Quote:
Originally Posted by Geewiz
Some obesity is lifestyle related; but many folks dealing with morbid obesity eat no differently than their thinner friends. Without knowing the causes of an individual's obesity - blaming, punishing, mocking is at best ignorant and in extreme, similar to the anti-semitic/anti-gypsy attitudes of many Germans in the 1930's. One Austrian/German came up with a "final solution" to rid Europe of these genetic inferiors. He had a brush mustache.
This is a personal issue for me as I come from a chronically obese family that's also Jewish. We experienced far more prejudice due to size than heritage.
It wasn't lifestyle..my thin spouse ate more than me and my two half-brothers (who were raised in a different home) also had the curse.
Of all of us, I opted for surgery (which is not an "easy" option - unless feeling sick after each meal sounds fun and the possibility of immediate defecation is your cup of tea). Still, the surgery works and I am down 150 lbs and still losing.
Still, it is hard to forget the taunts growing up and the rude comments directed at me while with my family.
Prejudice is prejudice. Frankly, now less obese, I take more offense to it as it is no longer my shame. It's like hearing someone cry out, "******." It is offensive and needs to be called out.
|
Great post and glad you are doing well as my niece had the same surgery and is also doing well. I totally agree that in a lot of cases it does amount to prejudice and the folks that struggle with it are suffering enough already without being the focus of the entire country and especially those so self-righteous that are condemning them. We don't blame cancer patients for getting cancer and scorn them nor those that get early onset Alzheimers in their 30-40s and we should not blame those that struggle with weight issues. We can say lifestyle is the reason for any illness or problem and scorn those that are unfortunate enought to experience a problem, but wait until they start firing people of a certain age, not that they don't now, just because they can hire younger, leaner, people to replace them that are a lot further away from being in the age bracket where health issues start happening. Unfortuntely we all age no matter how well we take care of ourselves and age will bring health issues never experienced before no matter what we do.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-w..._b_734226.html