I dont like putting the words obese and discrimination together. It implies that a person has a right to be obese.

Some people are overweight for uncontrolable medical conditions (I had Cushings disease and put on over 100lbs in less than 2 years). But I am not sure how I feel with considering this kind of discrimination along with racism and sexism. Being a big girl myself, I actually haven't gotten discriminated against much, but I do live in one of the fattest states in the country…

wow, this is my thesis topic.

on a positive note:
the self esteem boost associated with being a member of an ethnic group can buffer against the costs to self esteem related to being overweight. sooo…fewer cases of poor self-image among ethnic women. however, this doesn't negate the fact that discrimination is wrong.

you should link to the original article by Puhl

*M*,

Even assuming fatness is modifiable, why would a person have any less of a right to be fat than to be, say, Jewish? Religion is modifiable, as evidenced by the many people who convert between religions. Many restaurants even offer kosher food especially for their orthodox Jewish customers. If a person has a right to be Jewish, why would they not have a right to be fat?

Excuse me, but what does being Jewish have to do with it? I agree that no one should be discriminated against, because we all have a right to respect as human beings. But to compare obesity to being Jewish is besides the point, reductive and slightly offensive.
I would have chosen the comparison of having the right to be a smoker to obesity (assuming of course we are talking about obesity brought on by an unhealthy lifestyle, not by genetic reasons.) I have nothing against overweight people, but there are no inherent health risks associated with being Jewish. Something to consider.

Can we get serious here? I don't deny that there are fat jokes and there may even be job discrimination for obese people, but let's get real. No one who's obese is in fear of the police, the justice system, housing discrimination, educational disparities or any of the things that people of color or different sexual orientation have to deal with on a regular basis, just because they're obese.

This is just another group trying to jump on the "poor me" bandwagon.

Chair:

Huh? What's with the Jewish reasoning?? Jews are a race….? What? You don't have a choice to be a race but is you're talking about the Jewish religion…..

What a strange thing to raise? White people can't stand having to feel guilty/responsible towards racism towards ethnic minorities that they will rise up any old bullshit…

How can you compare someone with a defect-obese gene with someone's race??

I'd suggest that discriminating against obese *women* can be considered an extension of sexism. in a culture that often values women as sex objects and not as full-fledged human beings, how much more so is an obese woman, who doesn't fit the standard male fantasy, devalued?

I definitely don't think that weight discrimination is up there with racism for ALL SORTS of reasons. But for a lot of people, weight *is* beyond their control for health reasons or it is a side-effect of economic disparity, so I think it should be treated with some bit discretion.

Rather than hand-wringing over weight-discrimination, we'd be better off spending our effort on helping people achieve a weight that's healthy for them. Putting pressure on grocers in poor urban & rural areas to carry healthier foods (my bodega sells a lot of crap. gotta drive or take 2 buses to get fresh veggies), lobbying schools to serve healthy lunches (why is our gov't serving our kids pizza and french fries every day? wtf?) this is what we should be talking about.

Weight changes. That's a little different ballgame than race and/or gender, but ok, America with your "Effie we all got pain" selves, trying to talk all Oprahish about pain like it's all one big pain that we all share on different levels so we can all relate and all cry together. Uh…notthesamething.

And I haven't heard people yelling *die fatperson die* while throwing malatov cocktails at their house lately, but I'm sure on a basic level — like with employment or while running for 8th grade treasurer — no doubt there's a "discrimination" factor there.

First of all, any person of any race and religion can be fat. So to comparing it to racism and sexism is pointless. But I agree with Miriam to en extent. Whenever a blk female is in a commercial or movie, she's usually a female of size.

For the most part, I don't see anything wrong with fat humor, as long as it's not excessive. I'm stocky myself and know that I can do more to keep myself lean. Every fat person in America is not fat due to "medical reasons" and "genetics." Heck our food portions are A LOT larger than the portions found in other countries. We love everything in excess.

Also, if I hear another "obese" chick call her excess weight "curves", I'm gonna throw a hot dog at her… lol. Obesity DOES NOT equal "curves."

Not to make light of being gay but you can hide being gay, you can't hide being obesse or black.

As I get older, the less tolerant of obesity I am. People stereotype in order to make quick judgments which help us make several quick choices. For example, one may assume that name brand is better than store brand and spend an extra buck on name brand. So in the case of obese people, there is an assumption of lack of control (over-eating), laziness and disregard for health. Sure this is not the case 100%; however purpose of a stereotype/judgement is not to take time considering all of the exceptions / caveats. So I'm sure obese people get discriminated against b/c the stereotypes associated with obesity aren't the most attractive / appealing.

I went from being pretty damn fat to being a normal weight. My perceptions of myself changed, but it's impossible to measure how much of the change had to do with my own attitude vs. those of other people. There's definitely a cultural aspect- an equally overweight black friend of mine was much more confident at her heaviest. As she put it, "black girls can own their fat like white girls can't", because for whatever reason it was more acceptable among both blacks and whites for her to be bigger. Racial issues aside, my friend definitely seemed to have an easier time of being fat.

Obese people are subconsciously viewed as being out-of-control on some level. The problem is that often enough it's %&$@* true, which is why I got to college 70lbs overweight, and why I lost those extra pounds. Obesity discrimination isn't discrimination unless you really have a medical condition. Most cases of obesity can be fixed by healthier living. It's just that in America, most people have no idea what that means.

Let's just face it. Some people are overweight due to desease or genetics, and others are heavier due to not leading a healthy life style, but no matter what the cause, they are still people. Keep your personal comments, rude remarks, and opinions to yourselves and let them live the life they want to live. if they want to be overweight, let them, but let them do it while being happy opposed to make them go through a living hell every day of their lives.

Descrimination is wrong, face the facts. someone who is born with the fat gene is just as bad as being picked on because of your beliefs that you were born into. you can change them but your wil; power may be less than those who have weight gain due to being truly unhealth. Choosing to descriminate 66% if the US is stupid. If the government was truly concerned about the number of obese people increasing, then they would shut down the MacDonalds and burger Kindg and start putting food in the grocery stores with real nutritional ingredients. realize that most of the food you see on the shelves is quick and easy to make. but if they really cared how we look, they would be putting the nutrition instead of the taste on the grocery shelves…

sorry its long