Calling someone fat could be made a HATE crime.

And now calling someone ‘fatty’ should be deemed a hate crime, these MPs say.

The Government should consider putting ‘appearance-based discrimination’ on a legal par with race and sexual discrimination, the report suggests. The Equalities Act 2010 makes it unlawful to harass, victimise or discriminate against anyone because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability. The blueprint, Reflections on Body Image, recommends ‘a review into the scale of the problem of appearance-based discrimination’.

It says: ‘This may include exploring whether an amendment to the Equalities Act would be the most appropriate way of tackling discrimination.’ Around half of girls and up to one third of boys have dieted to lose weight and children, and their parents have been blamed for passing on some of their concerns about their weight and appearance.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151939/Calling-fat-hate-crime.html#ixzz1wLRUOU6o

What do you think?

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Reply 1

nash_4_lyf

Yeah its mean, but its hardly crime worthy material. I mean the government should be knuckling down on all the murders, rapes and assaults not go on. Not someone calling another person fat.

Reply 2

Norton1

The Daily Mail is worried. All of their stories are about calling celebrities too fat or too thin.

Reply 3

EmmaJane_

It's not nice to call someone fat, but there are lots of things that aren't nice that shouldn't be made a crime.

Reply 4

34253

O come on... a quarter of adults are actually obese in the UK and over half are over weight. I think we need to bring judgementalism back. Being fat is your fault, being black isn't.

Reply 5

nash_4_lyf

There is a pressure on body image, and I agree that obesity has struck the nation like theres no tommorow. But the government is one screw loose if this is now a crime.

This is a tricky one, because the last think I would want is kids in the playground being treated as criminals for calling someone a fat pig (for example) as I think this would best be dealt with in a school atmosphere by the teachers concerned. Bullying comes in all shapes and forms so to single out one type of bullying as being more important would be wrong. I mean what is the government going to do to kids in a playground calling each other “fat pig” for example. Are they going to treat them as criminals?

I don’t get this government at all. It is okay for TV programmes to show “fat” people being bullied into doing exercise and losing weight, whilst being subjected to close up images of…well…their wobbly bits. Its just humiliating. I mean calling someone fat in the street and someone doing it on TV is no different.

This is getting ridiculous now; will comedians be hauled offstage when dealing with a heckler because they've drawn attention to their excessive fat?

"Sorry sir, you're under arrest for appearance-based discrimination".

LOAD OF B***s***.

Reply 6

ScramblingtoSun

Original post by Elipsis

O come on... a quarter of adults are actually obese in the UK and over half are over weight. I think we need to bring judgementalism back. Being fat is your fault, being black isn't.

Yes, because everyone knows how good fat-shaming is for leaving people slimmer and with a better self-image of themselves.

Yes, we have a massive obesity issue. But we need to think about feeding kids good food, starting from school, and teaching them rather than shaming.

On top of that, subcutaneous obesity is NOT the unhealthiest form, the unhealthiest form is the fat that you find around your organs. Hence slim people who happen to be genetically predisposed to less skin fat might still be as unhealthy as a visibly obese person.

TL: DR shaming people doesn't work, but education does. And we do have a real problem.

Reply 7

Sgt.Incontro

Wait until the fat lady - reports you to the thought police. :evilbanana:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 8

bahjat93

Your all morbidly obese!
The whole lot of you :P

Reply 9

Rascacielos

I see the logic. In saying that it is criminal to call someone names because of their race, you are essentially putting someone's race on a different level to any other characteristic. When you start picking something like that out as a special feature of a person which mustn't be criticised, you start to do exactly what you're trying to avoid - discriminate.

That said, I can see the other side that it's a bit of a slippery slope. Where does it cease to be wrong to call someone names and become legally acceptable? You'd get to the point where it's illegal to take the mickey out of someone's accent.

Without having to look, I know some people will say "surely it's a good thing to call someone 'fatty' - they are and they need to be reminded to do something about it." Actually, I think a lot of the time that can just make things infinitely worse because the person just retreats into themselves even further and, chances are, eats more. So again, I see the logic.

But maybe name calling based on appearance is not a problem which needs to be addressed by law. I think one of the greatest problems is that a lot of people don't have any kind of moral problem with insulting someone because of their appearance. Bullies often operate to make themselves look better - it might be worthwhile addressing the fact that people often [subconsciously] encourage bullying in this sense by not taking a stand against those who do it or, even worse, laughing when they do.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 10

silverbolt

people should learn to man up.

You wont be able to call a drunk person drunk next

Reply 11

geetar

The Femail bar at the side, where at least 50% of the stories are about fatties/thinnies, is a tad ironic.

Reply 12

Aquinas

It's not even worth talking about. Should be thrown out of any MPs discussion. I reserve the right to call fat people fat because I'm making an objective observation.

Maybe these MPs should establish a weight where someone could reasonably be called fat and we can all carry scales around with us for brevity of our 'insult'.

We should be focussing on how to address the plight of obese children/women/men not by protecting their state, but encouraging them to do something about it. It's not healthy and 9/10 it's not a condition or anything, despite the fact that many could claim it so; they are probably just lazy and over-indulgent.

Reply 13

ddrrzzeerr

Its only words, nobody actually hates fat people. If you are fat then you should eat less or take the names on the chin. Calling someone fat isn't nice but it shouldn't be a crime, it is stupid for the government to ban people calling each other nasty names it isn't the school playground.

Reply 14

34253

Original post by xTazx

The main problem I have with your suggestion that it doesn't work and education does, is that as fatty shaming and judgement has decreased and education and propaganda have increased, so has obesity. One would expect with every other program on TV being about how to be thin it would have sunk in now that fewer calories and more exercise = less weight, but apparently not. 99/100 someone who is subcutaneously obese will have fat around their organs, and the majority of time someone who is skinny won't. It's a pretty good marker of health. Back before we had Gok and his brigade of idiots telling people that it was OK to be chubsters there were far fewer of them about. Now I walk through a town center and it's fat city, I swear people must IV chip fat into their arms to get that big.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 15

HighestKungFu

Hate crime should only concern aspects of a person that cannot be changed or controlled by them, e.g. race, gender, disabilities. Being fat is something that can fluctuate, and can also be controlled by the person who is fat.

It is preposterous to propose making calling someone fat a hate crime. Granted I don't agree with verbally abusing someone who is fat (unless it is friendly banter) but to make it an actual crime is wrong.

Reply 16

Genocidal

I'll be honest, if someone was fat then I would continue to see them in that light.

I don't think it will make a damn bit of difference as people who want to be racist or sexist don't tend to give a crap about whether it's a 'hate crime' or not.