Quote:
Originally Posted by acidzebra
Weight challenged? Now I've heard it all.
I'm with you on many things, in particular that we shouldn't be intentionally cruel or hurtful to people. But I have a bit of a problem comparing people making fun of overweight people to, say, people hating on homosexuals or people being racist pricks.
There are a small number of people who have glandular or other problems which cause their obesity, however, unless the genes causing these problems have magically spread like wildfire through specific parts of the western world like the US and the UK and to a lesser degree other prosperous countries, I can't really see obesity as anything else than poor lifestyle choices with regards to eating and exercise over a long period of time (and sometimes even over generations) for the vast majority of obese people. You can't change your skin color or sexual orientation, but you do have control over what you eat and the amount of exercise your body get.
Note that I am not making any statements about which group you belong to; I don't know you. I realise this is a sensitive topic, I was a chubby in elementary school and got pestered something awful; I grew out of it. The last three years or so I have let my eating discipline slip while moving into a more and more sedentary lifestyle and I gained about 25 kg. I quit smoking half a year ago and since I didn't want to gain another 10 kg I started tracking what I was eating obsessively and took up sports and exercise again; I lost 20 kg of blubber (possibly more, I also gained quite a bit of muscle mass). Not by any kind of hardcore diet; just watching what I eat (and what was in it - chips and crisps are evil!) and moving a little more.
In case anyone is interested, here is a freeware and open source bit of cross-platform (java) software which allows you to track your eating habits and will tell you how you are doing in terms of calories, proteins, fat, vitamins, minerals. Track your habits for a few days and be honest about your food consumption; you might be surprised. I know I was. It helped me see where my eating habits were, well, wrong and helped me make some simple corrections which in turn helped me lose weight and feel better by virtue of giving my body what it needs.
http://spaz.ca/cronometer/ |
The term weight-challenged is my slight dig at the other <fill in the blank> challenged politically correct terms we use here in the US.
I wasn't as concerned with the PETA advert as I was with the notion that it is okay to poke fun or be abusive towards overweight people. Obviously by my posting in the first place, I belong in the overweight category. Obesity is not a choice. One of the biggest misconceptions, in my opinion, is that overweight people are that way because they have no self-control or our lazy. There are any number of factors that add to weight gain, both physical and emotional. I agree that being obese is not the same as skin color, however, (and I'm not one of them) some people believe that sexual orientation is a choice. Whatever you believe, using a stereotypical group of people, any group of people, as the brunt of a joke is offensive.
I am of the belief that people are entitled to their opinions and to make their own life choices, even PETA has the right to make the comments that they have. I just wonder why the PC police doesn't find it offensive when a section of our population is singled out for abuse.