Oh, Jen! I didn't like being overweight. I get compliments these days, which makes me nervous. Weight is so easy to gain back. I really think I'm lucky as I do eat things that I probably shouldn't though I avoid sugar and do some portion control. It makes me paranoid about gaining weight though. But as much as I don't like being overweight, I have a much bigger problem with being stupid. So I guess I will take the extra forty pounds. There will be more of me to love! I actually think a lot of heavy people are attractive. And it will be mainly muscle right?

In a spouse, I would prefer smart and fat over thin and dumb by far. I don't think I could be married to a dumb man. But I don't want my smart husband to think I am dumb!

Do you think it is cannibalism if I eat bacon?

A couple of decades ago a chubby - not obese! - friend came down with pancreatic cancer and eventually left four little children to the care of their grandmother.

But as she was dying, she lost a lot of weight, and she told me that she received Many compliments on her appearance: How well you look! Keep up the good work! You never looked better!

A sad commentary on the values of our society, IMO.

The million dollar question Ray!

By that logic, Paris Hilton should weigh 500lbs!

Thanks, glumirk! I like her!

That IS smart. See? I'm so smart!

As for the spouse question, I would DEFINITELY go for overweight and smart. Beauty fades, dumb is forever.

Mine is an unusual breed. Though he's got maybe 5 or 10 extra pounds now, he's typically very fit and muscular. And not socially awkward, either. How that happened, I don't know.

You think you're pretty smart, don't ya bok? *narrows eyes*

Wednesday, April 2, 2008
STUDY FINDS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BIG PEOPLE RAMPANT

For the past six years, the Review has been reporting on this topic, virtually alone in the media. You can find our news archives here.... http://prorev.com/bigpage.htm

ABC NEWS It's illegal to discriminate against someone because of race or gender, but our culture condones a bias against people who are overweight. There are no federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of weight, and only Michigan has such a law, according to a new study from Yale University.

As a result, the researchers contend, weight discrimination is spiraling upward. . . Weight discrimination "occurs in employment settings and daily interpersonal relationships virtually as often as race discrimination, and in some cases even more frequently than age or gender discrimination," the researchers report in the current issue of the International Journal of Obesity. Overweight women are twice as vulnerable as men, and discrimination strikes much earlier in their lives, the report states.

"This is a form of bias that remains very socially acceptable in our culture," research scientist Rebecca Puhl, lead author of the study, said . . . Puhl, who has been studying weight discrimination for nine years, said our culture has made it clear that it's wrong to discriminate against someone because of race, color, creed, gender, age and so forth, but that it's OK to show someone the door because he or she is fat.

"We send a message to citizens in our culture that this is something that is tolerated," she said. "We live in a culture where we obviously place a premium on fitness, and fitness has come to symbolize very important values in our culture, like hard work and discipline and ambition. Unfortunately, if a person is not thin, or is overweight or obese, then they must lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, etc., and as a result they get blamed and stigmatized.". . .

"We know from hundreds of randomized clinically controlled trials that it's very difficult to sustain weight loss over time with our existing treatment methods. That has compelled a number of expert panels, like the National Institutes of Health, to conclude that we really can't expect you to lose more than 10 percent of your body weight and be able to keep that off.". . .

The heart of the problem, Puhl said, is that obesity brings social stigmatism and stereotyping, and that can lead to depression, discrimination and binge eating, so the problem just gets worse.

http://prorev.com/2008/04/study-find...ainst-big.html

What standards are used, though? The BM indexes I've seen tend to favor anorexic body types. I've known people who I wouldn't for a moment think of as fat who told me that, according to the BM indexes, they are fat.

Insurance companies have an incentive to make the health standards extremely stringent... so that they can justify charging more for people...

Well aren't fat people a subclass of ugly people? So in a way that's hard to quantify. :)

--Ray

Like a lot of women I lost weight while I was engaged, down to a size 5 (which I hadn't been since about grade 7) and had lots of women telling me how good I looked.

But I got that skinny because of crazy dieting, and put back on the 20 pounds I had lost - and some extra - soon after I got married. I spent years wishing I could look "that good" again, until my husband finally admitted to me a while ago that he didn't like how I looked at that weight. He thought I was gaunt and without all the pleasing curves he fell in love with.

For me it was a real eye-opener after I got married to find out that what my husband likes is different from what our culture considers the ideal. And in talking with quite a few friends, they found the same thing as well.

I know some men are attracted to tiny (I have a theory about Mormon guys who serve their missions in the Orient), some like women who are tall and slender, but it seems like a lot of men also "vive le difference" (ie. soft and a little squishy is a good thing.)

Never seen any attractive ugly people, though.

Do you ever actually read what you type?  Very good use of an oxymoron in a sentence.

WHAT!! Have you guys seen an attractive ugly person?

DIDN'T THINK SO!

And like when Perry Mason lost all that weight... he just wasn't as handsome anymore. And that dude on the Today show - the black dude - he just got plain ugly when he lost weight. Roker! That's it! And what about Tommy Boy, huh? Can you picture him skinny? Gimme a break!


Fat guy in a little coat...

-- Edited by Cocobeem at 00:09, 2008-04-05

So what are you saying? He's skinny now?