Fat discrimination . . . kind of the same thing as being a racist?
I'm not really sure. But despite the yammering on afterwards about how the ad was 'too shocking' for the real message to go through, I'm still thinking about it. I'm not sure if I buy the actual premise, since there's a big difference between being black/gay/jewish* and being fat. At the same time, the notion that it's not my place to make fun of
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By contrast, my boyfriend eats... oh God. It's awful. Chips, fried things, energy drinks, and in huge, almost unsustainable quantities, and doesn't really exercise except for his walk to class. He's also about as big around as a twig, and has more or less been this way his whole life.
Yes, the food that you eat and the exercise that you get affects your weight. So does genetics, medication, medical conditions... hell, I had DD breasts, super curvy hips, and solid thighs on a bigger-than-average sized frame after puberty hit smacked me, when the year before I was fairly thin. My mom never let me have junk food (my "snack" in my lunch box was always baby carrots). I didn't even taste soda until I was almost an adult. The influx of hormones radically altered my body, and it has never been the same.
Once, in a misguided attempt to lose weight and enter a "normal" BMI range, I ate no more than 500 calories a day for weeks. I got woozy and had low blood sugar and was generally a wreck, and my weight moved a fraction - maybe three pounds? In order to go from where I am (a size 16) to a "normal" size, I'd have to lose 80 lbs. I'd probably also die in the process.
I could definitely stand to lose a bit of weight. If I amped up my exercise (I can't really eat less, it honestly wouldn't be healthy), I could probably lose about twenty pounds. But anything less, and it would be bad. I'm "supposed" to be 135, but I'm not built to weigh that little.
Perhaps it could be likened to pregnancy. I don't plan on ever having children, but I don't judge women who do. And it certainly isn't okay to discriminate against a woman who has chosen to become pregnant/give birth, even though it's a choice that she's made. The sort of ugly rhetoric that gets hurled their way - breeders, moos, their children as "crotch droppings," etc. - is not okay, no matter what your feelings about pregnancy.
I'm just sick of being told that if I just had the willpower, I could lose weight. Bullshit. If shame and goading could make someone thin, I would have starved myself invisible years ago.
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