Double standards...

[needtobenormal]

Why is it that someone can endlessly mock and insult a girl for being "too skinny" or "looking like a stick" or "losing too much weight" only to have others agree and nod their heads, while if someone burst out in public with "that girl is too fat" they would get dirty looks and deemed an insensitive a-hole? I'm not saying we should make fun of overweight people, or any people for that matter, but why is it okay to criticize one body type and taboo to criticize another? People complain that the media promotes an "unhealthy" body image, but rather than correcting the harm that has been done, things are only being reversed and worsened in the opposite direction. While no one should be made to feel bad about themselves and confidence is great, why don't we promote that for thin and curvy girls alike instead of tearing down one body type to play up another? it makes no sense to me.
And there are the arguments that "too thin" is "unhealthy" but, guess what, being overweight is unhealthy also. It depends on the person and everyone has different things going on inside of them, but being smaller doesn't make someone anorexic or bulimic or unhealthy. Some people have small frames. Some people have big frames. Some people have health problems that make their weight hard to control one way or the other. Some people do eat too much or too little. But my main point is that Americans need to stop using negativity as a way to promote positivity-see the irony in this? It will never work.

 

[San2]

I don't know where you see people standing up to those who bully another person because of being too big, or calling them an insensitive a-hole for calling somebody up on being fat. Where I live, it doesn't matter what it is that sets you apart from others, either being too fat or too skinny, nobody will stand up for you. Plenty of people willing to put you down and call you all kinds of names, but never anybody who's got the guts to say something about it. So that double standard must be mainly an American problem.
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[The Heretic]

I don't know where you see people standing up to those who bully another person because of being too big, or calling them an insensitive a-hole for calling somebody up on being fat. Where I live, it doesn't matter what it is that sets you apart from others, either being too fat or too skinny, nobody will stand up for you. Plenty of people willing to put you down and call you all kinds of names, but never anybody who's got the guts to say something about it. So that double standard must be mainly an American problem.
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Pretty much the same situation where I live.

 

[imjustme]

I dont see that in America at all.. I only see overweight people being criticized. Maybe its just the state I live in.

 

[needtobenormal]

I dont see that in America at all.. I only see overweight people being criticized. Maybe its just the state I live in.

I live in the northeast, so maybe I was wrong to generalize America as a whole (sorry for that). Where I live, if I show up to a family gathering or meet up with friends I haven't seen in a while I get a comment along the lines of "ew, why don't you eat a sandwich? You've lost weight; are you anorexic? Gross!" but when someone who's visibly gained weight shows up to the party, no one discusses what's different about them. Also on television I hear a lot of "she looks like a stick and it's unattractive" yet a 300-lb obese woman with type 2 diabetes is often described as "healthy and curvy." Guess it's different where I'm from, hah. Just had to get it off my chest.

 

[imjustme]

Yes way different. Its the exact opposite where I live. I'm in the Midwest.