'Fat' Comments Should Be Illegal

Read this article, including statistics such as:



Quite clearly these aren't "unusual circumstances" any more. They're becoming more and more prevalent.

The whole premise of that study is farcical. Firstly, we are talking about teenagers and young children, is it really a surprise when they respond to things in an immature way. Those signs aren't necessarily signals of eating disorders they are just kids regurgitating the behaviour of others. There is a real difference between a five year old saying he/she needs to lose weight because they saw it on tv and someone with an eating disorder who genuinely feels the need to change their body via extreme behaviour. In a society where a significant proportion of people are overweight it is inevitable that children are going to come into contact with the idea of weight lose, and being children they will emulate it in a twisted fashion as children do with all adult behaviour. The issue isn't the presence of people criticising fat people but the fact that no one is telling them it doesn't apply to them.

Secondly missing meals isn't actually an unhealthy behaviour. If you genuinely need to lose weight, skipping a meal is perfectly fine as long as it is done in combination with the right behaviour.

I'm not sure I see the issue with people aspiring to have the body shape shown in magazines as long as the pictures are of people at a healthy weight. If the problem is that they are damaging their bodies to do it then the solution is just better education. If the issue is that they are too young then I question why 5-10 year olds are being given magazines of this kind and aren't being told by their parents that this sort of thing doesn't apply to them.


All this study really illustrates is that children don't know the correct techniques for maintaining a healthy physique and are subsequently getting it wrong. There is nothing wrong with being health conscious even at a young age, this just needs to be paired with an understanding of what to do and what to avoid. Fat comments are only an issue when we criticise without providing the right tools to improve.


At no point do I think we should "tell people to eat what they want". I am extremely in favour of healthy lifestyles, improved education on healthcare. Your last two sentences are completely correct - we do need these things. I just think that the media telling people that they are fat is not good - it's not their call, and it's often not their area of expertise. Telling people that they need to lose weight is something that needs to be done sensitively and privately by a medical expert.

Except that people should be free to have opinions on things, when someone does something they need to accept people will have a variety of views, both positive and negative. The problem here isn't people being unpleasant to each other, the issue is that people seem to think they have the right to do whatever they like and still have everyone's support.

The media does not call Jennifer Lawrence fat the media loves her and she can't do any wrong in their eyes. She's kicking up a fuss over nothing.

Why should we show tolerance for fat people? It's a massive, expensive epidemic that's costing us millions a year. No we should not show toleration for it.

And the cigarette analogy is so stupid. The reason smoking is regulated in film is because we don't want to increase cigarette use and addiction. We don't want to show tolerance for it. Banning fat comments does the absolute reverse to something as equally as damaging as cigarettes, it shows tolerance for obesity.

I don't understand, I find it so incomprehensible that we show such a judgemental intolerance and disdain for people with drug and alcohol addiction, when we're told to show complete acceptance for fat people. Look at how Nigella is being treated by society for her cocaine addiction. Yet people like Adele are adored for their addiction to food.

When will the government crack down on obesity? Not even obesity, they should crack down on being overweight, crack down on the overconsumption of food in general.
It is not normal for humans to be overweight, it is costly and signifies everything wrong with the western world- greed and lack of control.

The media loves pointing out features in people that make them less-than-'perfect'. be it their weight (both over and underweight), clothing, the food they eat and any other aspect of someone's life, even more so when they're famous.

Maybe not illegal to call someone fat, but the media really shouldn't concern themselves with trivial matters, but then again that's the only way they think they can make money.

'Fat' is a descriptive word, it's ambiguous as to what level makes someone 'fat', but due to the ambiguity and the misuse of the word that's where the problem is.

[[Fat is also a noun, but in the context here it's a verb]]

First of all that wouldn't work, and second of all how is it wrong for the people with those bodies to put it out there? If we're going all 'self-acceptance' then you need to accept people with socially stereotypical 'hot' bodies shouldn't be shoved aside simply because some people are jealous.

What exactly is 'hateful' about offering ways to lose weight and tips on how to exercise?

I disagree that it wouldn't work. People's behaviour does change and it can change faster given the right push. The problem with celebrating 'hot' bodies is that it reduces us to our physicality and is hugely demoralising for those who cannot live up to the ideal. Particularly when that ideal is achieved through air-brushing, lighting, camera angles, and a punishing diet and beauty regime. The concept of 'hot' isn't set in stone but is rather up for grabs and it would be good if the messages implicit in a lot of the media changed to a more realistic and healthy conception of appearance (that also found room to celebrate things not as trivial as mere looks).

You could make that same argument about any aspect of someone. If we value intelligence, less intelligent people might be demoralised and not bother to try; if we value good will and charity, people will make a competition out of who can raise the most; if we value personality, people will make any attempt to change theirs if they feel it doesn't conform to some situational/societal norm. All of those things can lead to an 'ideal' life as much as staying healthy will. Staying healthy shouldn't be excluded from something that is valued within society. To quote South Park's Eric Cartman on this matter:

"I'm not fat. I have a different life choice!"

If people have a life choice to be fat then that's their choice; it shouldn't, however, give them the right to tell others that their lifestyle is better than anyone else's or should be promoted as healthy. Imagine if our society was overpopulated with obesity: how many problems do you think that would cause?

I think fatties should be fed to Africa.

You're saying that you can't be overweight and healthy? There are probably obese people out there which are more healthy than normal weight people.

Being overweight has been linked to a reduction in risk for various chronic diseases. Although I'm not saying being overweight is necessarily a good thing, but it may be beneficial in some aspects of modern society. There's a similar situation with alcohol, having too much is considered dangerous and linked with increased mortality, but having small amount of alcohol is shown to be beneficial.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/obesity-paradox.htm




So being overweight is solely dependent on food consumption per individual, and has absolutely nothing to do with amount of exercise, energy expenditure or genetics? If being fat isn't a favourable trait, it would've died out. You should do more reading before commenting on the topic.

You could make that same argument about any aspect of someone. If we value intelligence, less intelligent people might be demoralised and not bother to try; if we value good will and charity, people will make a competition out of who can raise the most; if we value personality, people will make any attempt to change theirs if they feel it doesn't conform to some situational/societal norm. All of those things can lead to an 'ideal' life as much as staying healthy will. Staying healthy shouldn't be excluded from something that is valued within society. To quote South Park's Eric Cartman on this matter:

"I'm not fat. I have a different life choice!"

If people have a life choice to be fat then that's their choice; it shouldn't, however, give them the right to tell others that their lifestyle is better than anyone else's or should be promoted as healthy. Imagine if our society was overpopulated with obesity: how many problems do you think that would cause?

To me that is near enough a perfect body. I don't see how anyone could call her fat. The only type of people who could are those who are just horrible deep down and can't find a fault with her so go for the easy and often damaging option they know will hurt due to the insecurities many women have because of the society we live in.

If anything she is slightly too skinny for my liking but she's healthy and gorgeous nonetheless.

She has like no boobs with bloodhound eyes, no where near perfect.

I believe in moderate fat shaming comments as a former fatty tbh, that's the only way I put down the cake. I think I would've ate myself to oblivion.

What does moderate fat shaming entail?