stella41b
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Daddyluvsitrough
People who are overweight DO have a choice. It's called a healthy diet & exercise. You can't change your skin color but you can change your weight. There's a huge difference there.
That is as you perceive it but I'm pretty sure that you cannot be absolutely certain on the basis of one concrete example. And I bet you can't define what exactly is 'a healthy diet and exercise' for anyone either. There's numerous causes, metabolic, emotional, psychological, physical, and while there are choices there's also circumstances, such things as karotypes, and so many different factors which need to be taken into consideration. But you know from looking at someone who is visibly overweight I'd hazard a guess and suggest that obesity is actually a physical process.
This however makes it far less of a choice than just looking at someone, jumping to a conclusion , making up some excuse for a prejudice without bothering to show any insight or understanding.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Daddyluvsitrough
It's a lifestyle choice but fewer and fewer are willing to tackle the problem starting at them in the mirror. Why? Because it's hard work and few people are willing to make the sacrifices to make the necessary change in their lives. Instead there's a mountain of excuses of why it's not their fault they're overweight and it's easier to assign blame elsewhere. The terms "body fascism" and "bigotry" are complete nonsense.
So is being a bigot and a fascist and it could be said the self same that fewer and fewer are willing to tackle the problem facing them in the mirror. Why? Well in this case it takes a few qualities such as common sense, innate human understanding, compassion not to mention a little tact and good manners but that would require of course consideration for other people, which might burn up a few brain cells. Instead there's a mountain of excuses why it is their fault they're overweight and much easier to blame the victim than to actually own up to the issue and admit the truth.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Daddyluvsitrough
Asking the non-obese people to embrace & accept those who fail to take care of their bodies and put themselves at health risks is a dangerous mentality, yet that's clearly the agenda that's being pushed here. Should we as a society be more accepting and embrace the habitual drug-user, the raging alcoholics, or the chain-smoker as well? Their lifestyle choices put their health at risk just as obese people do ... yet for some reason we should be extra-sensitive towards the heavy people so we don't hurt their feelings? Asking the healthy, height-weight proportionate people to be more accepting of the obese people is like trying to sweep a very serious problem under the rug and act like it doesn't exist ... basically you're asking the non-obese people to act as enablers for those who are obese.
Not really asking much from the body fascists and bigots among the non-obese because it's a waste of time. However nobody else is obliging the obese to act like eye candy for the rest of society, and nobody is really that interested if the obese offend the aesthetic sensitivities of the visually intolerant. But this isn't about just hurting their feelings, it's about someone going out of their way to upset, offend and hurt the feelings of the obese without any provocation or justification which makes such bigotry and body fascism a social issue - it is when all is said and done anti-social behaviour. And this is the crux of the matter, the anti-social behaviour and discrimination against the obese simply because they don't conform to some predetermined body shape.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Daddyluvsitrough
Should we be more accepting of people who drink a bottle of Jack Daniels a day, or those who smoke 3 packs of Marlboro's a day, or those who shoot up heroin ... is it mean to not embrace those lifestyle choices as well? Does that make me a bigot to not accept a drug-user, an alcoholic, or a chain-smoker? Is that fascism as well? Yet it's considered mean-spirited to bring up someone's weight. Why should obesity be treated differently from drugs/cigarettes/alcohol if it's a health risk all the same?
Should we be more accepting of the Jack Daniels drinker, the smoker or drug addicts? I'll leave it open to discussion whether these are actually lifestyle choices or coping strategies for deeper social issues and again overlooking another strawman argument argue that in light of the social issue above - i.e. anti-social behaviour and discrimination are issues which need to be addressed on a par with racism, homophobia and transphobia.
You see it goes back to the 'us and them' mentality and way of thinking of social stigma and ascribing such people with 'status loss' and 'discrimination' and regarding such people as undesirable and unfit for normal society. This isn't being so much mean-spirited as being anti-social and I for one feel that anti-social behaviour, irrespective of its motivation or how it manifests itself, has no place in a modern society.
I am writing anti-social behaviour and not bigotry or body fascism because I'm not PC and being a bigot or a body fascist is a human weakness just like any other.
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