"I may be fat, but I beat my eating disorder"

[CapnAwesome]

I think the objection with it being about both is that no one really believes any of you care about some random stranger's health. No one believes you really take moral objection to someone being of bad health either.  

So they want you to be honest and say "eww you're fat and it's gross"

That's just what I think the objection is, and of course it's a general you not you specifically.

It's actually quite naive to believe strangers really care about fat people's health. Most people who spend time criticizing other people's unhealthy habits are really just looking to pick on someone.

I don't go out of my way to rag on fat people, but sometimes groups or people make claims that being fat is just as healthy or just as beautiful as not being fat and that needs to be responded to. Fat people spend a lot of time justifying being overweight and pretending like it's' not their fault they are overweight. I think that also needs a response just based on what is actually true, not out of prejudice against fat people.

[Mr.wizard]

I think most of the pressure on men comes from other men rather than women. We live in a society where men are in a constant pissing contest to be the most masculine, the most respected etc etc. That's an attitude that breeds shame around being fat. It's "biggest dick syndrome", represented in body shape.

It's the same reason there appears to be so much pressure on short men, skinny men, the list goes on. Women will have their preferences sure, I've heard women say they won't date a guy under 5'9 or a bald guy, but I still think most of the "pressure" men face is to match up to other men, not so much to impress women. Therefore it's less of a sexism issue and more our own issue, it's the hypermasculine culture that needs addressing.

I think your right, it's an alpha dog mentality, it's more of a pressure to be masculine than it is to look good. In fact I would say most guys who are considered good looking are often picked on as being pretty boys.

[GrandizerII]

Unless you have a thyroid problem (which 1/3 of The USA does not have) or a slow metabolism, you have no excuse. Even if you do have a thyroid problem, that would only make you somewhat overweight, not morbidly obese on its own.

Really? So if it's not either of those two reasons, it must be their fault? Is depression their fault? What if it was depression that indirectly led to weight problems? Or anxiety? Or stress? What if it was a learned childhood habit that they just can't control without intervention?

You think it's really that easy to control weight?

If people really could control their weight so easily, then you wouldn't have so many people who are still overweight!

[Mermaid]

I think most of the pressure on men comes from other men rather than women. We live in a society where men are in a constant pissing contest to be the most masculine, the most respected etc etc. That's an attitude that breeds shame around being fat. It's "biggest dick syndrome", represented in body shape.

It's the same reason there appears to be so much pressure on short men, skinny men, the list goes on. Women will have their preferences sure, I've heard women say they won't date a guy under 5'9 or a bald guy, but I still think most of the "pressure" men face is to match up to other men, not so much to impress women. Therefore it's less of a sexism issue and more our own issue, it's the hypermasculine culture that needs addressing.

I think your right, it's an alpha dog mentality, it's more of a pressure to be masculine than it is to look good. In fact I would say most guys who are considered good looking are often picked on as being pretty boys.

Yeah. We do all have our cultural pressures. More than one guy has been sent over the edge because if this sort of pressure too.

[Regina]

Unless you have a thyroid problem (which 1/3 of The USA does not have) or a slow metabolism, you have no excuse. Even if you do have a thyroid problem, that would only make you somewhat overweight, not morbidly obese on its own.

Really? So if it's not either of those two reasons, it must be their fault? Is depression their fault? What if it was depression that indirectly led to weight problems? Or anxiety? Or stress? What if it was a learned childhood habit that they just can't control without intervention?

You think it's really that easy to control weight?

If people really could control their weight so easily, then you wouldn't have so many people who are still overweight!

Well depression or mental illness is a bum argument because loads, probably most, people who have those issues aren't fat. The proportion of mental health sufferers who are fat is probably the same (or if more, not much more) as the overall proportion of fat people in the whole society. People who gain weight because of a stressful event are typically people who put on a relatively small amount of weight and then lose it naturally later on. And again it bears repeating the statistic, I don't believe America's 1/3 who are fat all have severe mental health issues.

You do not go from average weight, to 250+lbs, overnight or by accident. You get there by years and years of consistent lifestyle habits. I can accept it's not a choice up until that point where you start to notice "shit I'm putting on weight". If at that point you do not address it and make changes to your lifestyle, you have chosen to be obese. And like I said earlier, I actually don't have a problem with that in itself, but don't make excuses for it and don't pretend obesity is a normal, natural range of weight.

As for the learned childhood habit, that is exactly why I'm against people promoting morbid obesity as something "healthy" or "normal" in the first place. If a child grows up in an environment where it's normal to be morbidly obese, that's when they're going to end up with those habits themselves.

[Edwardo Piet]

It shows how depressing that the pressure on women from society, and the media, to lose weight has become that that is considered fat. WTF.

My roommate, now she's fat.

I wish people would fuck off making this some kind of sexism issue. The pressure on men is just as bad if not worse.

Worse? WTF.

[drfuzzy]

Late to the party and didn't read through all of the pages of this . . . but does anyone really think that the "after" picture shows a fat woman?
I think the only person who would call that woman fat is herself: a recovering anorexic who once looked in a mirror and thought she was fat when she was 15 lbs. underweight.

[Edwardo Piet]

I wish people would fuck off making this some kind of sexism issue. The pressure on men is just as bad if not worse.

Really?

Nope.

[Napoléon]

I wish people would fuck off making this some kind of sexism issue. The pressure on men is just as bad if not worse.

Worse? WTF.

If not worse.

[Mermaid]

Worse? WTF.

If not worse.

the pressure to adhere to a certain physical standard? Or just pressure in general?