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The problem is that fat shaming is very rarely motivated by a concern for the health status of the person being shamed. It is virtually always done as an act of cruelty which is directed at someone who is perceived to be socially inferior by the person doing the fat shaming.
It's fine to have a sincere talk with someone you do care about and explain to them your concerns about the effects that being overweight may have on their health. However, attempting to make another human being feel inferior because they are fat does not have the ability to psychologically motivate that person to lose weight. In fact, it virtually always has the opposite effect of lowering their self esteem, which in turn, causes them to seek solace in food.
Pointing out to someone that they are a valuable and important human being, and that you care about them as a person, will be far more likely to motivate that person to lose weight.
I gained more than 60 pounds while undergoing chemo and eating around 1500 calories a day. They weren't high quality calories - I was 23 and had no support for cooking, cleaning, or shopping while working full time to pay my bills so often those 1500 calories came from milkshakes (easy on mouth sores) or frozen meals, but nothing extravagant. Chemo also changed my tastebuds so things I legitimately enjoy - like kale, brussels sprouts, etc - tasted horrendous. My exercise dropped from walking miles every day on my commute to having to crawl on my hands and knees up to my apartment. It took months out of treatment for me to even gain the strength to take the trash downstairs to the barrel.
And I didn't start off small. In the years before my diagnosis, I was misdiagnosed with a litany of unrelated conditions. One of them was an undetermined skin condition which resulted in a round of steroids every 6 months or so. I'm very reactive to steroids (part of why I gained so much weight during chemo) so every round would immediately be a 15-20 pound weight gain. I might lose half of that when I got off of steroids, but over the years it added up.
At my highest, I was in the upper 200s toward the end of chemo and very, very ill. I needed to use a scooter to go grocery shopping and to this day have a handicapped placard due to decreased lung capacity (which, by the way, makes it much more difficult to exercise - I really can only do machines where I'm sitting down). I was fat shamed CONSTANTLY while going through chemo. People making comments when they saw me get out of my car in the handicapped space, people scrutinizing my shopping cart, full grown adults mentioning that if I just got out of the scooter maybe I wouldn't be so fat. People didn't realize my buzz cut was hiding chemo hair loss and most people assume that cancer patients universally lose weight. Even when I wore a bandana to try to elicit some sympathy just to make the judgment stop, I had heavy eyebrows that required tweezing even as I lost my hair (life's just not fair :P) so I think people assumed I was rocking the butch look. It was horrible and made me not want to leave my house.
Point of the matter - you have no idea what is going on in someone's life. You just don't. Having cancer was bad enough - gaining so much weight because of the cancer and previous years of misdiagnosis was worse. The weight has been very difficult to get off. In the past 6 months, I've dropped almost 50 pounds but that requires the type of will power that few possess - green smoothies for breakfast and lunch, salad for dinner, and hitting the inhaler every 2 minutes at the gym on a recumbent bike. If I eat more than 1200 calories, I stall. If I eat more than 1500 calories, I gain. It's FRUSTRATING. It's heartbreaking. But, worst of all, I know people assume I'm lazy based on the way I look when nothing could be further from the truth!
Luckily, I haven't been fat shamed by a stranger in public in awhile though I still notice people giving me dirty looks when they see me in the handicapped parking space. I'm older now and less likely to put up with other peoples' rudeness. Think being overweight is dangerous to my health? Wait to see how pointing that out impacts yours.
The problem is that fat shaming is very rarely motivated by a concern for the health status of the person being shamed. It is virtually always done as an act of cruelty which is directed at someone who is perceived to be socially inferior by the person doing the fat shaming.
This, x1000. How is shouting "Walk it off, fatty!" to an obese person who's ALREADY WALKING FOR EXERCISE in any way helpful? How is saying "geez, lay off the donuts" to a person who's eating habits you know nothing about helpful?
It isn't. Fat shaming is about the shamer making himself/herself feel good at the expense of someone else, a person who's seen as a socially inferior (and therefore helpless) target.
Charolastra00 has the right of it. None of us know all the details of another person's life. Best to hold our tongues if we can't say something that's positive and genuinely encouraging.
If not shaming, something needs to be done about men sporting up to a 9 month pregnancy or women with excess belly hanging over & bra easily creating extra spare tires. Cellulite on thighs are god awful especially when the person displays them in shorts too short. I was in Barcelona and a friend commented while all of us were out strolling, "did you noticed they are hardly any overweight people around?"
Instead of "fat shaming" we should be "healthy habit encouraging" for everyone no matter what they weigh or look like. Fat shaming is not only inaccurate, it gives people who have bad habits a free pass because they are "thin-looking."
Our society, on the whole should encourage, and make it easier for people to eat well and stay active on a daily basis. Focusing on this will improve health on the whole and is a lot more sustainable for everyone involved.
Instead of "fat shaming" we should be "healthy habit encouraging" for everyone no matter what they weigh or look like. Fat shaming is not only inaccurate, it gives people who have bad habits a free pass because they are "thin-looking."
Our society, on the whole should encourage, and make it easier for people to eat well and stay active on a daily basis. Focusing on this will improve health on the whole and is a lot more sustainable for everyone involved.
You are absolutely right. There are only two problems with your approach:
1. It involves actual work, on the part of everyone.
2. It won't satisfy the emotional needs of bullies (who are the folks encouraging fat shaming).
Each person has millions of individual attributes that make up who they are. One attribute should not dictate how someone is treated. Fat shaming is just another form of bullying and discrimination. People should focus on their own issues instead of harassing other people. If you analyze people like Katie Hopkins, the UK queen of Fat shaming it is interesting to note that she herself would likely be classified as someone with an eating disorder/ body imagedisorder. From my own professional and personal experiences fat shaming usually promotes binge eating, secretive behaviour and mental health issues. Thin..obese .. in between .. who cares! There are better ways to promote health andwell being. Try and enjoy your life and tune out all the opinions of others.
If not shaming, something needs to be done about men sporting up to a 9 month pregnancy or women with excess belly hanging over & bra easily creating extra spare tires. Cellulite on thighs are god awful especially when the person displays them in shorts too short. I was in Barcelona and a friend commented while all of us were out strolling, "did you noticed they are hardly any overweight people around?"
Why does it concern you so much? It is not your body? You are entitled to your opinion, but you may want to question why you have nothing more constructive to do with your time then to stare at other people and pass judgement.
Does it matter if your fat or thin when you are dead?
Did you know 100% of all humans that are born will die?
Mind your own %$%$%$ business.
I'm sure the fat shamers are doing it because they care about people. This is an extension of bullying in school only with more knowledge of law and since they are adults they can convince themselves that their intrusive, meddling, mean spirited bull**** is helpful.
In Europe their incidences of hospitalization are every bit as high despite having a much smaller portion of the population obese. Why? Because until 2000-2005ish they all smoked. So they just traded one unhealthy thing for another. The story is the same all over the world. In a modern and technologically advanced society people are going to have unhealthy vices whether it's alcohol abuse, eating too much, smoking weed, smoking cigs, abusing prescription drugs.
Why do people live to be 100 in Corsica or Japan or Loma Linda? Because of a conscious lifestyle that has no vices. in japan and Corsica its because they are simple farmer peoples who's diets and lifestyles have not changed in hundreds of years. In Loma Linda it is because Adventist abstain from any vices and do not eat meat.
Fat shaming is just as annoying as smoker shaming or drinker shaming. Worry about you. Help if your help is meaningful, but this is not meaningful help.
Not all people are fat from over eating.. Sometimes it's genetic and sometimes it's medical. Shaming fat people under the guise of " for their health" is nothing less than just being an inconsiderate, judgmental a-hole.
Oh please, are you talking about that incredibly small minority of fat people that are fat because of factors outside of their control? People still use this argument? Not counting those .01%, fat people are fat because they eat too much and move too little, stop making bs excuses.
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Why does it concern you so much?
It is not your body? You are entitled to your opinion, but you may want to question why you have nothing more constructive to do with your time then to stare at other people and pass judgement.