director of the Temple University Center for Obesity Research and Education.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Part of what you say is true. But you are in denial of the severity of the problem.

And that it IS a problem.

I come from a family where half the members were/are morbidly obese. Regardless of the reasons for the obesity, there is a tendency among the morbidly obese to be in denial of the problem, just as it is with a family of alcholics. Half the family is morbidly obese, and the other half are enablers.

It IS a form of child abuse to let your child become morbidly obese. It is something the child will find almost impossible to overcome as he grows up, and will affect the child's entire life, including income, happiness, sociability, love, productivity, and health. The parents are in total control of the child's weight. Not the child.

Denial is not the answer. It is not mean to directly address the seriousness of the problem. Many children are now obese. When I was a child, very few children were obese. Something HAS happened in our country on a basic level to change the health and happiness and size of our children.

It is being treated publicly, now, because the problem has gotten to such a large proportion that it can no longer be ignored. Just as if half of our children were alcoholics, or the majority of American adults were alcoholics.

There is one good thing about being morbidly obese. You don't have to worry much about Social Security or a large 401K; a morbidly obese person won't live long enough for that to be an issue.

[bigtree]

8. so very, very correct, Ian

Thanks for posting this.

[hifiguy]

10. At considerable risk, I would like to point out

- in a careful manner - that the science and statistics are what they are. The recent studies about Type 2 diabetes are frightening and research suggests it's because kids are fed a lot of shit. If the science is good enough to be convincing on an issue like climate change I see no rational reason whatsoever to doubt it on this issue and to accept the former and dispute the latter is rank hypocrisy. This science certainly is not being funded by Big Agra and the food processors.

There are a lot of related issues - the overprocessed foodlike substances that make up such a large part of the American diet, the price discrepancies between nutritious food and junk food, agribusiness' control of much of the food supply, ludicrous portion sizes, particularly at fast-food places, and many people (overweight and not) who simply shovel crap into their mouths with no consideration for what they are eating.

I am not particularly well-off, but I am a compulsive label-reader and try to eat in a reasonably healthy way. I am not a purist, and occasionally eat fast or processed food. But I do not LIVE on the stuff. I am responsible for what I eat and how much of it I eat. So is everybody else. Parents are responsible for what their kids eat. Those are not opinions, they are facts.

My father battled with weight issues his entire life, and it was a major contributing factor to his death at 65 from congestive heart failure. My mom was petite and ate like a bird. At one time I weighed 50 pounds more than I do today. After seeing a picture of myself ten years ago I decided to change my eating habits lest I wind up going down my father's path. My weight has been stable ever since. To slough this off very real problem off as mere "bigotry," so as to dismiss the entire issue, is wishful thinking and willful denial. Which is what the anti-science repukes do.

[varelse]

12. It's wrong

rude, cruel, bad manners, destructive, hurtful and wrong.