Mocking fat people

[Jazzy]

Fat shamers could be given the same treatment as sexists and racists if a group of obesity researchers get their way.

Dr Sarah Jackson, from University College London, said fattism is real and should fall under discrimination law that protects people from being targeted for their race, age or gender.

In a study of 5,000 adults she found that overweight people who had been victimised had a lower quality of life and showed signs of depression.

Among the examples of fattism, she said people were:
1. Given poorer service
2. Joked about threatened
3. Thought to be less intelligent

Dr Jackson told the Daily Mail: ‘In the United Kingdom, the Equality Act 2010 legally protects individuals from discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, or gender reassignment; making it clear that discriminatory behaviour of this nature is not to be accepted.

‘However, our results indicate that discriminatory experiences contribute to poorer psychological wellbeing in individuals with obesity, but there are currently no laws prohibiting weight discrimination.

‘This might send the message to people that weight discrimination is socially acceptable.’

Source

Thoughts?

 

[Dee]

The bottom line is that you're not going to get results by shaming someone who is fat, whether they are trying to lose weight or not.  That's just not how it works.  At least, not in a healthy manner.  One person may think a bit of teasing isn't going to leave a lasting impact, but they would be sorely mistaken.  It isn't just the people who need to change, but our culture of obesity that seems to run rampant to the point where we have reality TV shows about how fat people are and need to lose weight or face dire consequences.  But in order to do that, we have to get to the root of the problem.  Why are people getting so fat?  

If we look at why people were fat over time, we can relate it to status and wealth.  If you were fatter, you were probably rich and could afford food as opposed to say a peasant who worked for measly scraps and could barely buy food.  It isn't like that today.  Being a fat person isn't necessarily a sign of wealth anymore.  It's often times related to poor education leading to poor diet and a lack of knowledge about food and health in general; it's related to emotional distress and the inability to cope by using food as a comfort; or socioeconomic status with excuses like: "the unhealthy food is cheaper than healthy stuff".

Often times, it is a mix of two or three of those issues, which is why it's so difficult to approach the issue on the surface.  More often than not, there are deeper rooted reasons and problems as to why fat people get fat and why losing weight is a struggle.  You're not just battling the fat itself, but the reasons why motivation is non-existent, why someone may know it's not healthy but continues to eat and not exercise; thus, gaining even more weight.  It's a vicious cycle, and shaming someone for becoming that way is not the answer.  

What needs to happen is we need to EDUCATE the entire country about food and its healthy benefits.  Exercise needs to be a part of school curriculums whether there is funding for it or not.  One of the most important aspects, and the last one I'm going to address, is compassion for the mental and emotional reasons as to why this is becoming an epidemic.  But until we as an entire country begin to have some compassion and understanding for the psychology behind why it happens and why it carries on for many people, nothing is going to change.