Fat
The other day, I read another interesting article regarding obesity. Discrimination on the grounds of someone's weight seems to be more acceptable than other types of discrimination in society, such as against skin color or gender. Why is that though?
Even though I try not to judge anyone based on their weight, I still have prejudice against fat people. I've always been rather chubby, ever since I was a kid. At first I didn't care much cause I loved (junk)food too much to give it up. But as I started high school, I realised how much my chubbiness was causing self-confidence issues and making a negative impact on my social life. So one day I started controlling what I put in my mouth and that was the first day in what is probably going to be a life-long battle against gaining weight. I have lost my chubbiness since then (although there has been one major relapse). It hasn't been easy, especially because so much of a social life is about food. Everytime you meet friends or have family gatherings, there's always a tub of Ben and Jerry's or a huge bag of crisps easily available. Very often I'm bitter towards the people who don't have to watch what they eat. I suppose I've developed a phobia against gaining weight now. I feel like I've lost so much weight and it hasn't been easy, that if I put on weight, everything, every chocolate bar and every piece of cake I skipped will have been in vain. Anyway, my point is: to me, losing weight and eating more healthily is possible if you are determined, learn to control what you eat and learn to like exercising. Once it becomes routine, it's not as bad or difficult all the time.
That's why whenever I see people who are fat, I automatically judge them and give them attributes such as lazy, lacking self-control, and thus unrespectable. Wow, that sounds really horrible when I write it down like that. And I guess it is quite horrible. That is the ultimate example of judging a book by its cover, it is extremely unfair towards a person to judge him or her without any knowledge of their background. Not to mention there are certain medical conditions or medications that cause weight gain.
Maybe discrimination against fat people is more acceptable because being fat is (usually) something a person can control, whereas having a certain skin color or gender are things out of your control?
