Weight Discrimination

[mudwhistle]

Couple of questions for posters:

Does anyone here feel self-conscience about their weight and finds that acceptance from others is not easily forthcoming?

People tend to feel that fat people are lazy and less healthy so does this cause them to look down on people deemed obese? Family members can be the toughest. You're not making the grade because you're fat and withdrawn from all of the years of criticism. Has anyone here had to deal with this personally or with family or friends?

Do you find it hard not to laugh as someone with a butt that moves like two gophers in a gunny-sack? Do you assume that fat people are a good key to where to eat if you want it cheap and plentiful? Did you make fun of the fat girl in high school?



Two people apply for a job. One is average looking and has decent qualifications and another has excellent qualifications....but he or she is overweight. Whom would you hire? The one with the Bachelors of Science degree and seems to have good eating habits or the one with the Masters and loves food and shows it? What if they had similar qualifications? Whom would you hire?

I see no special interest groups out there to protect the rights of the obese. It seems that nobody wants to take up that cause. But I think it's no different from any other form of discrimination.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I love fat girls!!! Heat in the winter and shade in the summer...

 

[mudwhistle]

I love fat girls!!! Heat in the winter and shade in the summer...

Thanks for the input...but this is kind of what I was talking about.

I know a bunch of fat jokes but I really wanted a thoughtful discussion on the issue.

The reason is I have several friends dealing with it now.

I love fat women...and women that have big asses.

I guess I like all kinds. Who knows why we like what we see. Perhaps it's something to do with roundness or looking healthy. There has been research on why some shapes are pleasing to the eye and others aren't. Maybe it's nature. Who knows.

I like a woman with big meaty thighs and big calves. Why is that? What I find appealing may not be what others find appealing. Some women like a body-builder's build but others like somebody like Brad Pitt. Who knows why. But if you owned a business would you have reservations on hiring someone who's overweight? Is health care the reason or is it because you think they might be lazy?

I know I'm all over the place on this topic but I just wanted to know what people are thinking.

 

[ForestGirl]

A HUGE percentage of fat people are fat because of their eating choices and lifestyle choices. Any private sector company should be able to hire whoever the HELL they want. Many are diabetics due to their eating choices. They then consume a great percent of the healthcare resources. Bottom line, fat American's need to point the finger in the right direction, GO ON A DIET and JOIN A HEALTH CLUB.

 

[Si modo]

I would go with the candidate who is better qualified. Period.

However, if they were equally qualified and personable, I would likely go with the one who was not fat.

 

[Valerie]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMnjF1O4eH0&ob=av3e]YouTube - Queen - 'Fat Bottomed Girls'[/ame]

 

[Valerie]

Two people apply for a job. One is average looking and has decent qualifications and another has excellent qualifications....but he or she is overweight. Whom would you hire?

Easy, the one with excellent qualifications!

 

[code1211]

Couple of questions for posters:

Does anyone here feel self-conscience about their weight and finds that acceptance from others is not easily forthcoming?

People tend to feel that fat people are lazy and less healthy so does this cause them to look down on people deemed obese? Family members can be the toughest. You're not making the grade because you're fat and withdrawn from all of the years of criticism. Has anyone here had to deal with this personally or with family or friends?

Do you find it hard not to laugh as someone with a butt that moves like two gophers in a gunny-sack? Do you assume that fat people are a good key to where to eat if you want it cheap and plentiful? Did you make fun of the fat girl in high school?



Two people apply for a job. One is average looking and has decent qualifications and another has excellent qualifications....but he or she is overweight. Whom would you hire? The one with the Bachelors of Science degree and seems to have good eating habits or the one with the Masters and loves food and shows it? What if they had similar qualifications? Whom would you hire?

I see no special interest groups out there to protect the rights of the obese. It seems that nobody wants to take up that cause. But I think it's no different from any other form of discrimination.

I've never had a problem with carrying too much weight. As I've aged, I now seem to have a tendency toward a spare tire, but that's not what we are talking about.

I did smoke for about 30 years. I was finally able to quit about 5 years (?) ago.I am now a recovering smoker and happy about it. Not a born again virgin and not at all concerned about thesmoking habits of others.

However-

My experience as a smoker in the years around 2000 revealed to me much discrimination from thse who had no stake in my smoking and I think this might relate to obese folks and the way that society treats them. Condemnin glances and so on.

Sharing a confined space with a smoker or an obese person draws the same vitriol. Being in the center seat on an airplane between two obese folks or smokers provides for me now similar annoyance.

Hiring a smoker or an obese person? Both represent life style choices and habits that may or may not affect productivity but would certainly have an impact on healthcare costs to the group insurance in the long run. That aside, though, any hiring would be based on the qualifications and my perception of how they would personnally interact with the rest of the work force.

 

[chanel]

I judge people by the content of their character. Not the color or amount of their skin.

But I have a soft spot in my heart for fat children. No one gets bullied more.

 

[saveliberty]

Depends, I don't want the fat waitress sneaking my fries. They're mine!

 

[boedicca]

Couple of questions for posters:

Does anyone here feel self-conscience about their weight and finds that acceptance from others is not easily forthcoming?

People tend to feel that fat people are lazy and less healthy so does this cause them to look down on people deemed obese? Family members can be the toughest. You're not making the grade because you're fat and withdrawn from all of the years of criticism. Has anyone here had to deal with this personally or with family or friends?

Do you find it hard not to laugh as someone with a butt that moves like two gophers in a gunny-sack? Do you assume that fat people are a good key to where to eat if you want it cheap and plentiful? Did you make fun of the fat girl in high school?



Two people apply for a job. One is average looking and has decent qualifications and another has excellent qualifications....but he or she is overweight. Whom would you hire? The one with the Bachelors of Science degree and seems to have good eating habits or the one with the Masters and loves food and shows it? What if they had similar qualifications? Whom would you hire?

I see no special interest groups out there to protect the rights of the obese. It seems that nobody wants to take up that cause. But I think it's no different from any other form of discrimination.

I'd say their a difference between voluptuous and morbidly obese. A thicker and/or curvier body type does not indicate ill health; a morbidly obese one does.

If I have two equally qualified candidates and one is morbidly obese, I'm going to hire the person who is not morbidly obese. Why is this? Over the past five years, I have had three morbidly obese people on my staff who all took enormous amounts of time off for health related issues. It's not fair to the rest of the team who have to pick up the slack - and it's very expensive for a small business to carry the expense for someone whose productivity is subpar due to absenteeism.

Is this bigoted? I don't care. I have direct experience that tells me that people in a healthy weight zone cost the company less than do the morbidly obese.

 

[Conspiracist]

A HUGE percentage of fat people are fat because of their eating choices and lifestyle choices. Any private sector company should be able to hire whoever the HELL they want. Many are diabetics due to their eating choices. They then consume a great percent of the healthcare resources. Bottom line, fat American's need to point the finger in the right direction, GO ON A DIET and JOIN A HEALTH CLUB.

I think a lot of it is depression. Deep inner depression that does not necessarily show on the surface. Just an uneducated opinion on my part.

 

[boedicca]

Yes, many obese people self medicate with food to cope with depression.

For a truly sad viewing experience, "I Eat 33,000 Calories A Day" on TLC is very illuminating on this topic.

 

[Liberty]

i kinda despise fat people...not gonna lie. fat people just scream laziness in my book.

 

[mudwhistle]

i kinda despise fat people...not gonna lie. fat people just scream laziness in my book.

Morbidly obese aside I don't really care. When dating I'll go for the heavy girl cuz I know I won't have to worry about waiting on her hand and foot. But if I do it most of the time they appreciate it more. It's not like it's a requirement.

I know that's drifting off of the topic a bit but I don't mind extra padding in a date for reasons of my own. I tend to relate more to someone who's kind of average looking..or a bit heavy...or not the most popular. Maybe because I was a late bloomer in high school. I have to admit I every once in awhile see someone who is just plain out of control. It's hard not to think they could do better.

I also noticed kids these days are fatter then they were when I grew up. I spent all day outside running around and playing. Most kids these days are cooped up in the house. I think this will cause them to have a tougher time in their adult life unless they get involved in sports or something to burn calories.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Do you assume that fat people are a good key to where to eat if you want it cheap and plentiful?

Who do you always see going into places like Country Buffet? Whales. Ever been there? We call it "Hungry Hungry Hippos" in our house. They serve a whole lotta' deep fried crap and high calorie deserts. Ugh! Do yourself a favor and stay away from where the cows graze.

 

[mudwhistle]

I wonder why the Dems haven't jumped on this issue?

 

[Big Black Dog]

When I was just out of high school and getting ready to go into the Navy, there was a girl just up the road from where I lived that I had attended high school with. I rode the same school bus as she did until I started to drive to school every day or nearly every day. She actually finished up high school a year before I did. She was about 20 pounds overweight but she was very very attractive. She had a great sense of humor and she was really a very nice person. Friendly, out-going. She was just a tad overweight. I dated her for about two months just before I went into the Navy and I could see a future with her but I wasn't ready to get anything permanent - besides, I was leaving for the Navy. While I was in Boot Camp I heard that she decided to marry a guy that I knew and went to school with. I haven't seen her in probably 40 years but I heard she had five kids, was happily married and had stayed in the old neighborhood. Being overweight, wasn't a problem for her and it didn't ruin her life. Just because you are overweight or obese doesn't mean you are a third class citizen but most often you are treated that way. I love all the self-righeous folks who are so critical of fat people - especially when they get fat themselves!!!

 

[Big Fitz]

A HUGE percentage of fat people are fat because of their eating choices and lifestyle choices. Any private sector company should be able to hire whoever the HELL they want. Many are diabetics due to their eating choices. They then consume a great percent of the healthcare resources. Bottom line, fat American's need to point the finger in the right direction, GO ON A DIET and JOIN A HEALTH CLUB.

No. That is a symptom. As a fat person, I can tell you for a fact it is a melange of problems.

1. It can be chemical imbalance. Depression, Panic Disorders, Anxiety disorders, metabolism issues and other little goofs of biochemistry can contribute immensely. Depression is HUGE (no pun intended) in weight increase. Don't forget, changing to a sedentary lifestyle can wreak havoc on your body chemistry if you were previously active. An illness can also change these states in your body overnight.

2. Psychological problems. People medicate with food. Psychological pain can immobilize you with pain. They eat to stop the pain, or get into eating disorder such as overeating or compulsive eating and don't realize what they're doing before it's too late, and then they have to dig themselves out of a hole that is often too big and too well established to do without medical help.

3. Social Problems. When you eat to be social for work or family. Yes this can be a problem. Work that puts you in a restaurant 4-15 times a week can lead to huge problems with calories and often alcohol and high blood pressure or diabetes too. It may be that you have no choice in the matter because of the choices available too. How many times have you pushed your kids to clean their plates, or eat it up so they can be big and strong? I was constantly told to clean my plate to be big and strong like my uncles. Big psychological issue now to overcome. Not to mention a family that big eating was encouraged, but those who indulged in active hobbies or hard physical work avoided the bulge while the rest sank into obesity.

So, don't be so quick to say it's just 'poor choices' or lack of willpower. You've never been on the other side of a craving that was more severe than a drug. Like all situations though, its often poly sourced. Bad choices beget other issues, and then they set up a vicious cycle to perpetuate themselves. So in that you're right. Good choices are often needed to break the cycle. And this is often not as easy or cut and dried as you may think. Particularly when you don't know what is the primary driver. So till you address the primary issue, and not the symptom of weight gain, you will never solve the problem.

As for suffering discrimination because of weight? I've had problems with being discriminated against for 25 years. I damn well know it happens frequently, and if you want to really experience it, go to a dating site. Thin people statistically get many multiples more responses than fat ones. It's just harder to prove in things like the workplace. It's only going to be a matter of time before you see the "American Association for Fat People" show up and start suing companies for weight discrimination. Why? It's a moneymaker for lawyers once that first case is won, the floodgates of litigation hell will yawn wide and we'll see all sorts of excuses and 'rights' and other self deluding bullshit become law. All for the sake of the 'wronged'.

 

[Againsheila]

i kinda despise fat people...not gonna lie. fat people just scream laziness in my book.

I'm fat, and I'll bet I could work circles around you and eat less while doing it.

Some fat people are lazy, some thin people are lazy. My family has always had weight problems, I had one doctor tell me that I was in better shape than most thin people she knew and sometimes it's just fat and there's nothing you can do about it. I've been on every diet in every book, none of them work. Once I got Andrew in a home, I lost 12 pounds but then they shut down the home and the weight is back..... I can't go anywhere, my activities are limited....and I am depressed. I would love a job outside the house, it would take so much off my shoulders but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. Let's see you deal with cleaning up urine and feces every morning....we all have our crosses to bear. I'm not ashamed of being overweight and I am not lazy.

BTW, I have a friend that claims I'm fat but I'm not FAT. I'm not sure what that means. I have one sister who is thinner than me and another one that's fatter. They aren't lazy either.

Please come here and tell me I'm lazy to my face...I need the relief that would come with wiping the floor with you.