Do you think it's acceptable in society to discriminate against thin people?

Question

I've been overweight and underweight, and I noticed people were the rudest to me when I was underweight. People I didn't even know told me I was too bony, I looked gross, I was not attractive that thin, etc. I even had a waiter bring me a dessert menu and tell me to order everything on it! When I was overweight, no one was ever rude to me like that. You wouldn't dare go up to a complete stranger and tell her to lose weight beause she looked gross and unattractive. Has anyone else noticed this? Thoughts?

Answer 1

I have been both overweight and underweight but have never really had such experiences as you describe. All I got were stares or murmurs mostly from people within my community and relatives -not so much strangers.Maybe a difference may exist since I am a male and you are a female I am assuming from your avatar. There is the ailing double standards that still shamefully exists in our society and the other thing could be that we as a whole have more expectations over the females of the population and also overall sexualize them alot more then males. What ever the case maybe it's never right to discriminate against a fellow human being or animal in any case.Just my thoughts-anyhow best of the Holiday Seasons to you and eat hardy;live well. I have found people will always talkshit no matter what!peace.Riz>...

Answer 2

I think that people have goten accustomed to seeing more overweight people than underweight because that's the way people are now thanks to our lifestyles. This makes it, I guess, more acceptable. This is also why you hear so much more hoopla when someone dies of an eating disorder than from, say, coronary disease, it's more scarce. So if they can help an underweight person "prevent" this, they'll give you their two cents even when they don't even know you.

Also, since the majority of people now fall into the overweight category and if you analyze the part of human nature that makes us wary of people different than us, it's easier to pick on the minority (thin people), than someone who looks more like us than anything else.

Now add to this the beauty culture that pretends that this overweight society should look like people from magazines (impossibly thin and airbrushed) and I can see how people could resent that model a little bit. No one's forcing people to look like Marylin Monroe or like a Rubens model so the message one could interpret is fat=unattrative. Maybe if beauty models were the other way around and the majority of people fell in the attractive body category, we wouldn't be having this problem.

But same as it would be wrong to go up to overweight people and tell them they look gross, it's just as bad to do the same with thin persons. Some people have got no manners and think everyone else's business can be their business too if they want it to be and they want to give their opinions about everything.

People are what they are and as such, they should worry about their health because that's all that matters. If you're frail, then maybe it would do you some good to put on some pounds, consume some more nutrients and pick up your immune system at the same time... same as it would do some people a world of good to drop a pound or two and reduce their cholesterol... easy as that.

Answer 3

Only Nicole Ritchie! Hate that chick for some reason.