[quote name='eri' post='91347' date='Jan 9 2011, 10:37 PM']I think it is a terrible that so many give faux concern over "health" when we're really just fat-shaming people into our weight ideals. I've got lots of skinny friends who do nothing but smoke all day. I've got heavier friends that run 3 miles daily. I know it is different if we're talking about obesity but these "piggy dolls" are nowhere near obese.
I stopped being concerned about cultural bias when my 11 year old cousin was hospitalized for anorexia.[/quote]
Yep, I have plenty of friends in the military and nearly all of them are chubbier--they just have super toned legs and arms--whereas the most unhealthy people I know are the skinnier ones. My roommate with the gastrointestinal problem for one has a terribly weak immune system and is always sick simply because she won't take care of herself.
I think I recall you mentioning a very young relative of yours being diagnosed with anorexia before too, and both then and now I still think that's a really sad age to have to deal with something like that... I know that life was definitely not sugar and rainbows from a social standpoint for me when I was that age, but the issues I dealt with then were definitely not anything as serious as eating disorders. That's definitely a scary progression for someone in that age group since I'm thinking it had to develop over a period of time and didn't just pop out of the blue just in time to be diagnosed.
[quote name='Plum' post='91351' date='Jan 10 2011, 12:14 AM']post[/quote]
Aw, you took the gif away! <img src='
http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':puppyeyes:' />
(It was insanely fun to watch though!)
I don't notice a lot of weight insensitivity from people in general in my little corner of the world so I can't really personally speak to how judgmental I'm sure people can be, but it's actually really surprising to hear Europe isn't more open-minded about it. I've always heard Europe touted as so much more progressive than America and blah blah, so it's weird to imagine we could possibly be ahead at all in something... if we are, that is. I can't really think of a single time I've been witness to someone being treated unfairly when it came to weight, but I'm also thinking that's because people can be real cowards when it comes to doing anything on an individual basis and might only be "mentally discriminating" against obesity in some sort of pack mentality, or something.
[quote name='neshcom' post='91352' date='Jan 10 2011, 12:20 AM']But I also see some insanity in these pride-in-fat groups that encourage extreme obesity. Regardless of your body type, you have to at least try to live healthily a little bit instead of just "haters gon' hate" all day.[/quote]
That's definitely another problem, and I think that's what Ap was getting at in some small way. But you also have to understand that societal perceptions--especially when it comes to how the discriminated person(s) views themselves--requires baby steps. Looking at the Korean idol scene now as an example, I'd find it hard to imagine the public's perception of weight changing without that one drastic person/group/public figure to violently shake it up. I guess I believe more in the Malcolm X approach in that only outspoken, unrelenting pride of a societal stigma can make waves in changing the world's perception as a whole. Because of that, I think it's possible to see a group like this as doing something positive in a small way--I just personally really hate the way they're going about it, but that's another issue that I'm choosing to see as a personal one for right now.
Also, after calming down and watching them live, I take back what I said about their debut song being uninteresting. The PV's food intro probably gave me hazy rage goggles and badly affected the way I saw the rest of the video. They sing amazingly well live, especially for a debut, if that IS entirely live and all. Though I'm still not hearing "bigger" voices, but maybe I couldn't help thinking of bigger voices like Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan the moment they said that and that ruined my seeing what they meant by it.