Comments on: Why are fat people abused?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:08:31 +0000

One of the things that I’ve struggled with the most in the past few years has been my emotional relationship with both food and exercise. The fat bullies only make this worse – when you feel like crap, you eat like crap, have low energy, don’t want to work out, and voila, you’re in a slump.

Maybe people should start making it a social norm to encourage overweight people by walking with them at lunch, or inviting them to sporting events and bocce ball, or using our free bring-your-friend-to-the-gym pass to show them the ropes…

By: Noel Lynne Figart

Noel Lynne Figart — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:47:08 +0000

unapologetic laissez-faire capitalists

I know you were trying to be funny. But the problem with that sort of thing, is that whenever you try to dehumanize a class of people, you’re going to get violence. Turning people into things is always the first step.

I’m a fat laissez-faire capitalist. I suppose I should be fearing for my life now?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:23:09 +0000

I think it’s akin to the bad old days when people thought that leprosy was something you got because you were a sinner or whatever. I think the vast majority of people overestimate the degree to which virtue (for lack of a better word) actually controls weight – it’s a complex mess of personal circumstance, culture, will power, inborn preference, hormones, genetics, opportunity, socioeconomic status, parenting, and who knows what else. It’s also a very visible social liability, in our country of socialized health care.

Whatever, it shouldn’t be tolerated any more than stoning lepers is. If we have to persecute people, I vote for right-wing politicians, unapologetic laissez-faire capitalists, and Ponzi-scheme operators.

By: Trishy

Trishy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:43:16 +0000

How sad for that woman.

I have seen a few articles lately on this phenomenon of “fattism”, triggered by the debate on health care reform currently raging in the States. Many people are screaming about the cost of health care increasing because the overweight can’t be bothered to take care of themselves, or something like that (the same argument appears many times in the comments section of the posted article). But the issues of health insurance rates for overweight people, and verbal (and apparently physical) abuse of overweight people are two very separate issues. Alcoholics are a danger to society and also a drain on the health care system, but we don’t go around beating the crap out of them: we encourage them to get help so that they can get control over their demons. Maybe this is because being overweight is so visible that it is easily attacked, unlike most other addictions? Or maybe there are deeper psychological roots than that, like the article argues.

By: Mistress Krista

Mistress Krista — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:07:08 +0000

I think that abuse is never cool.

(Unless it’s mutually consensual. Then it’s a sport.)

By: Zsuzsa

Zsuzsa — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:59:35 +0000

So what do you think about this, Krista?