Why is being fat/obese socially acceptable?

People are getting fatter and fatter and the media is pandering to this (women's magazines celebrating "curvy" (fat) figures, the "size zero" debate, doves ad campaigns) because they realise their target audience doesn't want to be told they're making unhealthy decisions or that they should have to change. Everyone is constantly told they're great and special so we end up a nation of gluttons with inflated perceptions of our self-worth

Sykk wrote: »

If they started campaigning for it you'd complain they're wasting the tax payers money..

Anyway, smoking and alcohol are addictive. Eating is a neccesity, just don't over do it. It's common sense.

Some fat people will play the victim card and say its the foods fault for being so addictive.

They're really big and fat, do you want to tell them? You'll just get eaten!

Bonito wrote: »

So just because someone is overweight you think you're better than them and have a god given right to look down at them?

Absolutely. Obese people are lazy and overeat. Every other excuse is smoke and mirrors. They are the cause of their problem.

Stephentlig wrote: »

Not trying to belittle anyone and certainly dont agree with it either, but there is a huge difference in belittling someone and explaining to them they need help.

I'm always seeing these fat programs on the tele for losing weight and not once did I ever see a t.v program of someone needing to put it on.

Pax Christi
Stephen

Supersize Vs Superskinny is always on Channel 4.

Yes! To put it simply. There should be penalties for this just as there are for smoking and alcohol in the form of high taxes on high fat etc. but the campaign as a whole needs a lot of consideration first.

There was a meeting of After Hours on the 17th of this month and the first reply to the info about times, dates and location of the meeting was by an AH mod who wrote 3 words - in capital letters - NO FAT CHICKS. There absolutely needs to be more done in making people aware of the risks associated with high fat in our diets but the problem is that while you can say that smoking smells disgusting and damages our health there is a fine line when discussing someone's weight or personal appearance. As impatient as we might be about it and we'd rather take the overweight people by the shoulders and give them a good shake the truth is that it has to be dealt with delicately. If not then what is the difference in bullying?

Take this for an example .... If there is a poster beside a bus stop, a huge billboard, with a picture of a horrible side effect from smoking such as discoloured finger nails or teeth the smoker standing there can act as disgusted at the poster as any other on looker because they can hide that they in fact are actually a smoker. They can close their mouth or put their hands in their pockets. If a similar poster is put up of an obese person and an obese person is standing there among the crowd of onlookers they can't temporarily shrink to avoid the desperate embarrassment they are feeling in that moment. It is humiliating for them. Therefore the problem can not be dealt with in the same way as smoking or alcohol.

People by nature can be cruel and some have a great knack of demeaning another person if they are any way inferior to themselves. It is a tough one to tackle and the right approach needs to be considered carefully.

It has been proven that obese/overweight people are that way for reasons other than being greedy fat pigs!! Depression, loneliness, addiction, physical disability etc. etc. So to bandy around an idea for this is only touching on a far greater and bigger scale problem. There are a lot of things to consider before you can rid the world of fatties. Have a nice day.