[Formerly Helpful_C]

I pray that the members of this fine website can forgive me for the following link - not only for the destination, but also because of the pictures:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...e-web-hit.html

Having struggled to hold my food down, I proceeded to the comment section and expected to see a cauldron of hate. Much to my shock, the majority of the comments channelled their dislike towards the slimmer woman. Now, I have been known to be a maverick, but why is society so focused on the extremes (fat v skinny)? What about those who fall in-between these extremes? Why don't the media focus more on these people, rather than the occasional 60 stone teenager? These are the 'real' people. I understand that they wouldn't sell as many newspapers because there would be a distinct lack of controversy, but why is that a bad thing? Why must we always find something to hate?


As a side point, anyone who thinks that those pictures are acceptable (health wise) needs help. I'd much rather be the skinniest nation in Europe than the fattest.

[amirlad]

Using your example, who cares about someone who is slightly overweight/underweight? furthermore, who cares about an obese person and a skinny person? no one, but everyone loevs to watch morbidly obese people, and anorexic people; that's why supersize v superskinny is sucha popular tv show

My point is that extremes are abnormal, noteworthy, and therefore we hear about them more, so we dont live in a society of extremes, we just live in a society where people only care about the extremes

[willbee]

(Original post by Formerly Helpful_C)
I pray that the members of this fine website can forgive me for the following link - not only for the destination, but also because of the pictures:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...e-web-hit.html

Having struggled to hold my food down, I proceeded to the comment section and expected to see a cauldron of hate. Much to my shock, the majority of the comments channelled their dislike towards the slimmer woman. Now, I have been known to be a maverick, but why is society so focused on the extremes (fat v skinny)? What about those who fall in-between these extremes? Why don't the media focus more on these people, rather than the occasional 60 stone teenager? These are the 'real' people. I understand that they wouldn't sell as many newspapers because there would be a distinct lack of controversy, but why is that a bad thing? Why must we always find something to hate?


As a side point, anyone who thinks that those pictures are acceptable (health wise) needs help. I'd much rather be the skinniest nation in Europe than the fattest.

They're businesses, and the most basic point of a business is to make a profit to pay its employees.

I also think the people that concern themselves with being bothered about this sort of stuff (e.g hating on fat and skinny people), generally don't have much else in their lives to be concerned with. If you get your kicks out of putting other people down, then I pity you. I think it is true that the negative responses to these people reflect our own insecurities, but to expect the news to make stories about normal people is to expect them to volunteer to stop making a profit.

I once read a newspaper called "The Good News" and as much as I wanted the articles in it to be good and interesting, as positive as they were, I wasn't interested at all.

[Formerly Helpful_C]

(Original post by amirlad)
Using your example, who cares about someone who is slightly overweight/underweight? furthermore, who cares about an obese person and a skinny person? no one, but everyone loevs to watch morbidly obese people, and anorexic people; that's why supersize v superskinny is sucha popular tv show

My point is that extremes are abnormal, noteworthy, and therefore we hear about them more, so we dont live in a society of extremes, we just live in a society where people only care about the extremes

That's exactly the message I conveyed. Well done on repeating it.

[amirlad]

(Original post by Formerly Helpful_C)
That's exactly the message I conveyed. Well done on repeating it.

No need to get shirty mate, not my fault you made a stupid thread

[A.J10]

Because extremes are extreme. They are more different and therefore more interesting to hear about.

Someon above mentioned supersized vs superskinny. There's a dozen other programmes like "The biggest loser" and such. They aren't "let's all feel for this poor sod", most of the entertainment comes from "Run fatty, run!"

OK, maybe a bit over the top, but the point of these shows is to look at strange people. Same goes for quite a few about the people with the disabilities, as well as reality TV.

[I don't actually like this stuff, please don't be angry at me]

To put it another way:
Would the apprentice be interesting if it had people not messing up simple tasks in stupid ways?
Would "I need to lose/gain a couple of pounds" be more interesting than "I can't walk more than 10 minutes without stopping for a breath"?
Would "ordinary guy meets ordinary girl" be more interesting than whatever that show Paddy McGuinness is on is called?
Would "My kids sometimes don't want to go to bed" be more interesting than Supernanny?

You see it with the news as well, although I'll leave this video to explain this point:

[Formerly Helpful_C]

(Original post by amirlad)
No need to get shirty mate, not my fault you commented on a stupid thread

^^

[amirlad]

(Original post by Formerly Helpful_C)
^^

lol fair enough, but your silly question has been answered by 3 or 4 pertinent posts

[Somethingundecided]

I actually thought the second girl in the black and white bikini was quite pretty, despite her size. I guess she wears her weight well.