A big part of the problem comes down to two things: 1) the dangers of being overweight/obese being overstated; 2) the "moral" element that goes along with obesity in popular culture, i.e., that obese people are "bad" or moral failures.
Overweight people (and I'm using the BMI classification terminology here) live longer, healthier lives than "normal weight" people. "Obese" people don't suffer from significantly increased health problems until their BMIs reach (going by memory here) 35 and up. The rate of childhood (age 20 or under) diabetes amongst females - child diabetes having received no shortage of press - is roughly 1/20th the rate of childhood disordered eating among females, which has received disproportionately less press.
There is so much portrayal of thin/fit as "good" in our culture, and thick/fat as "bad" that people (as demonstrated in this thread) have no issue blaming, deriding, discriminating against, and persecuting obese people - all justified in their minds because the "obese" person has some kind of moral failing. This isn't just an individual thing - it is institutionalized as well.
What this results in people being bullied, made to believe they are less worthy, less attractive, bad people.
If you have kids, particularly young girls, attitudes like some of those expressed in this thread, should be of significant concern to you.
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