Rights of a fat person-?

Question

Let me just say that I am never a proponent of being unkind or rude to anyone! I think we should treat each individual with respect and kindness.

HOWEVER - Is it okay to perpetuate this idea that being fat is somehow okay. I'm not talking about celebrating curvy women, I'm talking about living in a culture that tells people it's acceptable to be obese and we should celebrate it... Obesity is a serious issue and it's an unhealthy lifestyle choice. I don't want us to have an entire generation with feet missing because they can't control diabetes. I think this is unacceptable and it's a sign that we are continually lowering the bar.

Am I wrong? How do you feel?

I think obesity should be regarded like drug addiction or alcoholism, we support and encourage our loved ones to conquer it, but we shouldn't condone the behavior.

Answer 1

Yes, you are wrong..diabetes is rampant in the US even with little kids now and it is thought to be correlated with additives and chemicals that enhance appetites and addict one to the food in order sell more. People who go to other countries and eat the same diet lose weight and people who come here and eat the same diet they did in their old country showing that it is not just due to lack of will power. I hope you will read the entire thing as I feel there are some valid points here mixed in with the anger.

You also fail to note the strong genetic component..diabetes runs in families..it is also unknown if a genetic defect or anomaly causes one to not process calories correctly and gain weight, thus enhancing the chance of developing diabetes..it's like which came first the chicken or the egg..it is thought that something is messed up in the way some people process calories. Many obese people eat the same or less than average people yet still gain weight..thus you are blaming someone for having a character flaw when it actually could be a medical problem. How kind of you!

It is the same thing with depression..many people think oh they are just lazy or unmotivated --they could do things if they wanted to not even recognizing the brain is an organ that can get sick just like any organ and cause chemical imbalances that bring on things like depression, anxiety, or a whole host of behavioral symptoms attributed to a disorder perhaps something like sleep apnea which causes both anxiety, irritability, depression etc due to lack of rem and stage 3 and 4 restorative sleep...

It really irks me that you think it is a choice. I am obese, eat an extremely healthy diet, having been shopping health food stores over 30 years. You are totally out of line with your last statement.

I see plenty of people drinking Pepsi by the tons, eating McDonald's and all manner of junk food. I watch people when I go to the grocery store and their carts are loaded with garbage that I haven't eaten for 30 years..I read every label and spend a huge part of my food budget on produce eating well over the 5 servings a day of fruits and veggies. I'd say 50% of my diet is produce generally.

It is fine for you to sit there on your high horse offending people so you can feel superior while claiming you are concerned about their health. If you have not been obese and experienced living in a country full of nutritionally- depleted, crappy, corporate- designed and adulterated and dangerous foods that at the same time expects and approves only of the thin, you do not know what it is like.

This attitude is causing young girls of 8 to diet and obsess about weight and develop eating disorders due to societal pressure...if you have never seen men clams to really want a good character on a girl while bypassing traits like kindness, thoughtfulness, intelligence, creativity, down-to-earth demeanor, honesty, etc for a dumb, rude thin girl..if you don't experience the massive prejudice that fat people do, it's none of your business.

Do I get up and say I will support and encourage your sleeping with a bunch of guys in the house where your daughter lives, or being rude to your mom, or cheating on your wife or shoplifting etc oh but I don't condone your behavior but I do support you...do I stick my nose in other people's business even if their actions also cost society if by their greed for things and possessions and resuling neglect of their kids and never being home whothen often turn out to be criminals or bums. No--I live and let live..doing the best job I can to rear decent children, develop an excellent character, and be kind to those I meet by going out of my way to help them.

Look through some of my answers..I sometimes spend 2 or 43 hours trying to help someone by sharing my extensive knowledge of alternative heath, herbology, nutrition, and a host of other things..I have plenty of worth and I am not about to let other people try to bring me down with their judgment done generally to elevate themselves so they can feel superior causes they have little to no genuine self esteem unless they can put someone else down so they can feel better about themselves--this is often waht prejudice is all about,

. I, despite being obese, have plenty of self worth and esteem (you'd be surprised how many people just assume you have low self esteem or are stupid or lazy..one has to immediate try to counteract the false steotype) self worth born of going way beyond the call of duty in life whether it be as a parent, a teacher, a student in college, a neighbor, or a friend. Of living as relatively moral life -- a teetotler, never taking a drugs in her life, told she is nice and kind and has a heart of gold by literally hundreds of people. I try to treat people nicely. I have many great character traits..I'm funny, caring, sensitive, empathetic, etc and I am angry that you think you are so superior to the overweight as to pose an offensive question like this.

If we could only get the thin for all their "sins often FAR worse but hidden unlike the overweight , you would see plenty of you skinny people living absolutely horrible lifestyles..just cause you are blessed with good genes or whatever doesn't mean you are all out there not eating pop and sugary drinks and white bread and hamburgers and frozen dinners and a whole lot of crap that sickens you and harms your kids by your rotten examples, but just cause you are thin you think it's fine for you but horrible for us..you bemoan our feet missing while ignoring your STDs, heart attacks at 40, cancer at 50, and other illnesses..born form your own lifestyle.

Yes, it is true not all thin or average people eat crap and live in sin and treat people like dirt but by the same token neither do all fat people eat fast food and drink pop all day. You are so stereotyping..I will put my diet and lifestyle against yours any day. My doctor who in very into alternative health has us keep a monthly journal and she told me my diet was the healthiest and best she ever seen of all her patients.

I have several relatives with diabetes both one and two.. so far I take no medical drugs at age 57 and am in pretty good health I'd say..younger people in my building have far more health problems than I and some are quite thin.

Fat people have put up with all kinds of extreme discrimination from highly qualified people being passed over in studies for people with very few qualifications getting the job just because they are thin or havce a good shape even if they have no brains or skills and all because of America's hatred of fat people. Studies show this happens so much even the study takers were surprised at the rampant discrimination.

Why shouldn't we after years of being beat down and made fun by everyone and his brother, nagged incessently by family members, feel good about ourselves,. I have seen people on TVshows sobbing and devastated with no self esteem at all because they were overweight (some not that much) totally beating themselves up because of how society treat the overweight..literaslly hated themselves and it is a darn shame to see all that negative energy and sadness destroying their health and self worth...

I may not ever get your approval or that of society but frankly, I don't care. I am proud of who I am ..my looks are just a tiny part of who I am and what I do. I worked hard going to school 6 years with nearly straight A's (3.9 GPA) despite communting and rearing 2 kids having went back to school after 20 years when husband left for another, got top remarks for creativity and rapport with the kids I taught, raised productive, good men that never got in trouble while having a workaholic and absent dad and living far below the poverty line, my kids not only achieved they excelled so much teachers were always asking if there were anymore like they as models for the other kids.

I had a son in who's who among American high school students -an honor going to 1/2% of the nations teens -did it multiple times, in fact, and who won a $16,000 scholarship the 2nd highest awarded and another son, highly gifted, winning good citizen of the year all 5 years in a row in elementary school and good citizen of the month every Sept by all 5 of his teachers and more awards than anyone in the school and many other awards and I have a heart of gold and I will tell you, missy, I am proud of how I have conducted my life and I am sorry if people like you only care about my cover and ignore my book or are shallow. I know..and that's what I care about. I don't judge people by how they look--never have..but rather by what kind of personality and character they have and who they are as a person..all that external stuff can change in an instant but who one is inside stays constant.,,,its like Martin Luther King, whose birthday is coming up soon, said how he dreams of a day when a person is judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character..I hope someday tall and short and fat and thin race or nationality or religion, etc we will all be judged that way for that is what truly matters. The rest is external and fleeting.

You also make the mistake of assuming that one weight is totally under their control and the obese have no will power. I have plenty of will power quit a 3 pack a day smoking habit 30 years ago, faithful 17 years despite absence and emotionally abusive husband and opportunities to cheat and extreme loneliness, eating very healthy the vast majority of the time, or so on..if it is so easy to lose weight why do only 5% of people keep it off despite having lots of willpower elsewhere.

Some say set point theory..I know if I lose weight I gain it back on far less calories than it should take to do so. I have even heard of obese people eating 500 or 600 hundred calories and gaining weight due to metabolic problems.or disturbances..diabetes is a metabolic problem as well...We do not know all the varied causes for overweight..

.how dare you judge us and ask us not to be happy but miserable and crying when life is so short and when you already are so prejudiced as a society against us and discriminate and judge. I will not be miserable for you and for my weight...I have enough real problems.

I am sorry but your question really offended and angered me. You say you are kind and respectful but your attitude is the same ones millions share that is directly responsible for women sobbing from the depths of their soul and actually hating themselves, for youngsters as young as 7 going on diets, for preteens, teens and young women starving to death with anorexia and scaring their parents, for bulimics ruining their health forever, for suicides and massive clinical depression, for deprivation all in vain in the long run, and for job discrimination and even little kids overweight are treated differently by teachers who think they are lazy and stupid and stereotype and trat them differently and have different expectations (studies show) and saddle them with more reasons to hate themselves and then, due to their now low self esteem, they fall victim to peer pressure and ruin their lives through drugs, alcohol, and sex..had they not learned to hate themselves because society does and look to the strengths they have instead of obsessing on their weight, they might have had the strength to be a leader, to be strong enough to say no even if their peers called them chicken or whatever and then due to their willingness to please at all costs due to being treated differently and badly by peers and thus being desperate for a friend or boyfriend and then they get taken advantage of and hurt further.

If society would adjust their crappy and terrible attitude about fat people, maybe life wouldn't be so awful for them. Unfortunately, most people haven't learned to say forget them..I like myself and give too much weight (no pun intended) to your opinion and those --so many--like you many of whom literally hate overweight people especially women who are the most vulnerable and children who are too. I feel you should be ashamed for having this attitude personally,.
Sorry for spelling errors ..I was typing so fast and way past bedtime and too tired to proofread,,

Answer 2

I assume you are not serious. Either you are not serious or you should seriously consider NOT working for yourself. One law suit will ruin you, whether or not the fat guy wins. (Unless you have a money tree or otherwise are independently wealthy). You really have no clue about what you "can be sued for doing" ??? Wow! Talk about ignorance. How do you explain the fact that you are ignorant about basic business law? Its not like it is rocket science, and it obviously will impact your business dramatically. Well, they say if you throw enough Sh!t at a wall, some of it will stick; maybe you actually will pull it off.... I think being a bit prepared might increase the odds, which are poor at best even with the best preparation. OK here it is the facts of life (for the clueless): You can be sued for ANYTHING. Please let me know if you don't understand any of the words or meaning of that sentence. The chances of a suit getting to the jury or the judge(s) depends on the laws in your jurisdiction (I don't know Canadian Law). The chances of you losing the verdict depends on the evidence, the time and preparation you and your lawyer do. If you do that, you will not be making money, but still spending huge amounts on your lawyer, hence my statement that it will ruin you. Also check if there are discrimination laws which could impact you. In the USA you can NOT fail to provide a "disabled" individual or a variety of minorities with service. The idea that you are going to train your employees to make legal judgments about your customers is delusional. Really. ah well, the dreams of youth are what they are..... mostly fantasies.

Answer 3

I agree wholeheartedly with what you're sayin'. What gets me are the number of overweight people ( mostly women ) who will walk into a McDonalds or some other restaurant and always order a salad as if they're on some sort of diet or something. You know they can't be or they wouldn't look like they do. Yet, almost without fail, they do this. Makes me wonder what they eat in between trips to such restaurants. It sure isn't salads, I'll tell ya that! Oh, and to "Janie": You say you go out of your way to be nice to people. Well, you certainly weren't very nice to the person that posed this question. That is a major contradiction on your part. Afterall, much of what she says is right on the money when she speaks about obesity becoming more and more acceptable in this country and that it is indeed unhealthy. I realize that some obese people can't help it, but most of them choose to be that way. Also, there is always a way to lose weight, even if you have to result to surgery. My brother - in - law weighs over 500 pounds and is going in for surgery next week. He is doing something about his problem, not just whining about it.

Answer 4

fat people are fat by chose leave them alone i like being fat