Should being fat be socially unacceptable

[User482]

Why should paulus have to accept 5 hours of discomfort thanks to somebody else?
Maybe persons too large to occupy 1 seat should have to pay for 2 seats or upgrade to Business to avoid disadvantaging others?

Given that airplane seats have fixed armrests between them, and a requirement to wear a seatbelt, I suspect Paulus is exaggerating a little.

 

[ladyjulian]

Why should paulus have to accept 5 hours of discomfort thanks to somebody else?

Because life's not fair. Same reason I've had to accept 5 hours of increasing infanticidal urges thanks to somebody else's horrible brats - and while I can reflect on how unpleasant the journey was, making "children" socially unacceptable would, I think we'd all agree, be a Herod step too far.

Maybe persons too large to occupy 1 seat should have to pay for 2 seats or upgrade to Business to avoid disadvantaging others?

Maybe that would be an acceptable solution. Designated larger seats that you can book in advance would be reasonable, too. My issue is with the whole premise of this thread, which is that being fat in public should be a socially unacceptable thing. It encourages adults to bully one another in a manner they should have left behind in Year 4, and it doesn't stop fat people being fat.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Given that airplane seats have fixed armrests between them, and a requirement to wear a seatbelt, I suspect Paulus is exaggerating a little.

I have to suffer this from time to time and I can tell you that it's not necessary to exagerate and it's pretty unpleasant. The armrest is not a barrier to anything.

 

[Hip Priest]

It is when you have to sit next to a fat women on a 5 hour flight and as she approaches her seat she ironicly says, "sorry, i'm next to you" as she squeezes into her seat. For the whole flight I was leaning over the edge of the seat as she overlapped into mine.. Now, while you could argue that the seats were not wide enough in the first place, I don't take up space in others seats.

A gentleman wouldn't mention it.

 

[Hip Priest]

It seems to me that we're in a recession, everyone is feeling the pinch, and we want to lash out at other people. Fat people! Thin people! Foreign people! British people! The unemployed! The sick! Motorists! Cyclists! People with kids! People without kids! Dog walkers!

We all do things that others find irksome - it's time we rediscovered tolerance.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Because life's not fair. Same reason I've had to accept 5 hours of increasing infanticidal urges thanks to somebody else's horrible brats - and while I can reflect on how unpleasant the journey was, making "children" socially unacceptable would, I think we'd all agree, be a Herod step too far.

Maybe that would be an acceptable solution. Designated larger seats that you can book in advance would be reasonable, too. My issue is with the whole premise of this thread, which is that being fat in public should be a socially unacceptable thing. It encourages adults to bully one another in a manner they should have left behind in Year 4, and it doesn't stop fat people being fat.

You're right, life's not fair.
But, unpleasant kids as with many other things should also be socially unnaceptable. I say that as a parent of 3 and have shared the same Herodic thoughts...
But in terms of trying to prevent people/society accepting that Obese is a perfectly acceptable way to go, I disagree. And I say that as a fat person. Smoking has been made less socially acceptable and the effect has been significant.
I may be wrong, but I think there is a difference between something making something socially unnaceptable and bullying. Being a sex offender is socially unnaceptable, but we don't have the right to bully them.

 

[Fab Foodie]

We all do things that others find irksome - it's time we rediscovered tolerance.

And I agree, in fact I've preached-it often.
However in the case of Obesity, there is going to be a big preventable socioal and economic time bomb, regarless of our tolerance levels and it will impact us all. The application of some selection pressure early enough might be part of a solution. My own view is that we're already waaaay past the point of no return. In the main, Obesity is fairly preventable. Preventing people being fat in the first place is a hell of a lot better and loads easier than trying to slim one down. A little societal peer pressure may not be a bad thing ... that's the debate here.

 

[PBancroft]

Hm. I've steered away from this thread so far, but I've now had a socially acceptable amount to drink and want to stick my oar in.

There are plenty of things that I, personally, think should be socially unacceptable. People who park directly outside the shop across the road from me (when there is a perfectly serviceable carpark to the side) and are making navigating out of my driveway marginally more difficult for me, for example. Or people on trains who sit on the aisle seat, knowing that most people are too timid to ask if the window seat is free, thus gaining some extra space for themselves. Or people who don't take care of themselves, smoke, drink too much, don't work out, and die an early death or put undue strain on the health system.

But the problem is, that's exactly where I get unstuck. I'm relatively healthy - I exercise frequently, and not just cycling. I don't smoke, and I eat healthily. But I do drink. A lot compared to the government intake limits. I'm a happy drunk, not a grumpy or violent one, and I don't drink or drive (or drink and cycle) and so my drinking is socially acceptable at least as far as I can tell.

So I find it difficult to outwardly blame people for being fat, or even in the most liberal of terms find it socially unacceptable. Of course, hypocritically, on some level I do, inwardly. The guy on the plane who elbows into my chair will get a swift bollocking, or at the very least a dirty look (or at the very very least a grumbling about when I get home).

I think that there are shades of grey at work here. The guy who enjoys the odd fag isn't anything to get worked up about if he does it with consideration... the guy who lights up in your car without asking is. The guy who enjoys his food is fine, as long as he otherwise keeps himself in check and doesn't invade other peoples space unduly.

 

[martint235]

I always take the aisle seat even if the window one is free. Not because I want the extra space but because train seats aren't designed for someone of my height.

 

[Fab Foodie]

We often have threads here featuring things that were once quite unnaceptable and now society doesn't seem to give a damn about:
Littering, parking in disabled bays, public drunkenness, bad language, yadda yadda yadda. Peer pressure to 'behave' has all but evaporated ver the years and so poor behaviour is more and more the norm. Nobody is perfect but that shouldn't mean that society shouldn't collectively strive to improve its lot. I don't see why Obesity couldn't fall into that approach.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

We all do things that others find irksome - it's time we rediscovered tolerance.

Get knotted you preachy tosspot!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

As a teenager I was size 18. My family values highly beauty and slenderness, alas, we tend to be chubby. My mother used to starve herself to stay skinny. I was always put down because of my figure. I never managed to control my weight, in spite of being constantly reminded that no achievements of mine could possibly be of any worth if I stayed fat. Many years have passed, I am skinny now, but I will never forget the horrible feeling of not being good enough whatever my efforts. Amongst certain groups, being fat is already socially unacceptable. Being at the receiving end of taunts because of your size is unpleasant, I think it's equivalent to being bullied. How could you teach the young ones tolerance towards other cultures, acceptance of people with disabilities, and then tell them don't be friends with the fat boy/girl? Such a strange thread, this one, considering that we would all say to be against a discriminating society.

 

[User482]

I have to suffer this from time to time and I can tell you that it's not necessary to exagerate and it's pretty unpleasant. The armrest is not a barrier to anything.

Clearly it is a barrier. If you can't fit within it, you can't use the seat.

 

[ladyjulian]

We often have threads here featuring things that were once quite unnaceptable and now society doesn't seem to give a damn about:
Littering, parking in disabled bays, public drunkenness, bad language, yadda yadda yadda. Peer pressure to 'behave' has all but evaporated ver the years and so poor behaviour is more and more the norm. Nobody is perfect but that shouldn't mean that society shouldn't collectively strive to improve its lot. I don't see why Obesity couldn't fall into that approach.

Because littering, poor parking etc are all behaviours. Obesity is a characteristic.

You can argue that it is behaviour which caused that characteristic, and you can argue that said characteristic is - unlike sex or race - not immutable, but at the end of the day you can't just stop being fat immediately like you can stop using swears on the bus immediately.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Clearly it is a barrier. If you can't fit within it, you can't use the seat.

But it's only a narrow bar designed to be apporximately at peoples narrowest point, their waist so people quite easily spill both under and over it, hardly any barrier at all in fact it's worst than hopeless other than an armrest.