Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is such a difficult and sensitive topic, but I'll give my honest opinions anyway and hopefully won't tick off too many people....
I kind of understand where the OP is coming from to be honest. Our ultra-sensitive society has basically substituted the word "curvy" for "fat" because it makes "fat" women feel better about themselves. We wouldn't want to offend anyone after all or hurt their feelings, so we sugar coat it. We're basically telling them that it's okay. Now, I'm definitely all for loving yourself (not narcissism, but truly loving yourself) and being happy with who you are as a person, BUT I think that it is wrong for our society to be telling people that basically it's okay to be "fat" because....it's not. Being "fat" causes serious health problems, among other things, and is definitely not good for people. And it's not like it's one or two people or whatever, there are a lot of "plump" and "curvy" people walking (or waddling) around. Our society should actively be promoting for people to lose weight and not this "it's alright to be fat" imho. Not only for the health of these people but also because if not, it will continue to grow into a very serious issue in the future. I know I must sound like a terrible person (I'm really not, honestly) but this is how I feel so I guess you can take it or leave it. Hope I haven't offended anyone (or at least not too many people).
This is such a difficult and sensitive topic, but I'll give my honest opinions anyway and hopefully won't tick off too many people....
I kind of understand where the OP is coming from to be honest. Our ultra-sensitive society has basically substituted the word "curvy" for "fat" because it makes "fat" women feel better about themselves. We wouldn't want to offend anyone after all or hurt their feelings, so we sugar coat it. We're basically telling them that it's okay. Now, I'm definitely all for loving yourself (not narcissism, but truly loving yourself) and being happy with who you are as a person, BUT I think that it is wrong for our society to be telling people that basically it's okay to be "fat" because....it's not. Being "fat" causes serious health problems, among other things, and is definitely not good for people. And it's not like it's one or two people or whatever, there are a lot of "plump" and "curvy" people walking (or waddling) around. Our society should actively be promoting for people to lose weight and not this "it's alright to be fat" imho. Not only for the health of these people but also because if not, it will continue to grow into a very serious issue in the future. I know I must sound like a terrible person (I'm really not, honestly) but this is how I feel so I guess you can take it or leave it. Hope I haven't offended anyone (or at least not too many people).
I think your post is fine - but i also think that most fat people KNOW that being overweight can cause health problems. And i also think that society DOES try to promote people to lose weight. How many ads do you see on TV and in magazines for products to help with this??! 100's!
I think the problem with not accepting yourself or loving yourself no matter your size, is that many people wrongly think they're fat, or wrongly spend years of their lives trying to lose that ten or twenty pounds - when nobody else sees it but themselves. It makes for a crappy life.
Worrying constantly about being fat also contributes to eating disorders, starting at a young age. Food becomes any enemy, people become addicted to exercise, bingeing and purging, restricting, etc.
And people always looking at someone else's body wishing their's looked like it isnt a healthy way to live either.
I think your post is fine - but i also think that most fat people KNOW that being overweight can cause health problems. And i also think that society DOES try to promote people to lose weight. How many ads do you see on TV and in magazines for products to help with this??! 100's!
I think the problem with not accepting yourself or loving yourself no matter your size, is that many people wrongly think they're fat, or wrongly spend years of their lives trying to lose that ten or twenty pounds - when nobody else sees it but themselves. It makes for a crappy life.
Worrying constantly about being fat also contributes to eating disorders, starting at a young age. Food becomes any enemy, people become addicted to exercise, bingeing and purging, restricting, etc.
And people always looking at someone else's body wishing their's looked like it isnt a healthy way to live either.
A vast majority of those things are just crappy, Hollywood fads that no one takes seriously anyway. If anything, that's more our society's obsession with celebrities than it is truly promoting a healthy lifestyle. Those ads are there to make money, not to truly help people. And I still think that our society tries to cater to people's feelings so that they don't get hurt, rather than actively promoting people to lose weight. The evidence is all around us.
I'm not even talking about the people who might be a little bit overweight (or think they are), I'm talking about the estimated 34% of American adults (plus the # of children) who are considered obese because they have a BMI over 30.
You can still love yourself, but know that you're "fat" and try to lose weight in a healthy manner. I think you're being a little dramatic here because you seem to be implying that if we start telling or encouraging "fat" people to lose weight and lead a more healthy lifestyle, then they're basically all going to turn to unhealthy means to do so, which is simply not the case. You're making sweeping assumptions and generalizations a bit (no offense).
This is such a difficult and sensitive topic, but I'll give my honest opinions anyway and hopefully won't tick off too many people....
I kind of understand where the OP is coming from to be honest. Our ultra-sensitive society has basically substituted the word "curvy" for "fat" because it makes "fat" women feel better about themselves. We wouldn't want to offend anyone after all or hurt their feelings, so we sugar coat it. We're basically telling them that it's okay. Now, I'm definitely all for loving yourself (not narcissism, but truly loving yourself) and being happy with who you are as a person, BUT I think that it is wrong for our society to be telling people that basically it's okay to be "fat" because....it's not. Being "fat" causes serious health problems, among other things, and is definitely not good for people. And it's not like it's one or two people or whatever, there are a lot of "plump" and "curvy" people walking (or waddling) around. Our society should actively be promoting for people to lose weight and not this "it's alright to be fat" imho. Not only for the health of these people but also because if not, it will continue to grow into a very serious issue in the future. I know I must sound like a terrible person (I'm really not, honestly) but this is how I feel so I guess you can take it or leave it. Hope I haven't offended anyone (or at least not too many people).
I think your post is fine - but i also think that most fat people KNOW that being overweight can cause health problems. And i also think that society DOES try to promote people to lose weight. How many ads do you see on TV and in magazines for products to help with this??! 100's!
No I pretty much disagree with this contention. Although you are right that there are hundreds of TV ads trying to make people look better, they don't do it to help those people. They sell it as a quick fix and at best put a bandaid on the problem. It's just more consumerism sold as a cure-all. It's patent medicine.
So then on the other side of the coin you have the View and Oprah's telling fat women that they are just as beautiful as that super model on the cover of Vogue. So people are sold two competing unhealthy attitudes. But are they really that much in competition? Not really. In fact they support each other. They buy into what Oprah says and eat too much and when they finally balloon too much they don't like what they see in the mirror they know that they always have the easy solution for just 5 easy payments of just $19.95. And when that fails they can just turn to the girls on The View to give them moral support.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
