[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by Kansheera

Ok, so I know I'm new and that I'm not much in the position to whine, but I need to let this out. Everytime I mentioned this, people told me to "not point a sausage-like finger at others and go run a few miles."

First, I don't have "sausage-like fingers", and second, I already run a few miles everyday.

Not to my point. Has everyone ever watched a Disney film? Has anyone noticed how it's the beautiful princess who ends up with the prince, and the evil one is always obese? (Madam Mims, Ursula, etc)

Not necessarily ALWAYS! What about Shrek? The love interests were ogres and the evil people were thin and beatuiful? In most films I can think of the evil person was thin. Wicked Witches in Wizard of Oz, Cruella Deville from Beauty 101 dalmations, Evil Queen from Snow White, evil step sisters and step mother in Cinderella were thin, etc. In Beauty and the Beast, the romance interest for beauty was a beast, which did try to show that true beauty is on the inside. But overall I agree, most main characters are thin in nature.

By no means is this an excuse for most of the main characters being trim, but back when a lot of these movies were made, 40, 50, 60 even 70 years ago, the majority of the population was thin and maybe they felt the characters they made represented the population overall?

Originally Posted by Kansheera

What I mean is that they (the media, big entertainment companies, advertising, you name it) say that if you're thin, you're AUTOMATICALLY beautiful, smart, good-hearted, when you sing little animals from the woods come to you and prince charming will want to marry you the moment he lays eyes on you.
On the other hand, if you're fat, you're evil, dumb, you're a sociopat and you despise all forms of beauty.
And people live along these rules, nowadays. At highschool, I was practically told that I wasn't even human. People others considered kind-hearted did cruel things to me. If you think I'm exagerating, this guy I had a crush on and that everyone said he was an angel on earth once locked himself in a bathroom with me, pretending to like me, but it happened to be a prank that he bragged about to 4 schools. And people actually found him "cooler". Why? Because I wasn't human enouth, I didn't count. It was funny to laught at the freak.
But I don't want to complain about that either.

I don't watch tv anymore, just to avoid commercials and looking at actresses and singers. They tell you ALL THE TIME that you must be like them. Hell they have personal trainers, or if they're in commercials, they're most likely pro-ana models.
Because of tv, people think fat people are mean. In fact, we had a commercial here in portugal advertising a soft drink. It had fat people yelling "save the whales!" then the image fades to the picture of a beautiful, impossibly thin woman and the text "don't be like them, drink <insert brand here>". How more aggressive can you get? How are fat people supposeed to FEEL? (Yes, surprise, we feel)
That was basically saying that fat people enjoy being fat, and that they do silly manifestations about saving obesity. I'd give an ARM to be thin! I'd give anything I possess! ANYTHING! Can't people understand how some of us are so desperate? To the point of slashing their wrists in hope of losing some calories through bloodloss?

Which brings me to yet another point. Pro ana.
They say we are "liek, omg, soooo grossss, i'd kill myself if i were liek that. i just ate 24 kcal, i feel soooooo grossss now ;("
I hate them, yet I'd do anything to look like them. Go figure.
People think very high of anorexic patients, they feel sorry for them, or admire them, and say they are really brave. Men say they're "so hot."
Now obese patients, people look upon us like filth. No, less than that. They wouldn't spit on us because it would be too much to waste saliva on us.

I'm sick of people not listening to what I have to say because of me being fat, and idolizing thin women who have NOTHING on their heads appart from bleached hair. I'm sick and tired of people ridicularizing MY valid opinions, and crediting THEM even if they can't string two words together in their own native language.

People, we are as valid or more than those models. We hurt, just like they would if you treated them like you treat us. We want not only acceptance and lack of humiliation, we want love. I don't mean pity, I mean as much love as you'd give a thin woman. Kudos.

I don't know anyone here in the US that thinks anorexic is beautiful, in fact quite the opposite. Most people would rather see someone with a few extra pounds than be a skeleton. I think people feel bad for anorexics because of their mindset, how they are so desperate to be thin that they'll practically kill themselves for it.

You are dead on about TV, the people we see on the tube do not represent the mix of society, and that is one of my pet peaves.

I also hate how people can become rich and famous singers, but they can't sing worth a crap, they just are good looking in people's eyes, and that's why they're famous singers.

Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Fergie, Janet Jackson, Madonna just to name a few.



I'm going to move this to the blog section, as I think you'll get more repsonses in there.


Great post!