Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
It really depends on what kind of acceptance you're looking for. Some parts of the fat-acceptance movement seem to be selling the idea that fat is just as good as thin, and I doubt I will ever buy into that. All else being equal, thin people are more attractive, better neighbors on an airplane flight, etc. Those who tell others that, for instance, "your perfect body size is the one that you are" are flat out lying. Sorry ladies, but if you're 300 lbs, you're a 2/10 max. You don't get to be a supermodel. You can shout as many times as you want that fat people are beautiful but that will never make it so.
As an extreme example you have brands like AdditionELLE effectively glamorizing obesity, and I don't think that message makes for a healthy society. Doesn't raising the self esteem of fat people simply make it easier for them to stay fat, and thus make it harder for them to lose weight? Aren't you just setting them up to be crushed when they realize that the idea of fat being a non-factor, on which their improved self-esteem is based, turns out to a delusion?
I don't see fat getting the same acceptance that gay people have, or that black people have. You might be born with the predisposition to be fat, but you are not born fat. And whereas black or gay are now no longer seen as undesirable traits, fat is. And in my opinion, there's no need for that to change.
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And I was having a good day. I KNEW I should avoid this thread.
"Doesn't raising the self esteem of fat people simply make it easier for them to stay fat?"
F*#$ NO!!!! Do you know how many OA meetings I have gone to where overweight people have said that they feel worthless inside, that they were a hopeless, worthless case. You know how you make people want to lose weight? You get them to love themselves enough that they want improve their lives. Most of my OA meetings had someone break down crying because they made to feel less than human, leading to depression, low self worth and those things are paralysing. I'll make you a bet that Thor has heard those exact same things in his circles. Making people hate themselves is the most counterproductive and totally, utterly cruel thing you can do to a person.