USA Today: Sizism almost as frequent as racism

oh gods. don't read the comments. do not read the comments. Also, do not read the sidebar, the linked articles, or the comments.

Too late buttercup! Blah. Oh well it's par for the course I guess. We really should expect that by now. All the bashers come out when there is an article like this, which really emphasizes how bad the problem really is.

Fat people suffer discrimination because of their weight? Well who knew. Anyway, ain't that what they WANT? Aren't we all fat, according to the likes of Little Rod, because of a LACK of open ridicule and prejudice? File this one under 'no shit, Sherlock' methinks.

Tonight's nul points go to USA Today for dragging up the hierarchies of oppression thing (I half-expected to see the phrase 'last acceptable prejudice' dropped in there somewhere) and liberally plastering the page with weight loss links (no prizes for guessing what THEY consider to be the solution to fat oppression, then).

As for the comments, the irony of the 'Guidelines' ("You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil") was certainly not lost on me. Because after all, house rules and civility policies *don't apply to fat people*. See, the BBC did teach me something!

I'd have posted something about the fallacy of the 'choice' justification for discrimination they all seem to be clinging to, but it's a compulsory registration forum and I like my inbox free of 'Drop 10lbs in 1 week' spam, thanks.

"It is possible to be fat and fit; not everyone is meant to, or can, be thin. The scourge of modern society is not obesity, but body fascism" - Amy Lamé

Gee, do you think it's possible they might be able to come out with a story that tells us something we didn't already know?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.
Ralph Charell

I would say it's probably MORE common, because it's still socially acceptable to bash people for their weight in a way that racism no longer is. We still have actors donning fatsuits in movies and television, for chrissake. Blackface hasn't been acceptable in 50 years at least (although that movie Tropic Thunder is coming out soon...).

I won't read the comments, as I'm already feeling stabby today.

I can't believe I just read a comment that said "Fat people need to be discriminated against..."
I'm disgusted. There go all my Sanity Watchers Points.

I'm especially amazed by the 99 pages of comments. Suggesting that people might be guilty of discrimination when they think they aren't does surely induce a lot of anger.

*I* can't believe I read a comment that says fat people are just as bad as drug abusers and pedophiles. Wheee! Where's a "all the world's ills can be blamed on fat and fat people" article when you need one? Oh wait, who needs the article when you've got commenters parroting misinformation at the end of an article that shows fat discrimination, of all things?

Paul, GREAT use of the comment score. I have to start using it more often.

"Fat hater? NO points for you!" [/soup nazi]

The comments are the same bs i hear over and over, from ignorant people who obey without question. Half of them i'm sure would plead ignorance if faced with the facts, yet the so decidely bash us and tell us "you can lose weight" despite what alot of studies are showing.

The comments frustrate me to no end...

You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are. ~Jeph Jacques

Don't feel too badly about the comments. Venues like message boards tend to bring the worst out in people because of the anonymity they provide. You can vent all your hate and frustration and nobody knows your real name. It's just like gay bashing--I think half of it is done because of deep rooted fears that they, themselves, may be gay. So, bashing us fatties makes them feel safe that this "disease" will never befall them. Okay, I'm waxing a little philosophical here when in reality those negative comments and peoples' ignorance and cruelty drive me up a wall.

Sheesh, the whole "Weight Loss Blog Squad" in the sidebar suggests that if fat people don't want to encounter discrimination, they should just lose weight. Way to be objective there, USA Today. That's the equivalent of saying if a black person doesn't want to be discriminated against, he should undergo skin lightening, or a gay person should just "choose" to go straight, or a woman should just opt for gender reassignment surgery. Sure, losing weight may allow one to assimilate into the dominant culture and avoid weight-based discrimination, but this only serves to enable such oppression, not to eradicate it or even address its root causes.

GAH! Those comments are just awful. I couldn't tear myself away - I kept scrolling for some fat positive comments, then I realized 2 hours had passed.

It just makes me sick.

If you do choose to read the comments (I'm not recommending doing that, though), you can use the 'report abuse' link below specific posts to quickly and easily flag the comment as 'hate speech', etc.

Clicked the link, read the comments there before reading here. My bad. However I may wade back in to take viyapriya up on her suggestion. Better than trying to beat back the tide of moronically insecure hate flooding out of the comments The Article itself is pretty good despite the attending idiocy others have mentioned that accompanies it (Weight-loss Blog Squad? Brilliant. For a brain damaged chimp). Right now my inner masochist is struggling with my rational side (They don't get it. They don't WANT to get it. Move on.) and my flawed, perhaps pretentious, belief that people might get a glimpse of the other side of the story if you could just find the RIGHT WAY to explain it (Wrong! See: 'don't WANT to get it').Especially galling? The Hater Pacifying Apologists. "I agree, fat peple r disgusting, LOL! I way 300 pounds but I'm trying to loose!" There are quite a few. Stay away from comments.

Could it be possible to do an aikido move on the commenters who are spewing fat hate? (Is it aikido I want, or jujitsu?) Don't 99 pages of hate-spewing posts kinda prove the point that weight prejudice is rampant? I.e., the point of the article? in that sense, I find the comments satisfying.

the "principle of least astonishment" (or, no-shit-Sherlock).

I've been waiting for years for someone to come up and call me fat to my face, so that I can suddenly drop everything, throw my arms around them, and shriek "I'm FAT?!?! Oh thank you for telling me!! I could never have worked it out on my own!!" and so on. I'm sure it would scare the crap out of them.

Mandark,

That's what I tell doctors. (I'm 300lbs of kick-ass intelligent woman) In fact, a neurologist was just telling me that the other day...right before he suggested I go through obtaining a medically approved eating disorder, I mean, gastric bypass....

"Well, you wouldn't have headaches if you'd lose weight."

My answer: "Wait? I'm fat? How could I not have noticed?" Then I proceeded to educate him on the risks and outcomes of gastric bypass. Doctors HATE when their patients are more educated on a procedure than they are.

Mwahahahahahahaha....

I think docs are some of the most sizist people out there. My gods...read some of the medblogs....I have never heard ONE thing decent said about fat people. All they do is make fun of the things they have to do to care for us, and how big we are, and how all our problems are caused by our weight.

I think we need to start with educating medical personnel on the realities of weight. Once they learn something, maybe the rest of them will. Let's start by letting them know that most of those anti-fat studies are subsidized by the diet industry.

You rock, Midoryn! And it seems some of the doctors whose blogs I've read aren't any better informed about the realities of fat than the next guy. I'm not saying I am somehow more educated than they are, or that NO doctor "gets it." Just that SOME of the med blogs are awful and illustrate doctors are no more immune to prejudice than anyone else. And, from a patient's perspective, we tend to trust absolutely in the white coats.

Now, the article itself is not bad. At least it's out there. I wish it did more to attack the sheer wrongheadedness of weight discrimination, rather than simply point to examples of it. That wrongness is this: A person's weight has nothing to do with his or her worth as a human being. Period. It doesn't matter whether you think a fat person can change his/her weight or should change weight. It is WRONG to judge him/her for it.

This quote comes to mind:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

We can't make people change their inner beliefs of fat, but if we have some legal protection, I'm all in favor.

Excellent point, FatPhotographer! Hear, hear! Welcome to BFB.

OK, I just have to jump in here. This is so sad. Imagine all the wonderful people you won't meet if you "pre-judge" who they are meerly by appearance? Having recently started a biz that caters to plus size women, I have enjoyed the opportunity to hear a lot of their stories. It is amazing. Many of these women are educators. A lot of them at the college level. Another high percentage of them are leaders in non-profit organizations. One woman is devoted to getting people's lives back on track by training them in job skills and life skills. It is just so contradictory to me......every plus woman I have met through my business is actively "engaged" in living. They are doing great things with their life! So I say, next time you look at a curvy person and decide who they are before you have a conversation with them, shame on you! As a plus size person myself, I simply don't wake up everymorning thinking about my weight. I think, what I am going to do today to make my neighborhood a little better.
Everyday.....do something that you have never done before!