Body shaming, and "My Big Fat Fabulous Life"

[CapnAwesome]

I really wonder how often smokers put smoke in your lungs without your consent. Maybe if you spend a lot of time in Casinos in Nevada or Bars in Alaska. Other than that I can't really think the last time I was even exposed to second hand smoke.

Maybe you are a young whippersnapper and do not remember how things were in the U.S. years ago.  These days, it is not nearly the problem in the U.S. as it was in the past, though still people smoke in public places where I need to go and so I still am breathing some smoke occasionally.  (Smokers often like to smoke near doorways to buildings, so that anyone who needs to enter the building is subjected to their smoke.)  But it was quite a bit different for the earlier part of my life, and now things are much better for people who do not want to be forced to breath smoke from other people's choices.

The point, though, is that what others do is rightfully a matter of my concern when it actually affects me.  If what someone does only affects themselves, then that is their business and not mine.

The change to how things are now is in part due to calling the smokers out on their activities affecting others.  And changing laws to stop people from forcing others to breath their smoke (which is why there are so many nonsmoking areas now).

If people ate their cigarettes instead of smoking them, I would be fine with them doing that almost anywhere.  But smokers do not keep their smoke to themselves, and so it is a matter that affects those around them.  That is how it differs from someone injecting or eating or drinking their drug of choice.  I do not care that they choose to use a drug; I only care that they share it with people against their will.  If I started injecting people with drugs and forcing drugs down people's throats, I would be regarded as a monster.  Yet smokers force their drug on those around them, typically without giving a fuck about it at all.  That is why so many people justly hate so many smokers.  Of course, as I have already stated, not every smoker is an inconsiderate asshole, and so not all of these comments apply to every smoker.  But to those to whom they do apply, they cannot die fast enough.

I sort of wonder about this with obese people, while you can't really say that they directly affect people, they certainly put more of a burden on the medical system than other people.

I really think the smoking is subject to criticism in a way that obesity is not because smoking has little to do with a persons appearance and we don't want to be critical of people's appearances.

My objection actually has nothing to do with appearances and really little to do with health. It's has to do with the dishonesty, lies and anti-science that goes with these pro-fat campaigns.

[Athene]

Obesity is not always attributed to lifestyle choices or lack of will, although that seems to be the easy answer. Underlying medical conditions, hormonal imbalances, psychological stress/depression, past sexual trauma, immobility from physical injury, addiction and any number of issues come into play.

Why should a show about a fat person bother people so much? There had to have been reprehensible, irresponsible, television shows before this one, right? Why does this particular show, surrounding this particular person, with this particular condition cause such outrage? It makes me wonder.

I hate this sort of answer. Although the woman in that show has a condition, the vast vast vast majority of overweight people do not. Stress and depression could cause someone to overeat, but it's the eating that causes the weight gain. For 95% of people, the only reason you are obese is because you consume more calories than you burn. It's offensively anti-science and against the evidence to claim otherwise. Same goes with the old excuse of metabolism, which varies only slightly in the giant majority of the population. I think it's that excuse making and the bullshit that bothers me more than the sight of fat people, which I really don't care one way or another about.

Imagine for a moment it was a show glorifying smoking. How would you feel about that?

I believe you're over-simplifying a very complicated issue. Besides, I suggested several other factors that contribute to obesity besides the old "I have a slow metabolism". How could you possibly know all of the physiological factors that may or may not affect to 95% of obese people?

Nova produced a very informative documentary on just tremendously difficult it is to lose weight and how our brains and are wired to hold on to fat stores at all costs. I'm sure you can find it easily online, if you're interested.

For me to fairly compare this show to one that glorifies smoking, you would have to demonstrate that this show does in fact encourage people to carelessly overeat, sit on the couch, and generally not give a fuck. From what I've read about the show online that's not the case. This woman has polycystic ovarian syndrome and the obesity that accompanies it. Instead of waiting to reach an ideal weight that's unrealistic due to the nature of her condition, it seems she's decided to live her life, dance, and do all of the goofy shit that make her happy. The theme seems to be self- acceptance. She's not promoting obesity simply because she doesn't hate herself, is she?

[Athene]

By all means, discuss any show you want. You posted a thread, asking for opinions and I responded. That's how it works, right? My opinion is that I don't feel that fat people shouldn't feel less entitled to be visible, because they are fat.

Some may see this show as encouraging bad behavior, others may see it as encouraging not hating yourself. I really don't care about the show one way or other. I was just participating in the overall discussion.

Oh my, I don't think fat people should be less visible!  Quite the opposite!  I wish the issues could be MORE visible without dressing it up as something it's not. 

Sorry, I did not mean to sounds so negative or aggressive towards you, personally.

We're just having a discussion, don't apologize.

Besides, everyone knows atheists are negative and aggressive. Duh!

[Cecelia]

People shouldn't be obese. That's just unhealthy. But there's no use in shaming them. After putting on a lot of weight while carrying triplets I was more motivated by positive reinforcement, and not motivated at all after negative reinforcement. It took me a while to get back to my original weight (I was never obese, of course. It'd have taken me much longer if I had been. I was maybe considered 10 lbs overweight at my worst). In fact when people start hating themselves for being overweight, they tend to overeat and just put on more weight. Which seems counterproductive, and it is.

Skinny shaming shouldn't be done either (I'm not quite skinny enough to be told that I need to eat a sandwich, but my daughters are. They're also almost as tall as I am and they're only ten. So they get picked on for being tall and really slim) Though I think it's mostly done because many girls do have eating disorders. Not just eating too much, but bulemia and anorexia as well. The idea is "You don't need to be that skinny". Of course if your BMI is in the normal range (or even slightly underweight) then it's really unnecessary.

I used to be a smoker. I never smoked much, I had it pretty well under control. I gave it up because it's really unhealthy, and it can cause a large number of problems later in life. When I heard an ad on the radio that it costs you so many minutes of your life, I was determined to quit. It was easy for me because I hadn't smoked much. I will say though that I think quitting smoking is easier than losing weight. Oddly smoking will help some people lose weight (legalize cocaine instead tbh). I don't get though why smokers get smoke breaks at work. That seems to encourage it.

[CapnAwesome]

I hate this sort of answer. Although the woman in that show has a condition, the vast vast vast majority of overweight people do not. Stress and depression could cause someone to overeat, but it's the eating that causes the weight gain. For 95% of people, the only reason you are obese is because you consume more calories than you burn. It's offensively anti-science and against the evidence to claim otherwise. Same goes with the old excuse of metabolism, which varies only slightly in the giant majority of the population. I think it's that excuse making and the bullshit that bothers me more than the sight of fat people, which I really don't care one way or another about.

Imagine for a moment it was a show glorifying smoking. How would you feel about that?

I believe you're over-simplifying a very complicated issue. Besides, I suggested several other factors that contribute to obesity besides the old "I have a slow metabolism". How could you possibly know all of the physiological factors that may or may not affect to 95% of obese people?

Nova produced a very informative documentary on just tremendously difficult it is to lose weight and how our brains and are wired to hold on to fat stores at all costs. I'm sure you can find it easily online, if you're interested.

For me to fairly compare this show to one that glorifies smoking, you would have to demonstrate that this show does in fact encourage people to carelessly overeat, sit on the couch, and generally not give a fuck. From what I've read about the show online that's not the case. This woman has polycystic ovarian syndrome and the obesity that accompanies it. Instead of waiting to reach an ideal weight that's unrealistic due to the nature of her condition, it seems she's decided to live her life, dance, and do all of the goofy shit that make her happy. The theme seems to be self- acceptance. She's not promoting obesity simply because she doesn't hate herself, is she?

I think that she has an extremely rare condition is part of the problem of the show. Most obese people do not. Not just most, the vast vast majority. What percentage of obese people do you think have a medical condition that causes them to be obese? While a number of psychological problems might lead towards overeating, the physical cause of obesity is pretty much always the same: you consume more calories then you burn. That's it.

Now I haven't seen the show, but it seems to be in theme with the body acceptance movement, which is a giant source of lies, disinformation and anti-science. I don't care a whit about someone's personal choices, but I think our society should be one that embraces truth. The truth is that the way you become obese is you consume more calories than you burn.

[Athene]

I believe you're over-simplifying a very complicated issue. Besides, I suggested several other factors that contribute to obesity besides the old "I have a slow metabolism". How could you possibly know all of the physiological factors that may or may not affect to 95% of obese people?

Nova produced a very informative documentary on just tremendously difficult it is to lose weight and how our brains and are wired to hold on to fat stores at all costs. I'm sure you can find it easily online, if you're interested.

For me to fairly compare this show to one that glorifies smoking, you would have to demonstrate that this show does in fact encourage people to carelessly overeat, sit on the couch, and generally not give a fuck. From what I've read about the show online that's not the case. This woman has polycystic ovarian syndrome and the obesity that accompanies it. Instead of waiting to reach an ideal weight that's unrealistic due to the nature of her condition, it seems she's decided to live her life, dance, and do all of the goofy shit that make her happy. The theme seems to be self- acceptance. She's not promoting obesity simply because she doesn't hate herself, is she?

I think that she has an extremely rare condition is part of the problem of the show. Most obese people do not. Not just most, the vast vast majority. What percentage of obese people do you think have a medical condition that causes them to be obese? While a number of psychological problems might lead towards overeating, the physical cause of obesity is pretty much always the same: you consume more calories then you burn. That's it.

Now I haven't seen the show, but it seems to be in theme with the body acceptance movement, which is a giant source of lies, disinformation and anti-science. I don't care a whit about someone's personal choices, but I think our society should be one that embraces truth. The truth is that the way you become obese is you consume more calories than you burn.

Um, okay. We'll have to agree to disagree then. Interesting discussion, though.

[Regina]

I think that she has an extremely rare condition is part of the problem of the show. Most obese people do not. Not just most, the vast vast majority. What percentage of obese people do you think have a medical condition that causes them to be obese? While a number of psychological problems might lead towards overeating, the physical cause of obesity is pretty much always the same: you consume more calories then you burn. That's it.

Now I haven't seen the show, but it seems to be in theme with the body acceptance movement, which is a giant source of lies, disinformation and anti-science. I don't care a whit about someone's personal choices, but I think our society should be one that embraces truth. The truth is that the way you become obese is you consume more calories than you burn.

I agree with this view entirely. The fat acceptance momvement wants to act like being morbidly obese is a perfectly natural variation of human weight, and that being fat has nothing to do with what (or how much) you eat. If that were the case, there'd be fat starving Africans. That's not the case though, and that's why many African countries have less than 5% of it's population obese while the USA and Western Europe has around 1/3. That's not a coincidence. 1 in 3 Americans and Europeans don't have "that rare freak condition" that makes you fat even while living a normal lifestyle.

[Cato]

I sort of wonder about this with obese people, while you can't really say that they directly affect people, they certainly put more of a burden on the medical system than other people.

If medical system burden is cause for concern and a call to arms, exterminating idiot parents clogging emergency rooms, urgent care clinics and doctors' schedules because they are incapable of managing their snot-nosed kid's common cold would give us a much higher return on investment.

[downbeatplumb]

Over weight in Europe seems to be just normal for America. One lady I used to work with considered herself large and got in the queue for large people at one of the American theme parks. When she got there she realised that she was far too small for the seats and had to join the queue for the normal seats.

[CapnAwesome]

So I'm necro-posting this, because I saw on a commercial that the subject of this show collapsed shortly into an attempt to do a dance-a-thon. http://www.people.com/article/whitney-th...d-hospital

For a show that attempts to show that fat people can do everything that in shape people can do, I find it super ironic. While your personal choices are your personal choices, it is a lie that fat people can do everything that in shape people can. Ironically this show proved that, rather then it's attempt to debunk it. The truth is important and the body acceptance movement is so full of lies and dishonesty.