Dear chaosed:

I can’t think of a situation when it is okay to make fun of a person, to ridicule, belittle, and make fun of a person. To make fun of a person for something they do not choose is very cruel and it hurts, a whole lot.

The history of individuals making fun of others for their physical appearance, from being too short, too thin, too heavy, too hairy, too bald, too dark, too light, etc., etc., is a long, long history that has and is leaving behind lots of victims, lots of misery.

Very few people choose to be overweight (ex. certain sports), not many people are indifferent about being significantly overweight. The great majority of significantly overweight people do not choose it. And yes, everyone knows it is unhealthy: the weight loss industry has made sure everyone knows.

The reasons for being significantly overweight are a complex mix of high accessibility and availability of foods, of many kinds of foods, an endless variety, many designed to stimulate the desire to eat more, supersize portions promoted, advertisement, constant bombardment of images of food everywhere, it being sold in every store, every corner, sedentary, modern lifestyle, the biological build in mechanism of animals being motivated to eat as much as possible when food (sugary, mostly) is available- because such availability is rare in nature.

Everyone should stop making fun of significantly overweight people, including overweight people who put themselves down for their weight. It needs to stop- the world will be a better place for it.

I hope you post again with more of your thoughts and feelings. Perhaps other members will comment. This is an important topic. I would like to try and answer the question in the title of your thread, perhaps after, hopefully, reading more from you.

anita