Article - THE AGE - to which I wrote a comment

THE ARTICLE: How did we become such big fat bigots?

Commenting in the London Telegraph recently about a new British proposal to offer cash incentives to overweight people to lose weight, one writer let fly with this: "But you can't bribe fat people with money (which they will probably spend on Krispy Kreme doughnuts anyway)... These people aren't motivated by cash; they are hampered by lack of willpower". Hot on its heels was a letter published in the Sydney Morning Herald last week huffing that "obesity thrives where indolence, low aspirations and poor role models exist." The next day came a post on Chew on This declaring that "people who let
themselves get to a size 24 have no pride in themselves."

Why are we heaping so much scorn on people who are overweight? You could argue that willpower is an issue involved in smoking too - but why does someone with a cigarette in their mouth seems to draw less ire than someone wearing a size 24?

I don't think anyone sets out to become a size 24, any more than anyone sets out to become addicted to 20 Winfields a day - weight gain, like an addiction, can sneak up on you. But at least if you're a smoker who's trying to give up, you have a couple of things going for you. One is a national Quitline which offers free support and encouragement. The other is a ban on tobacco advertising. If you're overweight and trying to change your eating habits, on the other hand, there's no escape from the promotion of the kind of foods that feed a weight problem.

What with Quitlines, quit smoking products and no smoking bans, it's probably easier to quit smoking now than at any other time in history. But if you want to lose a lot of weight, it's becoming more difficult because we live in an environment that encourages overeating but, thanks to sedentary jobs, long commutes and convenience technology, makes it harder to burn up the extra kilojoules.

Last year I interviewed a member of Overeaters Anonymous who, at her heaviest, was a size 24. The last thing she needed was to be beaten over the head with the 'lazy' stick - and what eventually helped her reach a healthy weight was the support of OA.

The way she saw it, overeating had become a moral issue that people assumed was caused by lack of discipline. But there can be a lot more to weight loss than simple willpower - it can be complicated by a list of things including comfort eating, weight loss diets than can set people up to fail, and genes that make some bodies store weight more efficiently. It may even turn out - though more research needs to be done - that some foods are addictive.

So when it comes to encouraging weight loss, maybe some sympathy and understanding would go further than ridicule and contempt. Tirades against overweight people about lack of willpower and indolence are like an adult version of schoolyard bullying - and we grownups really should know better.


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MY COMMENT:

Isn't it time we all focus on our own lives? Some are obese, some smoke, some drink, some steal... Compulsive behavior is what we should be talking about. Should we not? Since when this obsession for being good looking/fit/healthy kicked in and where did it come from? - check out the relationship sites, 90% of members request 'slim and athletic' potential partners - what happened to values, personality and inner beauty? I'm sorry but did I miss something here?

I am overweight, not obese, I fit on a plane seat (how ridiculous, being defined like this) and I feel sexy and beautiful. I was never thin and I always had men interested. I have dated skeleton thin men, muscular and overweight ones and this was never an issue to me.

"Life's a beauty peageant" (Little Miss Sunshine)

Are we women becoming this fashion accessory, "prêt-a-porter" parading on life's catwalk making our men proud of their catch? Is that what it comes down to?

We are bombarded with TV health shows which focus on diets, sleep and exercise, often placing fat people as the biggest losers. When in fact I suggest, for the sake of diversity, we pick on another "defective" group. Try campaigning at all pubs against alcohol excessive consumption. Or else we may be bordering some sort of what I like to call `positive bullying`.

So much pressure to keep up living the advertised lifestyles tinted all over the Sunday paper. In an attempt to relax whilst sipping a capuccino, things grow horribly tense as I browse through the holiday destinations I should be going to, the house I should be already selling, the clothes I should consume... After all, coolness is the name of the game: the car we drive, the job we hang on to (or just), the same flat smile to our neighbors...

Well on top of all the must be's/have's, here's an important one: I also have a responsibility to be thin, tanned and Brazilian waxed!

Aren't we forgetting to just BE ourselves? Or rather, are we possibly choosing social pasteurization? If we are I ought to consider getting my barcode tatooed in my forehead, just to keep things simple. For the system.

If we are going to pick on obese people, then we might as well pick on all people, for everyone develops its own mechanisms of survival and defense. And, no, thin people should not get a prize for being thin. Under a magnifying glass everyone is faulty.