Comments | beatle2102: Fat discrimination . . . kind of the same thing as being a racist?

beatle2102

Fat discrimination . . . kind of the same thing as being a racist?

Jun 12, 2009 20:39

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 ( Read more... )

Comments 4

dimethirwen June 13 2009, 04:24:14 UTC

...the notion that it's not my place to make fun of someone on the basis of their eating habits has some merit.

The idea that fat = someone who can't control their food habits is an entire discussion in an of itself. It's this idea (and, by extension, the idea that overweight people are lazy blobs who stuff their faces with junk and never do anything) that makes size discrimination so socially acceptable in the first place.

beatle2102 June 13 2009, 17:30:34 UTC

'the idea that overweight people are lazy blobs who stuff their faces with junk and never do anything' is not one that I subscribe to, so I can't argue for or against it. I think that characterising the 'opposing side' this way is a bit of a strawman, and over-simplifies the whole issue ( ... )

dimethirwen June 14 2009, 02:03:35 UTC

Well, okay. I eat pretty well. I live in Cali, so I get to eat a lot of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits for very little money (yay!). I don't drink soda, I don't eat junk food. I don't fry things. I bike almost every day. My crazy splurge is putting a hard boiled egg on top of my salad. And my body is exactly the same size as it's always been.

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 ( ... )

blue_shadows9 June 14 2009, 16:15:55 UTC

It's interesting - lately, I've been reading fat acceptance blogs, and I've noticed that most fat people insist that they don't eat any differently than people who aren't fat. Several posts were about how thin people call fat people liars when they say this ( ... )