Sunday, October 14, 2007

Punishing fat people

I've noticed that there seems to be this drive to punish fat people for being fat. Aside from the crap I hear like, "There's no excuse for not losing weight!" (To which my husband responded, "There's no excuse for not having an IQ over 100!), there are actual suggestions out there for depriving fat people of basic life necessities in order to force them to lose weight, such as:

- The whiny columnists that have frequently complained that fat people should not have nice clothing designed in their sizes, because it "encourages them to be fat" or "condones their being fat"

- The dickish employers that are actually trying to financially penalize fat employees who do not fall under a certain BMI level.

- Those who propose denying fat people medical care, INCLUDING asinine physicians who refuse to treat a person's actual medical problems unless they first lose weight, but also those who think fat people should be denied medical insurance entirely.

- Those who would deny fat people the right to be parents. Sure, they've started with denying fat people adoptions, but do you really think it's going to stop there?

- People who actually advocate openly shunning and shaming fat people as a way to force them to lose weight, on the premise that the desire for social contact will drive them not into insanity and depression, but into weight-loss treatment. In other words, let's actively attempt to inflict mental illness on another human being to punish them for being fat.

We talk about the right to control our own bodies, but, folks, let's think beyond the uterus here, okay? It's YOUR body. I don't get a say in what food you put in your mouth, what exercises you do, whether or not you get pregnant or have an abortion, whether or not you wear boxers or briefs, and certainly not how much space you are permitted to occupy! We need to remind the fat-haters to "Keep your legislation off my body!"

1 comment:

Unknown said...

- Those who propose denying fat people medical care, INCLUDING asinine physicians who refuse to treat a person's actual medical problems unless they first lose weight, but also those who think fat people should be denied medical insurance entirely.

A family friend had a heart condition and needed surgery, but her doctors said that there was nothing they could do for her until she lost weight. She dieted, and dieted, but still the pounds clung to her, and she only became more ill, but still, they claimed it was a medical necessity that she lose weight before the surgery could be preformed.

It turns out that the surgery was more medically necessary than the weight loss. She died due to her heart condition.

This post scares the bejesus out of me, but it is something we all need to be fighting against.