Thread: Fat Shaming

Originally Posted by AlyssaEimers

I have never met an overweight person that does not feel judged about their weight.

I agree completely.

I agree with Alissa too, and Melis, I think you don't really get the depth of this one. This isn't a handful of people with opinions. Kids pick on the fat kid, not the kid who exercises too much. The judgment is always there on overweight people, and the messages come not JUST through whispers or comments but through the clothing that's even available in stores. We live in a culture that actually has a real clothing size called ZERO. How could anyone be a size zero? But there it is.

The pressure is tremendous and it's everywhere. Ideally people wouldn't be affected but it but in a practical day-to-day sense, most people are. Ask anyone who has lost or gained a large amount of weight and they will tell you that they have been treated differently.

Yeah, I don't think that its me not getting the depth, just not agreeing with you. And why is it okay to mock a size zero or act like that isn't a real size? Back to this "real women" stuff? That would drives me crazy, if I let it.

Originally Posted by Potter75

Yeah, I don't think that its me not getting the depth, just not agreeing with you. And why is it okay to mock a size zero or act like that isn't a real size? Back to this "real women" stuff? That would drives me crazy, if I let it.

I'm not mocking people who are that size. I'm mocking clothing manufacturers for having a SIZE ZERO. Zero is empty, it's nothing. It means that we are working to keep those numbers low for our egos instead of having realistic measurements like men's clothing has. I have no issues with women who are a size zero but I have issues with an industry that doesn't create nice clothing in the size that is supposedly average across the country.

Originally Posted by freddieflounder101

I'm not mocking people who are that size. I'm mocking clothing manufacturers for having a SIZE ZERO. Zero is empty, it's nothing. It means that we are working to keep those numbers low for our egos instead of having realistic measurements like men's clothing has. I have no issues with women who are a size zero but I have issues with an industry that doesn't create nice clothing in the size that is supposedly average across the country.

I don't know if I understand what you mean. What does ones ego have to do with having a small frame?

Originally Posted by Potter75

I don't know if I understand what you mean. What does ones ego have to do with having a small frame?

It's not about being that small, it's about what that size is CALLED. It's also about the fact that a size 8 in one store is completely different in another, based on the type (size) of customer that clothing manufacturer wants to have wearing their clothes.

Originally Posted by freddieflounder101

It's not about being that small, it's about what that size is CALLED. It's also about the fact that a size 8 in one store is completely different in another, based on the type (size) of customer that clothing manufacturer wants to have wearing their clothes.

*blushing* All things being equal, if two pairs of pants both fit me, but one is a smaller size (meaning, the brand name decided to call those measurements a size 8 for example, and the other brand decided to call it a size 10) then I totally buy the smaller size, even knowing rationally that *I* am the same size in both pairs of pants. *blushing* That stuff works, sadly. LOL

I don't know. Fat shaming feels uncomfy to me, it doesn't sit right with me. I can get behind shaming the behavior or the actions, but not the weight, if that makes any sense. In some ways, I would say that this is the culture that I live in. In my peer group, it is not acceptable or normal to eat McD's, serve junk to kids, or not be active. Our entire city embraces a different lifestyle. I don't know that we openly shame people for other choices, but they are certainly "not socially approved" like they are in other parts of the country IME.

And I won't get into the who has it worse, the super thin vs. the heavy, except to say that again, IME, it seems socially acceptable to comment on the weight of those who are very thin, while it is not acceptable to comment or discuss the weight of others. As if thin people just accidentally are that way. I liken it to the FF v BF moms who both argue that they are stigmatized heavily for their choices, even though the vast majority of moms FF.

I think it is all tangled up in a lifestyle choices, nutrition, food supply, funding, policy decisions that have affected behavior patterns and education. There won't be one single strategy that is effective at fixing this one.

Originally Posted by Potter75

I guess. But when 2/3's of Americans are overweight its just a little hard for me to accept that people who are in the overwhelming majority feel that judged about their bodies. They look like *most* Americans! Do people really still compare themselves to a microfraction of the population (models etc)? There is also judgement on people who love to workout (narcissist! Shallow!) or on people who have tattoos, or who get cosmetic surgery, or who have strange piercings, or whatever. We can choose to accept or not accept that judgment, to let it bother us or not.

Just a question. I think it's more like 1/3. Too high still but are you under the assumption that it is 2/3?

Originally Posted by bunnyfufu

Just a question. I think it's more like 1/3. Too high still but are you under the assumption that it is 2/3?

From what I see 1/3 are technically qualified as OBESE, 2/3's overweight. And I know people are going to complain that BMI is a bad tool, and it is, for bodybuilders and the extremely muscular. For most average people, it is a fairly accurate predictor of too much weight on their body for their height. The people who ARE muscle bound (as I was when I was marathon training, a year ago, its amazing what muscle weighs!) aren't generally the ones complaining about BMI as they know that their body fat is very low even if they weigh more.

[QUOTE]

Adult Overweight and Obesity in the U.S.

Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese (Flegal et al., 2012). In general, rates of overweight and obesity are higher for African-American and Hispanic women than Caucasian women, higher for Hispanic men than Caucasian and African-American men, higher in the South and Midwest, and tend to increase with age (Flegal et al., 2012; Gregg et al., 2009; Sherry et al., 2010). Research also shows that the heaviest Americans have become even heavier the past decade (Beydoun & Wang, 2009).

(from here )

From the predictions that are being made, this is what the scenario could be in 2030

About 32 million more Americans will become obese by 2030, upping obesity rates to 42 percent of the U.S. population, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report also predicts that the proportion of Americans who are severely obese, meaning more than 100 pounds overweight, will reach 11 percent, about double the current rate.
The report’s authors give a sobering price tag for these predictions: such an increase would create $550 billion of obesity-related health care costs.

This is just an opinion piece, but I do agree with it.

I’m not sure I know the answer, but I live in a county with the lowest obesity rate in California: 16%. And seeing healthy looking people out and about helps. It certainly helped trigger me into thinking that I wasn’t as healthy as I had previous thought. When I lived in areas where decidedly more people were obese, well, it just seemed more normal.It’s a hard conversation for many to hear. So much body image and self-worth bound and wound together with each pound. But when we talk about healthy weight, about striving for a BMI of 19-25, we are not ascribing blame or wrong doing. We are not saying bad or good. We are talking about health. About reducing diabetes risk. About reducing the risk for cancer. About preventing a knee replacement.Normalization of what is common happens to all of us. It doesn’t mean we are bad people it’s just human nature. But it’s also one more reason why we need to keep talking about healthy weight. No matter how difficult the conversation.

What the people who are around you look like is HUGE in shaping what you see as "normal" IMO. I don't think that its fair to call someone who is a zero a "nothing" or "empty" or tell them that that isn't a real size or that their size is ego related, any more than it is to call someone names for being a large size. The shaming and recrimination is on both sides of the aisle, IMO.