It's Not Weightism. You're Just Obese.
While the Democrats publicly grapple with their own faux liberalism -- who's a "lucky" black man and what's a "typical" white person -- researchers at Yale university would have you believe there is another, insidious "ism" that is even more widespread than racism, sexism and age bias.
They call it Weightism.
Let's call it discrimination against, oh, Plus Sized-Americans.
According to the researchers whose report is published in the International Journal of Obesity (and, yeah, there really is such a thing) apparently Weightism is so prevalent because, unlike other isms "there are no federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of weight, and only Michigan has such a law."
Sorry, but it's a little...no, actually it's a whole lot insulting to equate girth with race, gender, age or sexual orientation; aspects of ourselves with which we were born and over which -- except, apparently, for Jimmy Kimmel -- we have no control.
I can't change my race or my gender. Despite my best efforts and millions of dollars spent trying to locate the fountain of youth, I just keep getting older. Yet, same as millions of Americans I can moderate the number of Big Macs I shove in my pie-hole.
But in the Everybody-Give-Me-A-Hug victim culture in which we live, the obese want a spot at the table along with those who face discrimination based on the way that God or Nature or our Intelligent Designer created us.
For the vast majority of those who are obese -- those with a Body Mass Index over 30 -- their size is their choice. They choose to take in more calories than they burn. They choose to take in high fat calories over low-fat ones. They choose to fad diet, if they choose to diet at all. They choose to go back to their poor eating habits when those diets failed rather than get down to the hard chore of eating right and exercising.
That's not meant to abase the obese. I don't advocate ridicule (mostly). Obesity in America is a serious issue. The affects of which, like smokers with secondhand smoke, are felt beyond the individual offender. According to the Center for Disease Control "a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25-29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30) medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars)."
The heavy get heavier, and you and I pay for it.
But if they choose to get big, if they choose to bilk us, why in the world would we choose to mollycoddle with laws which encourage the obese to continue to both live an unhealthy lifestyle and stick us with the bill?
There is no reason.
And there is no need.
For those whose obesity is the result of some actual medical condition, should they find themselves discriminated against they can seek redress under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A lawyer familiar with the ADA told me that "despite the absence of any laws specifically addressing obesity as a disability, courts can interpret the ADA to include obesity, since it defines "disability" broadly and doesn't enumerate any specific disabilities it covers."
Such individuals deserve protection, and they've got it. But let's not water down the fight against real bigotry and prejudice by adding unhealthy lifestyles to the mix.
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Well now, a call to get tougher on the fatties. Have we run out of Blacks, Jews, Mormons, Orientals, Homosexuals, Catholics, Hispanics, Retarded and others to revile? Exactly what is the purpose of this article and of the predominately hateful respondents? Are things so slow in the marketplace of malice we have to go back to flagellating fatties?
What do you say we call a halt to this unneccesary bile right now. Whatever the causes of obesity, a lack of character or an inherent characteristic, there's no reason, other than the inherent insecurities of Mr. Ridley and his boney friends, to whip this up into a progrom.
I heard recently that cel phones cause tumors. I suppose we should say its their own damned fault too for electing to yack on the phone all the time. Or is it the fault of greedy corporations for pushing on them an unhealthy choice with insufficient info to make a sensible decision? Or is it the fault of the society at large for blindly evolving into more and more isolated society, causing people to see unhealthy methods to reach out? Cel phones. Poor diets. In boh cases, is it REALLY just their own damned fault?
When 50%+ of America has head tumors, and when those of us don't use cell phones to excess start being asked to absorb the disproportionate costs associated with the choice of the "over-talkers," then yes, it will be their own damned fault. Until then, maybe comparing apples to oranges isn't a great idea.
I am overweight and I will admit that it is a choice. If I chose to eat less of the bad foods and more of the good foods and exercise, I would lose weight. I don't think that anyone on here should try to act as if that is not the truth of the matter. While, it is true that it is a choice, it still doesn't give anyone the right to discriminate against me. Discrimination is wrong, no matter the cause of it. Period.
I also believe that walking around criticizing those that may be bigger than you with snears, jokes and bad names are not going to make them go home and decide to live healthier, if anything that is going to make them eat more because they will then be distressed and seek comfort from food. So before you decide that you are going to "tough love" someone in to losing weight, make sure that you actually love that person and are just not offended by their appearance and judemental of the reason that they might be that way.
Exactly. Some bullies actually justify their behavior by saying that their name-calling will "motivate" the bullied to change. According to that "tough love" theory, calling people "fatty" will make them want to lose weight, "four eyes" will make them save up for lasik surgery, and "pizza face" will make them do something about their skin outbreaks. Yeah, right. The few cases who go on talk shows, proclaiming, "I used to be a geek -- look at me know" are the exception.
HuffPost's Pick
We call ourselves "The Melting Pot"; and we are -- we are made up of peoples whose genetic heritage comes from every part of the globe. People from hot, temperate and cold climates; from mountains, deltas and deserts; from agrarian, nomadic, and hunter/gatherer societies. Peoples whose ancestral diets were made up mostly of meat and dairy, or grains and legumes, or roots and grubs, or fish and seal blubber.
And yet we live in a culture that tries to standardize everything about us, mostly because it makes for easier marketing, production and warehousing policies -- one supersize fits all. Or it makes for easier education policies -- standardized testing and "No Child Left Behind".
Small wonder that when everyone is encouraged to eat the same diet, they get different results. Is it the fault of Wall Street, Madison Avenue and Hollywood; or government, education, and economic systems; or familial, cultural and societal failures; or is it purely a matter of personal responsibility?
Perhaps like cigarettes, fast food should come with warning labels, and be taxed to provide financial support for a health care system overburdened by the effects of fast food consumption. Like cigarette companies, should McDonalds, KFC, and Carl's be sued by the states to recover the costs of caring for the hapless consumers? To which they will reply, "Whoppers don't bloat people, people bloat people."
No answers here... I'm just stewing.
Clearly people of different ethnic/cultural heritages have a myriad of varying dietary patterns. However, our "normal" body temperature reflects the natural climate surrounding our genetic cousins and human ancestors in the tropical jungles. This explains the theory of the Garden of Eden's location in northern Africa where Adam & Eve ate a frugivorous diet, just as our nonhuman primate cousins do, even if they eat an infintesimal amount of insects by choice. We are also the only species that voluntarily cooks our "food" while all other animals in their natural habitats eat their food raw & don't try to defy the inherent diets Nature implanted into their subconscious awareness to consume. Natural carnivores, ie. lions & wolves, would not voluntarily eat an abundance of fruits, vegetables, nuts or seeds, nor would natural frugivores, ie. gorillas, chimpanzees & orangutans, eat an abundance of animals' flesh (let alone mammary secretions or eggs). For either class of nonhumans to defy these natural diets would be suicide, which humans commit routinely by our dietary choices. The only problem is that we far surpass a mass suicide pact akin to a cult. We insist on dragging the rest of the animal kingdom down the black hole with us by subjecting them to the most abominable crimes imaginable in slaughterhouses, laboratories & even in their own homelands (such as by hunting or fishing). Laboratories are concentration camps where nonhumans are poisoned to supposedly find treatments for the diseases we cause to ourselves by killing other animals
There are some medical conditions that may result in obesity.
However, most obese people are that way because they eat too much and don’t exercise. Walk into any fast-food joint, and what do you see? Obese people shoveling in the quad stacks, fries, and gallons of coke. Then they go back to their sedentary jobs.
Equating gluttony with race, sex, or anything else is a real stretch.
As a plump white woman, I'm not allowed to suggest that the author is an angry black man who is upset that yet another group may tread on his ownership of "I am a victim of discrimination" (case in point, HuffPo didn't post my earlier comment). But he's allowed to stereotype millions of Americans and write offensive lines like: "...same as millions of Americans I can moderate the number of Big Macs I shove in my pie-hole". This bigoted post is an excellent argument in support of the existence of weightism.
I perfectly respect a plump white woman's right to disagree with the author about discrimination, but no one has a monopoly on victimhood. OTOH, weight is indeed generally a controllable trait, unlike race, gender or secual orientation. Granted, some of Ridley's choice of pejoratives were somewhat excessive, such as his reference to "big Macs" shoved in one's "piehole." However, I can't accept any implication that anyone who eats murdered animals' body parts or their secretions can accuse anyone else of discrimination when humans as a species are by far the most bigoted class of life forms on Planet Earth by virtue of their habits and anthropocentric paradigms. Speciesism is the most pervasive form of bigotry that even the most "politically correct" among us invariably refuse to admit or address in public discourse. If we are to have any chance of improving public health & eliminating obesity, we must treat nonhuman animals with the same dignity & respect as we'd expect in return.
Maybe you should get off of the computer and go to the gym.
Maybe you should live your life as you please and understand that others are free to live theirs as they please. What's next, compulsory gym attendance? There are many overweight folks who are simply sedentary by nature, but are highly disciplined and productive in their lives -- often more so than today's mirror-gazing, vanity-addicted lifestyle hobbyists.
Superior, nasty comment. Just glad I'm not you.
The notion of weight as a category of bigotry on par with race, gender, religion or sexual orientation is patently inane, on par with smokers who allege discrimination by anti-smoking laws, passed for the sake of public health. With all due respect to those who make conscientious efforts to lose weight in a healthful, proactive way (IOW by subverting the dominant dietary paradigm), most of the fat people I encounter are plainly fat slobs, to be frank. This includes most people I see at work & on the streets of Baltimore, MD, where I work. If someone is "genetically" fat, I'd likely blame her/his parents first who probably weren't eating healthfully before or after procreating. The Standard American Diet of flesh, dairy & eggs is primarily responsible for most fatness in our society. The simple definitive solution to this problem is veganism. Leave the animals alone & eat a plant-based diet. Then most of your health problems will vanish without a trace with enough exercise & clean air & water. If you don't to be someone else's meal, then treat them as you'd want to be treated!
Anyone over forty can look at their high school year book and see maybe one fat kid in the bunch. Obesity was an anomaly in the 70s and 80s. Now it is an epidemic.
It is the food, but we can choose not to eat that sort of food. Try eating something fresh from the garden instead of boxed food.
If you eat at a restaurant. Save half of the portion for lunch the next day.
Go to the gym, and workout, or just park a longer distance from work, or the store and walk. If you cath a bus, get off a few stops away from your destination and walk.
It is spring, get out a enjoy the weather. Have a healthy picnic in the park, and lets all try to be a little nicer to one another to cut back the stress in our lives.
Mr. Ridley,
How nice for you that you have reached such a level of success that, instead of being discriminated against yourself (mostly), you can now comfortably sit back and discriminate against others. Congratulations on achieving the American Dream.
Let's have a moratorium on comments perpetuating the myth that the obesity epidemic is the result of genetics. Even a cursory examination of the facts disproves this. In 1950, obese Americans were scarce, but now 2/3 of us are overweight. Does such a dramatic shift happen because of genes? Natural selection, which happens over eons, not decades, cannot possibly be to blame. The genetic potential to become obese was exactly the same 50 years ago as it is today -- people today are just better at maximizing that potential. The causes, which you'll find in any journal article on the subject, are the more sedentary lifestyle, ballooning portion sizes, and change in quality of food. The first step to curbing the epidemic is to stop telling and believing lies about it.
"Even a cursory examination of the facts disproves this."
Didn't you mean "Only a cursory examination of the facts disproves this?"
In 1950 the was no McDonald's or Burger King, or KFC or you name it, with their omnipresent slick advertising telling you to "have it your way" from among this fine list of ingredients. No TV/PC/XBox/HuffPost to plant your ass in front of if you wanted entertainment.
Gotta stop now... the pizza's here.
Whoops! Guess I only made a cursory examination of your post. I didn't realize I was making some of the same arguments until I went back to reread things and marvel at my own perspicacity.
Getting obese is not always a choice.
It can be the interaction of certain chemicals chosen by the obese without them being aware of the results.
The phrase "diet" soda is simply a metaphor.
Time and time again, you can observe:
Obese = diet pop drinkers
Diet pop drinkers = obese
If your readily available zero-calorie water doesn't taste good, simply filter it.
Eat that slice of pie if you want, but don't dring the chemicals in the "diet" soda.
i know dozens of fat people. ONE of them has a weight problem. i'm skinny (underweight, actually), but i know the difference between a problem and a weakness.
A colleague alerted me to your article. Your sly ridicule of the obese concerned her and after reading it I can see why. In our research of the causes of obesity we are finding surprising causes and we are learning that we have not touched the tip of the iceberg in our research, so to speak. Your view of a 300 lbs. person carrying a twinkie in each hand is freqently not what see. Instead we are learning how sleep disorders, hormonal imbalances, genes and myriad other factors are influencing our weight and health. As we have moved from an agrarian, industrial society to a service economy we find that these factors have been multiplied. It would be nice, however, if choosing to be thin were as easy as choosing to be uninformed.
30 years ago people had hormonal imbalance and sleep disorders. People were still a whole lot thinner!
People are often blaming their hormones and thyroid gland which is no excuse. I have hypo-thyroidism and I lost 16 pounds last years by going to the gym, reducing the size of my portions and eliminating dairy products from my diet.
We need to be honest with ourselves. We eat too much, and we drink too much sugar water. Corn syrup and trans-fat are common ingredients in our food.
We have to make conscious decisions about the food we eat, get off our non-agrarian butts and exercise and stop making excuses!!
Great comment. Congrats on your weight loss. You also brought up an excellent point - the two biggest reasons why Americans are losing the fight against obesity are high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats. Try going to the store and buying only items that don't contain these killers. Hint: you'll be reading a LOT of labels before you find foods free of these insidious ingredients. Since they became staples of our food supply about 30 years ago, we have become fatter and fatter. I agree we are all responsible for what we eat, and how much we exercise, but the food manufacturers and restaurants are making it harder and harder for us to eat well. They should be held accountable for it.
Exactly! There's a woman in my office who did just that, and got rid of 70 pounds of fat. Not weight, fat.
It took a year, and she worked hard at it; walking at lunch, eliminating starch, sugar, etc.
She looks great, has much more energy, and has been the inspiration for others to take off the feed bag and put on the jogging shoes.
I run to being a bit (not much) underweight, a condition I am able to correct by indulging in a bit of effort (i.e. eating uncomfortable amounts of food and lifting weights so the calories go to the right places)... How come it's not considered insulting when somebody tells me how skinny I am? I'm not allowed to say, "You're fat" to someone even if they're overweight by 200%. Folks, if you're a bit fat that's nothing, if you're using a Rascal because you're too fat to walk, it's your own fault and you don't deserve a handicapped sticker for your car. In fact, there should be special "fat person" parking spaces at the very farthest reach of the parking lot to force the chronically fat folk to get off their asses and walk a bit.
Actually no--you are not allowed to say that. Why would you? Would you say, "I see that acne isn't clearing up"? Or: Your dad has a full head of hair--too bad you didn't get his genes"? Mind your own business!
Apparently you didn't read the first sentence I wrote... people don't consider it an insult when they tell me I'm skinny. BTW, I'm very polite in person and wouldn't dream of insulting somebody on any point of their appearance. Having said that, my best buddy is twice the weight he should be and I've chided him over it a few times to let him know I'd like him to be my best buddy for many more years instead of my late best buddy.
Can someone please tell me how fat people are discriminated against?
Some get discrimination by getting charged an extra airline ticket for the seat they cover is 2, or the buffet eating guys who sued for being charged double though clearly they were eating way more than 1 human needed.. Yes to them discrimination, but lets face it, both conditions deserve the charge.
Instead of glaring at someone and making irritated little sniffing noises, how about lobbying the airlines to cut some seats and make it more humane for all?
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