FATTIST

Er, I think people are fattist because they think being morbidly obese is 1) disgusting 2) evidence of lack of control and self indulgence

it's a ridiculous notion.

As said, people tend to associate obesity with 'bad health', but it's a combination of not wanting to see 'unhealthy' people and the attitude to the aesthetic of it which stems from the problems shookout describes.

Some of it is based on conspicuous overconsumption - but then there isn't generally the same level of open dislike for people with expensive clothes, cars, houses etc.

I think the control thing is key: if I spent a great deal of time and energy trying to control my bodyweight (and clearly I don't) I'd probably resent people who didn't do that, and if they also seemed happy with not doing that I might well subconsciously try and make them feel unhappy.

To be honest though as a fat guy I haven't ever really felt the lash of fattist prejudice. I think it's much much worse for fat women.

By which I mean, surely SOME people in the world are fat or even obese purely because they eat too much of the 'wrong' food and don't exercise enough to counter that.

well of course.. but that's the same with ALL kinds of stereotyping isn't it? you can almost see a conservatives campaign to try and drive out fat people from our country (omg they're crippling the NHS!! physically!! to the hospital floor!!)

i think this is mentioned before too on another thread but in some cultures being chubby is a GOOD thing. and the health thing is kind of strange too it's not like smokers get laughed at when they smoke a cigarette (nobody goes like "haha hey look that smokey is smoking again!! ooh his lung's so black it's worth 7 points")

And smokers are constantly berated--I'd say smoking at this point in time has been more or less "decooled."

Don't worry New Labour have set up a focus group to look in to this idea

What about Santa Claus?

Someone shouted out "Oi Santa!" at me outside Sainsbury's in December!

So, I think I feel a sense of pity - and not disgust.

All the female relatives on my dads side ballooned after having children, but it suits them and there doesn't seem to be as much prejudice again big ladies in the Caribbean.

I'm not going to pretend that i gained the weight for reasons other than stuffing my face with junk for years on end. I was an emotional overeater, since i've managed to stop using food as a crutch for everything that was wrong in my life the weight's dropped off.

I'd suggest you do not read the ipso fatso thread.

i eat like a pacman. I weight like 9 stone and i recently lost 2kg from going to the gym. you have to figure out whether you're an EATIST or a FATTIST.

lauren .. I kind of think that losing 15 pounds is harder than losing 100. That last bit of weight is very hard to take off. But the hard part is getting started and sticking with it.

otm! i was hyper-metabolic for years - eating whatever and gaining nothing - not having car helped a little perhaps as i did a fair bit of walking for a Londoner (or near enough) although there are exceptions.

oh dave i have already changed my habits a little - i started doing a lot more exercise than i had through the winter and it's already showing as i've been losing weight regularly (my aim really though is to keep my weight as it is but this isn't too bad as i had a slight chubb on the belly to start with)

That's only true because if you drink the beer you still need the food. Beer's fattening but not as much as you might think. One good slice of wholemeal bread, totally dry, is more fattening than a bottle of beer.

If you're in such a bad way that you can't come up with anything to make you feel better other than a tube of Pringles and a tub of Carte d'Or, that's what you'll go for. That's hard for people to understand when they haven't been in that situation, just like mental ill-health is hard to understand. The two often go hand in hand, but mental ill-health often carries less of a stigma because it is (or can be) more hideable than extra weight.

but then i eat copious amounts of rice, and god i love curry. i spent my entire summer's earning of 2000 on curries during one year of uni!

steve I already play a lot of footie!! you just need to join in one of these days ;))))

rowr only becomes repulsion/carcrash-style-horror-spectacle when fat crosses the line between er sensual and gluttonous. sensual perhaps isn't exactly the right word but close enough: tell me music and sex and food and dancing and drinking etc aren't all inextricably tied up with each other and i will larf in your face. how/how much/whether someone looks like they enjoy all these sensual things is a lot to do with how attractive they are... gimme a man with a tummy anytime over one of those straight-up-and-down ones made entirely from bones who look like they never allow themselves anything luxurious/indulgent. you're gonna have a better time with someone who looks like they find pleasure in things: that's sexy.

but then when you see those people who're so enormous they can't walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath - how does someone get to the point where moving around starts to be an issue for them and not think "whoa hang on, best do something about this, and fast"? the ones who can't get into or out of a chair without using their arms like cranes, the ones on jerry springer or whatever who're having to be lifted out of their bed cos they're spilling over the sides of it... no one's gonna have a good time with them, themselves inluded. you can feel sorry for them - they must be SO unhappy with themselves, and probably were in the first place to not value themselves enough to stop themselves from getting into this state. they're certainly not getting any pleasure from anything... seriously unpleasant and debilitating vicious circle.

I think we need a new FAK.

OTM. i'm overweight but i eat VERY NORMALLY and i walk a lot. i'm passionate about food, yes, and if i really wanted to i guess i could eat more salads, but as it is there's nothing hideously wrong with my eating habits. in fact this past week i've mostly been eating clif bars and fruit.

I used to eat a ton of junk food when stressed as a teenager & was chubby for a while in college. It's very tough. I wasn't fat but happened to live with a couple girls who were like a petite size 2 and I felt like such a cow, and yet kind of invisible at the same time. To be honest I don't think I've totally got rid of that feeling though I happen to be rather underweight right now.

I'm fat, people insult me from passing cars. People in shops ignore me constantly.

I don't ever sit down and eat a whole box or cookies or eat pawfuls of lunch meat from my meaty paws. I do eat too much, but it's not junk, it's good food. I just have trouble knowing when enough is enough.

When you feel so low about how you've let yourself get, everything becomes difficult.

Like I said, when I walk the streets people insult me, I can ride a bike although I'd dearly love to, I can't swim because frankly I don't think other people should have to see me in swimwear. I do weights, and I do walk late at night when people can't see me, but it's very very difficult.

Sure, I shouldn't have let myself get this big. But I can't dwell on that now, I have to work with what I've got. But arseholes yelling shit out at me or ignoring me and generally treating me like a second class citizen doesn't make it any easier for me to reach my goal. If you want to help a fat person, be supportive or say nothing.

We know we're fat already.

"maria is the indie rock mama cass" [via]

excuse me while i go choke on a sandwich!

the entire lot of them should go live in that resort in mexico and stop plaguing my eyesight with their ugliness. sorry if thats not the "sympathetic" response or whatever, but fuck it, i think they're gross.

How about all the people who can't even try to treat fellow human beings with some kind of basic level of decency.. just leave on a shuttle for the sun? jesus christ, how do some people sleep at night. If I happened to go to the kind of nightclub where they'd let me in the door specifically because I'm thin and dress well, do you know how much time I'd have to waste figuring out that you were an asshole?

The sorta combination of rage and bafflement I feel about a lot of the comments on this thread reminds me of some article I ran across in some magazine in the supermarket, where this dude was going on and on about how picky he was about women and would only date the ones who wore perfectly matched designer bra and panty sets at all times. It was so amazing, the guy was like the champion psycho useless fucktard of the entire planet.. and bragging about it!

i think we all know the answer to that.

The magazine articles on the other hand are just intended to make you insecure so you'll buy shit from their advertisers. Like Lisa Simpson once said, "Just don't look".

Bravo.

xpost? I certainly hope so!

otm - i think this is what i was getting at earlier.

-- Onimo (gerry.wat...), April 24th, 2005. (GerryNemo)

even better is when overweight people accuse others on the internet of being fatties

I FOUND IT OUT, I FOUND IT OUT. And, surprise, dude was thin as a rail when he hooked up with Lady Friend in Question. The weight gain occurred post-fact. Granted he has gained like three people since then but VERY thin dude at relationship-beginning. So, back to the drawing board with this.

im not intolerant of fat people. just intolerant of fat people in terms of going out with them. im also prejudiced against fat people in terms of music videos. i mean, i love spotlight by jennifer hudson but i like to see sexy people when i watch R&B videos. kinda ruins it to see hudson there.

dude, she's hot.

same for missy. unless shes wearing a massive black bag or something, is it really necessary?

D- trolling

Yeah, pretty weak.

is it really necessary?

for you to get an erection when watching MTV? i don't know, you tell me.

come on guys, he's entitled never to have fat people enter his field of vision

ay dude if u wouldnt get on jennifer hudson u should reconsider ur life choices

so how did you feel about MIA?

Maybe put aside a bit of spare cash every month and buy her a gastric band for her 18th birthday?

i never knew you could get a yellow card for trolling.

but point taken.