Discrimination based on weight

RobertLevin · 20th April 2006, 18:57

(NOTE: PEOPLE WITH INTRACTABLE WEIGHT PROBLEMS CAUSED BY REAL ILLNESSES OR GENUINE CONGENITAL ABNORMALITIES ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION.)

Awhile back I wrote a short humor piece in which I poked fun at a grossly overweight woman.

The piece was called "Peggie" and it elicited a fair share of irate mail from women who identified with the title character.

"I hate you," went a typical response. "How could you write such hurtful trash? Do you have any idea what it's like to struggle all your life with an obesity problem? Do you know what it is to be forced to endure incessant jokes and insults, to torture yourself with one failed diet after another, to believe, sometimes, that you might actually have the problem solved only to lapse for some inexplicable reason and have to begin all over again? Do you know what it is to live with a constant sense of guilt and shame? How could you be so cruel and insensitive?"

Okay. I'll admit to bad taste (and, as several other readers felt the need to point out, to committing less than deathless prose as well), but I have to say that I remain unmoved by the suffering I'm accused of inflicting.

Why? Because the "obesity problem" of which my correspondents speak (and I'm including all of the emotional woes that attend it) is actually their solution to a deeper and more urgent problem. What's more, it's a solution that, to judge by their obvious absorption in it, is working very well for them.

Now in order to grasp what I'm driving at it is first necessary to acknowledge something about guilt and shame. To feel guilt and shame is built into our essence—it's a natural consequence of being mortal. Not only must we have done some nasty stuff to be in so much trouble but, unable to come up with a way to alter our situation, to change the given, we're incompetent where it matters most.

It's also necessary to remind ourselves that our natural feelings of guilt and shame, accompanied as they are by the sheer terror the fact of being mortal causes us, make for an intolerable burden that must be relieved if we are to function in the world with even a modest degree of equanimity.

Finally, it's necessary to recognize the last thing we want to recognize, since to recognize it undermines what we're trying to achieve: virtually everything we do is, in one way or another, designed to mollify our existential dread and anxiety. It is, in fact, precisely this need that makes the world go around.

Bearing such truths in mind, I'm saying that people with perpetual obesity issues are playing a game with themselves.

Look. One of the myriad ways with which we accomplish the mitigation of our natural guilt and shame (not to mention our terror) is by finding, and becoming obsessed with, OTHER things to feel guilty and ashamed about, things that (to assure them an authentic gravity) are culturally certified as real and legitimate faults or deficiencies and which, at the same time, are POTENTIALLY REDEEMABLE, that are within our capacity to overcome or transcend. What we do is make THEM what is essentially wrong with us—indeed, we make them, in our minds, the very reason for the death sentence we've been handed. Implicitly, these fabricated problems also embody a way to achieve our salvation. If they are what is fundamentally wrong with us, by defeating them we will be absolved of what is fundamentally wrong with us. If we still must die we will survive our death in heaven.

But here's the thing. If we succeed in beating the problem we've concocted for ourselves we're returned to where we began. Once the flush of victory wanes we discover that our underlying dilemma is still there, that we're left to nakedly confront our existential horrors once again.

So what do we do?

Well, if (and indulging, of course, an innate predilection) we've made weight our problem, and if, with dieting and exercise, we've managed to overcome this problem, what we do is find an excuse to quit exercising, to go off our diet. Then what we do is renew our struggle and when the process has run its course again we repeat it.

Yes, each time we gain weight again the pain and humiliation we experience is devastating. But the degree of our anguish serves to validate the size and authenticity of our manufactured problem. In order to make the problem feel real and significant enough to work its purpose we need to experience real torment. At bottom, however, for all of the misery it causes us, our weight problem functions as the anodyne for a larger misery. The more we flagellate ourselves with it the more we succeed in suppressing our fundamental dread and anxiety and the more we achieve a measure of peace on the level that matters most to us.

Say all that to say that, insofar as it makes them feel worse about their weight, I think fat people should regard "Peggie" as a gift.

**LSD** · 20th April 2006, 21:40

What the fuck are you blathering about?

**drain.you** · 20th April 2006, 22:30

I still dont understand why some people have 0 posts :S

**Ian** · 21st April 2006, 01:45

write something better and maybe I will actually read it.

**C_Rasmussen** · 21st April 2006, 02:07

Yeah and something not as long.

TC · 21st April 2006, 04:12

Part of the problem i think is that people hear a lot of stuff about exercise and eating healthier when in reality the only meaningful way to lose weight for non-athletes is to just consume fewer calories than one needs to maintain weight...and thats almost impossible to do if you're eating for the entertainment value of it.

**bed_of_nails** · 21st April 2006, 04:27

I wrote a satirical essay a couple of months ago, and here it is... It was nominated for several local literary awards, but shot down by fat people for being offensive.

Obesity is rapidly becoming a huge (pardon the pun) problem in first-world nations. This is not only causing the death of the obese to occur sooner, but they are eating all the food (and occasionally the people) from third-world nations like Ethiopia.
This isn’t the fault of the obese though, it is the fault of everyone else for putting so much fat in everything. Literally. Just last week a new study concluded that even the latest Bowflex machines contained alarming amounts of fat. Just by sitting there reading this paper, you could be getting fatter.
Therefore, to solve this problem, the fat must be removed from things so people cannot be tempted. A team of elite fat-busting troopers must be formed in order to remove fat from everyday objects. They shall be called the “Fat-Busters”, and given backpacks similar to those seen in the popular “Ghostbusters” movies.
These backpacks will have a nozzle that can be hooked to any object through a vacuum, and then will extract all the fat. This fat will be kept in a containment unit on the backpack, where it can be dumped into a fat-processing plant later.
The fat from this plant shall be used to fertilize the rain forest and crops for the poor, solving famine in third-world countries and helping the ecosystem with one action. If all else fails, this extra fat can be used to make Play-Doh or a perverted version of water balloons. These shall be used for the entertainment of children, and can be used to teach them what they will look like if they ever become obese. If the need arises, humans can use this fat as insulation for their houses also.
After the fat is removed from everyday objects (including lard) and processed, the people that claim obesity is genetic will have to be dealt with. These people shall be gathered up and pushed into a large ball. Their combined mass should be capable of keeping them together due to the graviton particles a grouping that size would emit. This ball shall be dealt with now.
We will take the ball and launch it into space after manning it with the normal-weighted people. It shall begin orbiting the sun and will be used in a manner similar to the Death-Star from “Star Wars”. In the event that aliens ever invade this galaxy, the aptly named “Death-Blob” can be either used to consume the invaders (due to the fact that the requirement to eat without self-control is genetic according to these people) or crash into their ships. Either action will result in the death of invaders. This “vehicle” will be self-sustaining, for the obese can eat each other and reproduce at will. This will cause the overall size of the Death-Blob to fluctuate. Enemies of Earth will have a much harder time coming up with a means of disabling a living, eating weapon that grows and shrinks at random intervals. This blob should be able to simulate gravity, due to its considerable size. This will ensure that all of the dwellers will not be floating into the mouths of the hungry.
Critics of this proposal will state that it is “inhumane” or “cruel”. This is simply not true.
This proposition increases the average life span for everyone involved. The obese need to be stopped. They are slowly consuming the entire planet. Satellite (not cellulite) pictures show that parts of the eastern U.S. coast have already been eaten, or will soon fall off due to what is called “Edible Erosion”. Hawaii will be nonexistent by the summer of 2007.
The obese will be incapable of stopping this plan due to their lack of ability and interest to wage a war against the plans supporters.
This plan will be effective, for there is no reason or way for it to fail. Nobody else has suggested a plausible alternative, therefore one must go with this proposal. Obesity is obviously a significant problem, and if a solution is not enacted the world will slowly be eaten away.

-Kyle

TC · 21st April 2006, 05:02

One thing that always strikes me as really annoying is when people act like if you're skinny you have no reason to worry about your weight or how much you're eating, and should be able to just eat whatever you want...for some reason it doesn't occur to them that the reason why skinny people are skinny is because they do control how much they eat and they don't eat whatever they want.

**patrickbeverley** · 21st April 2006, 12:17

Originally posted by RobertLevin@Apr 20 2006, 08:12 PM
Awhile back I wrote a short humor piece in which I poked fun at a grossly overweight woman...Say all that to say that, insofar as it makes them feel worse about their weight, I think fat people should regard "Peggie" as a gift.

Get off that soapbox you misogynistic fuck.

**Dark Exodus** · 21st April 2006, 13:11

I remember reading that it was possible to stimulate weight-loss in mice by changing certain genes.

**Black Dagger** · 21st April 2006, 15:37

.for some reason it doesn't occur to them that the reason why skinny people are skinny is because they do control how much they eat and they don't eat whatever they want.

Yeah but some people are skinny just coz they don't eat a lot of food :P
Like me for example! I love food n all, but i miss lots of meals so some times i'll have dinner and i'll go all out, but then other times i'll have something really shit for dinner, or i'll have dinner, but i won't have lunch etc. Sucks because i really want to put on a little bit of weight, maybe an extra 10 kilo grams or something, but i've been hovering in the same 5 kilo gram range for as long as i can remember :/

**ÑóẊîöŉ** · 21st April 2006, 17:29

I'm an endomorph - No matter how much I pig out and sit around doing nothing, I simply cannot gain weight. Overactive metabolisms for the win.

I currently weigh about 70Kg.

**Janus** · 21st April 2006, 20:12

I'm an endomorph - No matter how much I pig out and sit around doing nothing, I simply cannot gain weight. Overactive metabolisms for the win.

Same here, man. I have a fast metablism as well.

I currently weigh about 70Kg.

Metric system, huh.

*Busts out conversion chart*

I weigh around 120 pounds. That's 52.163 kilograms (for you metric system users), or .06 tons.

**drain.you** · 22nd April 2006, 13:34

I'm an endomorph - No matter how much I pig out and sit around doing nothing, I simply cannot gain weight. Overactive metabolisms for the win.

Isn't a endomorph the opposite of what you described *confused*

I have a fast metablism too but that dont keep us fit alone, can still be stick thin and unfit.

**Ian** · 22nd April 2006, 13:41

this thread is making me hungry

**Sentinel** · 22nd April 2006, 16:20

As I've understood it:

Mesomorph - easy to gain muscle mass

Endomorph - easy to gain fat

Ectomorph - hard to gain either

I think most people are hybrids between the types though, myself between Meso and Endo.

TC · 22nd April 2006, 16:41

Originally posted by patrickbeverley+Apr 21 2006, 12:32 PM--> (patrickbeverley @ Apr 21 2006, 12:32 PM)

RobertLevin

@Apr 20 2006, 08:12 PM
Awhile back I wrote a short humor piece in which I poked fun at a grossly overweight woman...Say all that to say that, insofar as it makes them feel worse about their weight, I think fat people should regard "Peggie" as a gift.

Get off that soapbox you misogynistic fuck. [/b]

What does poking fun at a grossly overweight woman possibly have to do with being misogynistic??? Its the "grossly overweight" part which is being made fun of. What i think is really misogynistic is the harrassment of teenage girls by doctors and parents for wanting to get or maintain a body weight below the artificial recomendation for their height (or, the arbitrary judgement that they're too skinny), regardless of the lack of health complications, and the cruel and sexist claim that doing so is either the result of 'media brainwashing', 'unhealthy body image', or 'conforming to patriarchal beauty standards.'

People need to get over the idea that any discussion of human physicality is automatically sexist, especially when discussing things that apply equally to males and females.

Dan Savage on this subject

:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=18122

**redstar2000** · 23rd April 2006, 04:52

Originally posted by RobertLevin+--> (RobertLevin)It's also necessary to remind ourselves that our natural feelings of guilt and shame, accompanied as they are by the sheer terror the fact of being mortal causes us, make for an intolerable burden that must be relieved if we are to function in the world with even a modest degree of equanimity.[/b]

Existential horseshit! :angry:

drain.you

I still don't understand why some people have 0 posts

Posts in Chit-Chat are not counted by the software.

**LSD** · 23rd April 2006, 05:43

What i think is really misogynistic is the harrassment of teenage girls by doctors and parents for wanting to get or maintain a body weight below the artificial recomendation for their height (or, the arbitrary judgement that they're too skinny), regardless of the lack of health complications, and the cruel and sexist claim that doing so is either the result of 'media brainwashing', 'unhealthy body image', or 'conforming to patriarchal beauty standards.'

That was a bit of a mouthful and you were somewhat circumspect in your point, but I think I "got the message". So let me be blunt and just say outright there is nothing "misogynistic" in combating anorexia.

Sure, there are women and girls (and men and boys) who are naturally skinny and perfectly healthy. But anyone who's taken even an intro to psych course knows that that's not what Anorexia is about.

Anorexia is the most dangerous mental illness out there. It has a higher natural mortality rate than any other psychiatric disorder, and almost as high a suicide rate as depression!

Do people have a right to live free of harrasament and coercion? Of course. But when people are sick, they deserve help.

And despite the postmodern idealist notion that psychology is "bunk" and all mental illnesses are just "differences", the brain is a body part and it can break down.

Take it from someone who, in both his personal and professional lives, has had a lot of experience with eating disorders, there is nothing "fake" about them and there is nothing "cruel" about treating them.

Now, that does not mean that the mental health sector is perfect, nor that a lot of improvement does not need to be done. A good deal of doctors have absolutely no idea what they're doing with regards to mental illness and certainly media sensationalism has not helped.

Finally, if there really are "no health complications", then there isn't a problem. But very few skinny girls are harrased for merely being thin. If anything, in fact, they are socially rewarded for it. It's only once they become unhealthily skinny that people start to react badly.

And rightly so!

**patrickbeverley** · 23rd April 2006, 21:05

Originally posted by TragicClown@Apr 22 2006, 05:56 PM
What i think is really misogynistic is the harrassment of teenage girls by doctors and parents for wanting to get or maintain a body weight below the artificial recomendation for their height (or, the arbitrary judgement that they're too skinny), regardless of the lack of health complications, and the cruel and sexist claim that doing so is either the result of 'media brainwashing', 'unhealthy body image', or 'conforming to patriarchal beauty standards.'

What shit. What utter, utter shit.

So doctors are now supposed to turn a blind eye to a serious mental illness, are they? To assume that a teenage girl who is underweight is merely choosing to be so, rather than attempt to get to the root of something which is often caused by severe mental trauma?

LSD has already refuted the rubbish about "lack of health complications" (because death is not a health complication, right Tragic Clown.), but I can't believe you could be ignorant enough to post this garbage in the first place.

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