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Dear Fat People

A response to the referenced video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20It-Z8qJKI
 
Just keep in mind that some soul singers are overweight. People don't typically 'fat shame' Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifa or other people with a big build. A fair number of men in hip hop and r&b are also overweight, and that actually becomes part of their schtick. A bunch of jazz musicians are overweight. They live a lifestyle where all their energy gets poured into music, and they tend to maintain in a laid back, creative state of mind that isn't always conducive to working out. Maybe a 'pop' star is supposed to be different. I don't know.

I find that when I'm really in work-out mode, it's as though my whole day has to revolve around it---when I eat meals, the kinds of foods I eat, making sure I get enough rest, controlling my energy level, and so on. If you're working 60 hours/week, that becomes almost impossible to maintain.
 
Gameface said:
You think her being fat will lead teenages to make the concious decision to become fat? Or you think by seeing how cruel we are to her it will make them think twice about eating that second jelly doughnut?
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Actually, it can have just the opposite effect. My wife was obese as a child and teen. She had an eating disorder. And fat shaming just caused her to eat even more. She escaped low self-esteem and depression by eating that "second jelly doughnut" every day.

I'm sure none of you have any problems at all. But there are MANY people who deal with personal problems or depression by turning to any number of temporary solutions to relieve or "forget" their problems: drugs, alcohol, shopping, pornography, sex, thrill seeking, eating (whether it be overeating or curling up with that carton of Haagen-Dazs or box of chocolates).

You also have to consider DNA and metabolism. I had a boss who ate anything and everything. Most of his dinners were at restaurants. He didn't really work out but NEVER put on weight. We all hated him for it!

Some people put on weight easily, even on reasonable caloric intake. It's hard to raise the set point that their bodies have. Others could consume the same number of calories, have virtually the same amount of exercise and lose weight.
 
https://www.foxnews.com/health/2015...tes-or-pre-diabetes-study-says/?intcmp=hphz02

New research suggests that half of all U.S. adults have diabetes or pre-diabetes.

The study of government health surveys echoes previous research and shows numbers increased substantially between 1988 and 2012 although they mostly leveled off after 2008. Overall, 12 percent to 14 percent of adults had diagnosed diabetes in 2012, the latest data available. Most of that is Type 2 diabetes, the kind linked with obesity and inactivity.

Almost 40 percent have pre-diabetes, meaning elevated blood sugar levels that could lead to full-fledged disease. Studies have shown lifestyle changes can delay or prevent diabetes in these people.

Whites had lower diabetes rates than Hispanics, blacks and Asian-Americans.

The study is based on surveys involving in-home exams and questionnaires. It was published in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
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https://emergencymedicinecases.com/obesity-emergency-management/

Current estimates of the prevalence of obesity are that a quarter of adult Canadians and one third of Americans are considered obese with approximately 3% being morbidly obese. With the proportion of patients with a BMI>30 growing every year, you’re likely to manage at least one obese patient on every ED shift. Obese patients are at high risk of developing a host of medical complications including diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, biliary disease, sleep apnea, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary embolism and depression, and are less likely compared to non-obese adults to receive timely care in the ED.

Not only are these patients at higher risk for morbidity and mortality, but obesity emergency management is complicated by the patient’s altered cardiopulmonary physiology and drug metabolism. This can make their acute management much more challenging and dangerous. To help us gain a deeper understanding of the challenges of managing obese patients and elucidate a number of important differences as well as practical approaches to obesity emergency management, we welcome Dr. Andrew Sloas, the founder and creator of the fantastic pediatric EM podcast PEM ED, Dr. Richard Levitan, a world-famous airway management educator and innovator and Dr. David Barbic a prominent Canadian researcher in obesity in emergency medicine from University of British Columbia….
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It's a great listen if there are any of you that are future medical professionals in any capacity.
 
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God, America is becoming so ****ing dumb. If you're fat, save for a thyroid disease, you deserve to be called fat. Especially if you're in an industry where "looks" is a major component of your job. As time progresses, it seems like people to want to be held less and less accountable for their own actions.
 
magic said:
God, America is becoming so ****ing dumb. If you're fat, save for a thyroid disease, you deserve to be called fat. Especially if you're in an industry where "looks" is a major component of your job. As time progresses, it seems like people to want to be held less and less accountable for their own actions.
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not everybody can eat as much dick as you can keep a trim waist.
 
I do not think it appropriate or in good taste to engage in public fat shaming. One thing about fat shaming--it's usually directed toward women. Kelly Clarkson is shamed for gaining weight, has anyone noticed, or cared, how fat Billy Joel or Elton John have gotten? If it's not an issue for them, why is it an issue for Clarkson?

With the said, obesity is a real and serious public health issue in the US, and it is absolutely appropriate to talk about it. However, I'm very skeptical that fat shaming will accomplish anything productive toward any public health goal of reducing obesity.
 
Siro said:
Do you think if the answer is yes, then it is acceptable? I'm curious. I had a discussion with a friend about the ethics of the anti-tobacco campaign of the last 2 decades. We both agreed that much of it can be considered a form of public shaming, and that they proved effective in significantly decreasing the number of smokers (in part). In fact, they created a cultural change of attitude toward smoking that isn't seen in the rest of the developed world, specially among the young (how does your son feel about it?). But do the ends justify the means? It is a really difficult calculation to make.
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If the anti-tobacco campaigns have been successful, are you confident about your intepretation of the causal mechanism? Maybe there's something else going on here to explain the results other than public shaming is an effective technique to change unhealthy health/lifestyle habits.
 
Siro said:
But surely critics also have as much of a right to voice their opinion as they please. Your original argument was that it would not induce change. I am not so sure. I have lived in two different cultures, and I know the depth at which cultural norms influence people's behavior. Forget about vicious shaming and bullying. We're talking about people expressing disapproval of being seriously overweight in order to change social norms. Now assuming it does work, what would be the disadvantage of going down that road, as opposed to accepting fatness as a neutral personal choice?
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Fat shaming has been going on for a very, very long time. My sister was overweight as a child and mercillessly ridiculed by her peers. Guess what? She got fatter. I'm not trying to generalize from an N of 1, however, I'm skeptical that public shaming and ridiculing fat people will change behavior significantly. As I said, making fun of fat people has been around since I was a child, and today there is a mutlti-billion dollar diet industry, meanwhile, we (as a society) have only gotten fatter.
 
MVP said:
I think we underestimate how much influence celebrities and famous people can have on kids. Now she is fat and that sends a message to kids that, hey if Clarkson with her 30 mil net worth can remain fat, why would I bother to eat healthy and exercise or worry about my health? Would we shame somebody for smoking and doing drugs? Equally unhealthy life style choices IMHO.
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MVP said:
I think we underestimate how much influence celebrities and famous people can have on kids. Now she is fat and that sends a message to kids that, hey if Clarkson with her 30 mil net worth can remain fat, why would I bother to eat healthy and exercise or worry about my health? Would we shame somebody for smoking and doing drugs? Equally unhealthy life style choices IMHO.
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Or,on the other hand, kids who struggle with weight and who are consistently reminded of this and who, as a result, suffer from low self-esteem and self-loathing might look at Clarkson as a good role model, showing them that being overweight does not diminish one's inherent worth. I guarantee you, fat children already know they're fat, as they are reminded about it on a daily basis. If this type of ridicule worked, no one would be fat. But having lived with a sibling who's suffered from fat shaming since childhood, I can say first hand just how devestatingly destructive this shaming can be on one's sense of self-worth. No minor public health benefit the might accrue from ritualized fat shaming can ever come close to compensating for the human emotional and phsychological damages it causes.
 
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