Fat acceptance?

Pottler

Just looks like "really unhealthy" acceptance. Better off if it was strongly discouraged rather than accepted. What quality of life could you have being that heavy?

Morag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Willendorf

beks101

Ihatecuddles wrote: »

The world is just as disgusted by size 0 ....I don't keep my nose in runway magazines and I don't care about high fashion, so I see a lot less of the size 0 models, but I do know the world wants it to change and there's so many campaigns to get it done. ALso, campaigns for more plus size models. Ralph Lauren and vogue both using them instead of size 0 recently.

This is the official line, Dove's infamous 'real women', but have you ever tried losing a crap load of weight and gauging the reactions? I did it through a pretty bad emotional time that led to an eating disorder and I never got so many compliments in my life. I look 'fantastic' apparently, with all my ribs on show and my hollow cheeks and lack of womanly curves.

It was either that or the deathly stares from other women who were less concerned and more intimidated by my sudden skinniness - and a hostility I had never felt before from other females. I certainly didn't feel socially accepted - but not because I was 'disgusting'; because I was a 'threat'. People wanted diet tips, they wanted to know my 'secret'. It was massively difficult to say the least, as you can imagine where my head already was throughout the whole ordeal.

I don't see the need to comment or herald or insult the bodies of other females for a myriad of reasons, most of all because of how personal body image is and how you can never know what kind of torment somebody is suffering in coming to terms with their own figure.

I don't agree with this bullsh1t. I don't agree with the exploitation of women's bodies in order to move a few magazines off a shelf, but it happens, that's the world we live in, and if we're going to have to deal with 'scary skinny' pics of Posh Spice every week with her bones protruding through her Chanel dress, then why not balance it out with the other side? Why not show a few dangerously morbidly overweight women parading about in their underwear, it's equally as unhealthy, they're equally as bad an example as their skeletal sisters, we may as well make it an equal opportunities thing.

Cheerful Spring

I've never been too bothered about a girl been overweight. I've been told i am really good looking lad, i can get skinny girls too. I overlook the fact she is bit overweight if i am attracted to her and she has good banter.

I have though got remarks from some of my mates about been with an overweight girl (noobs) Sex , i have also found is lot more fun with a girl who's slightly overweight. I've never been with someone who looks obese though, i don't find that attractive really, but i'm not ignorant to girl like if i notice shes interested and keen to get to know me.

Handsome Bob

listermint wrote: »

People are different but when you go to extremes (either end of that spectrum) its not right and its indefensible to allow people to believe it to be 'ok' or to lead a normal life.

The difference though is that one end of the extreme is laughed at and made fun of, while the other is not.

Just look at the first 2 pages alone, plenty of jokes. If this was about pro-anorexia, I doubt you'd have many people making "skeletor's bird" jokes.

Anyway, back on topic, I wasn't aware of this fat acceptance "movement". Seems like a load of bollocks, it's unnecessary to put the issue on a pedestal like this.

Roadtrippin

I agree that people that have reached a body weight that would be classified as morbidly obese need to be helped to change that. But I also agree with a lot of comments here that say this change needs to start from the inside. Who knows what kind of situation got an obese person to that weight in the first place? Bullying someone into losing weight never works so it really all starts by understanding the internal reasons for an external symptom...

beks101 wrote: »

but have you ever tried losing a crap load of weight and gauging the reactions? I did it through a pretty bad emotional time that led to an eating disorder and I never got so many compliments in my life.
[...]
People wanted diet tips, they wanted to know my 'secret'.

This is were it gets interesting. I do think either extreme of the spectrum is not that accepted by society but I also have noticed that weight loss (no matter how it was achieved) seems to be universally applauded and not always is it a good thing.
A lot of my female friends have quite unhealthy eating habits, if you ask me (e.g. coffees & salad is all one of them eats all day), yet because it helps them maintain their size 6-8 it's acceptable.
Another friend of mine lost loads of weight in a healthier way - going to the gym. However, now this has turned into an absolute obsession and he won't stop until he has a six pack... Although he is already at a very healthy weight and if he loses any more he will look like an unattractive twig.
I believe this kind of obsessive behaviour when it comes to eating and weight is being encouraged by people's reaction to weight loss without asking questions how... The amount of health problems some people are facing in the future for not eating enough will be just as bad as people that eat too much so let's not encourage anorexic eating habits or obsessive calorie counting either.

CuriousG

Anorexic people are JUST as sick as overweight people, couldn't stand to look like either of them to be honest.

This is disgusting though, and no one should be happy with looking like that.

I also disagree with people saying only fat people get made fun of, it could not be further from the truth. I know a few people, that were bullied throughout school for 'not eating' and being 'too skinny'. That wasn't the case, it was just how they were built, they eat like any normal person, just happen to have a smaller frame and still got bullied for it day in and day out in an age where 'curves are in'.

Madam_X

Czarcasm wrote: »

Obesity is nothing new, and it's not spiralling out of control either. I would venture that it's at the same levels it's always been at, despite "statistics" that might suggest otherwise.

I dunno. Surely instances of it have increased since 50 years ago? Life is more sedentary, there's more junkfood available, portions have increased. Gastric band surgery is more commonplace now because people are reaching such massive weights its the only answer. Is that really the way it's always been...?

GreeBo

chops018 wrote: »

Why did I click that link. I almost vomited. Also it's ironic the hideousness of those photo's yet they feel the need to blur they're yoohoo's.

I was thinking to myself why on earth are they blurring anything...?
I seriously doubt you can see anything without a head torch, a team of miners and a serious supply of canaries.

woodoo

If you were to have sex with one of them you have to roll them in flour and search for the damp spot /dom dom tish/

Czarcasm

Madam_X wrote: »

I dunno. Surely instances of it have increased since 50 years ago? Life is more sedentary, there's more junkfood available, portions have increased. Gastric band surgery is more commonplace now because people are reaching such massive weights its the only answer. Is that really the way it's always been...?

Instances of obesity portrayed in the media are on the rise certainly, but that's only because the media have become far more pervasive in our daily lives. Most people here would remember when Sally Jesse Raphael back in the 80's used have oversized babies and supersized adults on her show while at the same time Bob Geldof was organising Live Aid to feed the starving population in Africa.

That's going back about 25 years, I'd imagine going back 50, even 100 years, it'd be pretty much the same thing- instances of obesity, but generally speaking I'd imagine people for the most part, were a fairly healthy size.

There has always been sedentary lifestyles differences between social classes, and usually the more affluent you were, the more sedentary your lifestyle. Junk food has always been available, just in previous times when they ate cake, they didn't consider it junk food, not at least according to a qoute often attributed to Marie Antoinette who when told of french citizens starving, was said to have uttered the immortal line "Let them eat cake!".

She didn't by the way, but it is lesser attributed to Marie Therese, wife of Louis 16th 100 years earlier.

Gastric band surgery is only becoming more commonplace now because it is becoming more widely accepted as a means of weight loss. I would venture that give it another 20 years and gastric band surgery will be as commonplace as breast implants and liposuction. I understand there are certain conditions that need to be met right now in order to qualify for gastric band surgery, but when you see the likes of Sharon Osborne and Fern Britton getting it, it just goes to show you that the affluent classes again lead an advantageous lifestyle. This again, is nothing new.

I would put forward the idea that educating people about what they put in their bodies and continuing to offer sustainable alternatives, promoting a healthy lifestyle is the only answer to obesity, but as much education as you provide, some people are still unwilling to listen. They make a choice to buy cheaper, less nutritious food because it is more widely available to them and making an effort to source more nutritious food and lead a healthy lifestyle is just "too much work" for a minority of the population in western society who only think short term.

This doesn't mean we should baste everybody with the same brush though, and just goes to show that obesity levels are pretty much the same as they always were, just that a combination of research and media attention highlights the issue every so often, before we go back to not giving a fiddlers, and I would think that we will continue to have the same levels of obesity in 100 years time again and people saying it wasn't like this 100 years ago.

Madam_X

I can't accept that there was the same number of morbidly obese people one hundred years ago as there is today. No way can that be true. Yeh the majority of people are a healthy weight, but obesity is still a public health problem.

lostpas5235

Spock likes Big Girls.

http://www.rmichelson.com/artist_pages/nimoy/pages/MaxBeaut.htm

token101

Yossi said: “I wanted to show that beauty isn’t owned by skinny people alone.
“To this end the project had to be provocative, but at the same time reassuring, so I focussed on their fullness and femininity as a form of protest against discrimination.

****ing hell. Reminds of this. Whoever is telling them they should accept being that size is killing them. How the **** do they maintain that kind of size?

IM0

pic 2 and 5 would get a nice tapping and spooning, possibly repeatedly too.
frankly skinny women are nearly as bad [but in the other direction]
I wish girls would realise that looking like a boy is not attractive. women are supposed to be curvy [aka fat/phat] its natural and what makes them ..ya know.. women!

its the novely factor that would do it for me about those two pics, but in reality they are obese, so my comments are more about the notion that women think they need to be superskinny and have no ass ect, well alot do anyway.

its all about proportion though people. proportion is king.

Czarcasm

Madam_X wrote: »

I can't accept that there was the same number of morbidly obese people one hundred years ago as there is today. No way can that be true. Yeh the majority of people are a healthy weight, but obesity is still a public health problem.

I'll be honest, I don't have exact figures, but the concept of obesity is not a new phenomenon in and of itself. There's a good read here if you wanted to while away half an hour or so to read it, but I'll pluck out the most relevant part as it relates to just how far back the phenomenon goes at least-

In the evolutionary history of humankind, bodily fat seems to have served nature’s purpose by outfitting the species with a built-in mechanism for storing its own food reserves. During prehistoric times, when the burden of disease was that of pestilence and famine, natural selection rewarded the “thrifty” genotypes of those who could store the greatest amount of fat from the least amount of the then erratically available foods and to release it as frugally as possible over the long run.

This ability to store surplus fat from the least possible amount of food intake may have made the difference between life and death, not only for the individual but also—more importantly—for the species. Those who could store fat easily had an evolutionary advantage in the harsh environment of early hunters and gatherers.

The esthetic value and cultural significance attached to obesity is reflected in the mysterious nude female figurines of Stone Age Europe, dating back to more than 20,000 years ago, considered to be matriarchal icons of fertility or the mother goddess. The best known of these earliest representations of the human form is the one discovered in Willendorf, Australia in 1908. Commonly known as the Venus of Willendorf, its squat body, bulbous contours, pendulous breasts, and prominent belly are as esthetically a factual rendering of gross obesity as can be.

(The bolding was my own emphasis)

Now certainly I am not arguing that obesity isn't a public health problem, of course it is, and always has been, just that nowadays in modern times, with more research being done, more awareness has been created. Some would maintain that there is still not enough awareness being created because people are still becoming obese.

The fact is that most people nowadays through sheer common sense alone, are aware of the dangers of obesity and all it's associated health issues. BUT, they CHOOSE to ignore the evidence, because it suits them to do so, and no amount of educating them is going to make them change what is for them a personal choice.

I'm not saying for one minute I approve of obesity, of course I don't, but it's a hard one for me because simply speaking in terms of sexuality and attractiveness, I DO find a larger female more sexually attractive than a slim female. I know all too well the dangers of obesity and not for one minute would I encourage any woman to actually put ON weight, but also I would not see it as my place to tell them they need to lose weight either. I would leave it to them as their personal choice.

If however an obese woman chose to lose weight, then I would encourage and support that decision 100%, much as it might be against my own natural desires, I'd sooner have that person a healthy weight and have them around for another 20 years, than have them die of heart disease or one of obesity's many other health complications. In other words I'm saying that while I may not find them sexually attractive any more, to me they are in essence still somewhat the same person. I say "somewhat", because like it or not, losing weight can change a person's personality and attitude the very same way as gaining weight can affect their personality and attitude.

In conclusion, obesity is without doubt a public health issue, but unfortunately it is not taken seriously enough to be able to come up with an attractive and viable alternative as there is no one complete solution to what is in effect a far more complicated issue than just encouraging a healthy diet and exercise "and the problem of obesity will disappear in a few generations". It's not that simple. There are many factors and causes that need to be considered, and that's probably a discussion for a whole other thread.

SueBoom

Wow, when I first came into this thread I thought it was just going to about supporting having curves, puppy fat etc. But those pictures... Oh no... How those people are even living is beyond me. Unhealthy living and being obese to a point where it's a disability should not be supported. Hells no.

Sunnyisland

Fat acceptance


For the next two weeks yes.

Roadtrippin

Interesting article in the Independent today on the results of a new study claiming that being overweight lowers death risk rather than increase it:

http://www.independent.ie/health/health-news/recipe-for-a-long-life-overweight-people-have-lower-death-risk-3340366.html

'Being overweight can extend life rather than shorten it, according to a major new study that runs counter to widespread medical assumptions and years of warnings about the fatal implications of our expanding waistlines.'

Food for thought...

Ole Rodrigo

That report refers to being overweight rather than obese, and I'd imagine its just another example of the media latching on to a particular part of the report rather than considering the whole.

An interesting article in the guardian mentions the failure of british policy to tackle obesity because it focused at personal responsibility and ignored other factors such as where you lived, whether or not kids could play outside safely, easy access to purchase unprocessed food and enough time to cook it.

Obesity is not only caused by how much we each eat or drink: if tackling it were as simple as telling people to eat less and move more, we would have solved it by now. Our chances of being obese are also affected by factors like whether we have easy access to affordable fruit, veg and other healthy foods, and if it is safe to let our kids play outside. That's why if governments focus on personal choice alone it is, at best, a red herring and, at worst, a dereliction of duty for everyone's health."

http://gu.com/p/3cnt9

Chinasea

Nobody really wants to be this size, (except for the 'exception's).

Just like the concept of freak shows these photos are exploiting these desperate individuals. It is easy for people to point fingers, to laugh, to scoff but who would like to swap places. A high percentage of these people will die prematurely.

There are 2 posts on this thread also puzzling that the ladies have covered their genetailia, which again reaffirms the total dismissal and exclusion that people with this condition face on a day to day basis from 'regular' people all round them. Nothing to sneer at here.

Roadtrippin

ror_74 wrote: »

That report refers to being overweight rather than obese, and I'd imagine its just another example of the media latching on to a particular part of the report rather than considering the whole.

An interesting article in the guardian mentions the failure of british policy to tackle obesity because it focused at personal responsibility and ignored other factors such as where you lived, whether or not kids could play outside safely, easy access to purchase unprocessed food and enough time to cook it.

I agree. Obviously there is a difference between being overweight and obese. And yes, tackling obesity needs to be a state-involved issue and not just rely on personal choice.
But I think one thing that study I linked to highlights is that being slim by itself does not equate to healthy lifestyle. Also, a couple of extra pounds can protect people in times of illness.

vard

Roadtrippin wrote: »

I agree. Obviously there is a difference between being overweight and obese. And yes, tackling obesity needs to be a state-involved issue and not just rely on personal choice.
But I think one thing that study I linked to highlights is that being slim by itself does not equate to healthy lifestyle. Also, a couple of extra pounds can protect people in times of illness.

Even though they probably aren't aware, most people in this country are overweight. Many people who playfully refer to themselves as chubby or think they fall into the overweight category are in fact obese.

Ole Rodrigo

Roadtrippin wrote: »

I agree. Obviously there is a difference between being overweight and obese. And yes, tackling obesity needs to be a state-involved issue and not just rely on personal choice.
But I think one thing that study I linked to highlights is that being slim by itself does not equate to healthy lifestyle. Also, a couple of extra pounds can protect people in times of illness.

Absolutely. There is a difference between being thin through being undernourished and thin through food choice and exercise. Extra pounds available for times of illness are still in plentiful supply when there is between 6 and 18% body fat ( males ). In fact you can survive for weeks on just water and body fat, and fully recover afterwards. Most properly conducted studies conclude that when bodyweight goes up past a certain threshold, so does the risk of most lifestyle related diseases. So I suppose the indo article should be considered in that context.

Ole Rodrigo

vard wrote: »

Even though they probably aren't aware, most people in this country are overweight. Many people who playfully refer to themselves as chubby or think they fall into the overweight category are in fact obese.

I agree. You only have to look around in any of our city centers on any given day to see that is the case.

crazy cabbage

Obesity is nothing new, and it's not spiralling out of control either. I would venture that it's at the same levels it's always been at, despite "statistics" that might suggest otherwise.

Would have to disagree. Linky shows that more people are dieing of obesity and related deaths than of hunger and malnutrition...

Two decades ago, childhood malnutrition was the world's leading cause of early death. Now, the top global killers are diseases related to obesity.

swimming in a sea

Is there any real desire from governments to reduce obesity levels?

The American government continues to provide massive subsidies for corn farmers to produce High-fructose corn syrup. I remember talking to a pension fund manager and he said a lot of investments were in these massive farms but also in the same portfolios they were investing in pharmaceutical companies whose main income was government payments for diabetic medication.

Too many companies relay on fat people, maybe I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut.:)