So I notice that people like to make extremely rude/judgmental/condescending remarks to and about people who are fat or mildly chubby or even just not totally fat-free dehydrated muscle-covered skeletons.
One of my quirks is that I constantly psychoanalyze everyone. This stems from having a psychologist father and a psychiatrist mother, no doubt. I am always trying to figure out why people do things. It’s an intellectual curiosity sort of thing. I know I can’t control other people’s behavior; I just find it interesting to try to figure out what they get out of it. I do this to myself too, by the way. I once had someone tell me that I “reached depths of self-analysis never before seen in a human.”
I have several theories about the mean-to-fat-people people. Here are some of them:
1. They are trolls who are trying to stir up drama. Trolls are interesting in their own right, but I think this one is pretty self explanatory. Maybe I’ll write about my theories on trolling some other time. The basic gist is that they are making intentionally inflammatory statements just to cause trouble.
2. They think being fat is a fate worse than death. I can’t really blame people for this one. Our society is pretty fucked up when it comes to the way we talk about anyone who is not a totally fat-free dehydrated muscle-covered skeleton. We are bombarded with the message every day that anyone who is even remotely chubby is a lazy, useless slob with zero self control, no goals, and mentally inferior. I have even seen a few people state that they believe fat is a “mental illness”. So I think some people react to this by separating themselves from any possibility of being mistaken as one of the inferior fat people by making broad proclamations about fat people. Some of the people who do this are fat themselves, and they hate themselves for it and blame themselves for being a moral failure (I know this because I have been this person before. Hint: it never made me thin). The people who believe this have a visceral reaction to anyone who is fat, especially if that person is unabashedly okay with herself. Being okay with not being skinny is like WHAT?! especially to a person who spends her entire life fighting her body out of fatphobia.
3. They think it’s really unhealthy to be fat and fat people are all slowly killing themselves of heart-diseasabetes. They also believe that unless fat people lose weight, they are doomed to die young of a preventable disease. This one is interesting to me. I’m not surprised people believe this. We are constantly bombarded by messages that the “obesity epidemic” (in quotes because I don’t believe this really exists) is ruining the very fabric of society. Ok, so let’s say that being fat is the worst thing ever to happen to anyone’s health AND that it’s easily reversed by a few simple behavioral changes (I know for a fact this isn’t true through my own personal experience, but let’s say it is) AND that if you do lose enough weight not to be fat, you will magically be immune to all disease, like all thin people are (hahahaha!)
Ok, so if all of that is true, and fat is a horrible health problem, and it is going to cause death, WHY do people use that as a reason to berate people? This is where I get really confused. I have seen so many people declare that the reason they have just made some kind of derogatory comment about fat people is because HEALTH. So you’re telling me, health-concern trolls, that because fat is unhealthy, that’s a reason to be a total asswipe to fat people? No sir, you are just a total asswipe. But I find it really interesting that these people seem to think they are benefiting society with their asswipery because Health. Delusional.
4. They are mean sad bullies who need to put other people down because they hate themselves and everything.
5. They are bigots. They are prejudiced judgement-filled people who allow their personal attraction or revulsion to other people’s appearances to determine the worth of that person. They believe that thin attractive people ARE smarter and better and more-goal oriented and, of course, healthy. Because all thin people eat vegetables and work out every day, right? Actually, numbers 1-4 are usually caused by or mixed in with a bit of #5.
Berating people for their own good. For their health. I just can’t get over that one.
Writing to Write 