*What does the word "fat" mean to you?*

Post Reply New Topic

Why is the word "fat", applied to a person, so widely understood in the West/industrialised society as a negative value judgement?

What is it about the meaning of the word "fat" which is so abhorrent, repellent, loathsome, such that "fat person" is a judgement which sets someone up to be despised, rejected, mocked, or pitied, looked down on, etc?

Why is "fatness" seen like this?

What does the word mean to you?

I haven't even begun to unpack it yet, but am hoping that other people will get the ball rolling! I was talking about fatness as a socially constructed disability with someone, ( who describes themselves as an out and proud fat autistic person, :lol ), and suddenly wondered why "fatness" attracts such negative value judgements and reactions, a lot of the time if not always.
.

Last edited by ouinon on 11 Sep 2010, 3:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

PS. Feel very free to post even if the label/value judgement "fat" means something positive to you!

It might, by providing a contrast, help to illuminate the reasons why society generally sees fatness negatively.

Last edited by ouinon on 11 Sep 2010, 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

File Allocation Table. The predecessor to NTFS.

:lol That's not the kind I meant. Please see OP where I say: "the word 'fat', applied to a person"!

Ok, so, because it might be useful, I thought I'd start off with something/one that I associate with a positive meaning of the word:

Marianne Sagebrecht in "Bagdad Café", one of my favourite ever films.

She's "fat", the film makes a point of showing her "fatness" as something glorious. And it feels like it during the film. But isn't it as stereotypical a presentation of fatness as more negative ones? She is kind, sweet, motherly/maternal, concerned, calm, nurturing, organised, and ( for the duration of the film anyway ), resolutely non-sexual, whereas the thin black american woman "Brenda", ( C. C. Pounder ), has a terrible temper, is unmaternal, messy, disorganised, etc, and sexual.
.

---

The First Lady - Michelle Obama - of the Obama White House has decided to eliminate fat children (obesity) from the USA within twenty years.

In my view, the message the Obama White House is sending is to look like Barbie and Ken dolls from Hollywood.

Is there some evidence that the foods which Americans often eat - year 2010 - tend to cause eaters to keep their weight or increase what they weigh?

Yes.

The US government keeps statistics and apparently in the armed forces they are aware of how new recruits are heavier (fatter) than years and years ago.

Part of the idea to eliminate fat children is to perhaps roll back time to an era where new recruits for the armed forces were deemed to be healthier than today.

It could also mean "cool". Wait, isn't that spelled "phat".

I wonder whether it might have something to do with "control". Fatness is seen as lack of control, ( always has been to some extent but the association has become increasingly powerful in the last four decades or so since people started "struggling" with fat, attempting to lose weight, etc ), and perhaps the Administration/govts see "fat"/fat people as a sign of, and easy scapegoat for, what they perceive as a nationwide "loss of control", over a lot of things.

Fatness may be acting as a symbol for "that which can not control", which might go someway towards explaining why attempts to deal with it have been so stunningly inept, govt campaigns so ill-informed, etc such that the population earnestly following govt advice, ( to eat more complex carbos and less fat ... ha! ), etc has actually ended up fatter than ever before. ... If fat/fatness is acting as a symbol for "that which can not control" then it cannot disappear.

I was leaning towards the theory that fat/fatness represents the sexless but feminine maternal, which our society provides so little space for ... but the fact that one of the most hostile reactions that many fat people get is that they are unable to control themselves, that they must be "weak", undisciplined, self-indulgent, etc does suggest that fat may be functioning as a scapegoat for widespread anxiety about ( an apparently increasing ) loss of control. Which is interesting. :lol
.

It doesn't have to do with control, it has to do with public health. Obese people can develop a lot of health problems and may even have an early heart attack.

"Can" being the operative word; it's actually not as clear cut as all that. It depends on which diseases you include in the calculation; there are an awful lot of people costing the health system a lot of money with sick leave and medication for anxiety and depression, backache, and Alzheimers, etc, who are not overweight.

Edit. But even if that were true it would not explain the widespread attitude to fatness/fat people, "such that "fat/fat person" is a judgement which sets someone up to be despised, rejected, mocked, or pitied, looked down on, etc."

But that raises an interesting question, about smokers. Are smokers perceived as being out of control, lacking control? Are people bothered by them, or just by their smoke? Govt's around the world have passed laws this last few years to bring smokers under control, to prevent them from smoking whenever they want, wherever they want, except in their own home, where their habit is invisible, and of course a smoker's lack of control is not marked on their body, ( or not that much ) so as long as they can't smoke in most public spaces their "lack of control" is invisible. But a fat person's supposed "lack of control" is not.
.

Last edited by ouinon on 11 Sep 2010, 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I believe it stands for File Allocation Table, the filesystem used by Windows systems until the New Technology File System was devised about 10 years ago. When a disk partition is labelled FAT that means it uses an old-style system.

interesting factoid, though it don't know how reputable it is. it seems that the consumption of alcohol costs the public health system more than obesity:





YET people care so much obesity but not about the health effects of alcohol (in adults, in fact, the 2 are often linked). why is it the case that obesity is seen as such a drain on the health care system but alcoholism gets away scot-free?

but the word fat, to me, has many meanings.... i think that it isn't a big deal, overall. i'm fat and happy with myself.

for health reasons i've lost some weight (ok, a lot of weight - 65 lbs), but not everybody has health problems, and maybe the health problems aren't such a big deal to everyone... so i wouldn't judge someone who chose to stay being as fat as they want. i was happy as a fatter person too.

i don't give weight loss advice. if people want to lose it badly, there is tons of great advice out there. and if a persons has, for instance, emotional or physical health issues that stand in the way of losing weight, what useful advice could i give anyways? it's a personal journey, and public education and public health concerns do not seem to be helping, as far as i can tell.

some people are fat, others aren't. there's literally enough room for all of us in this world. the judgement of some individuals bothers me somewhat, especially because some of tehse same people make tons of bad health and lifestyle choices that don't involve obesity yet they are not judged.

Both my wife and I are "fat", and I consider her to be quite beautiful. However, it seems most people have grown up inadvertently indoctrinated to consider anyone who isn't about to die from anorexia to be "fat" and with such people "fat" has a lot of undesirable connotations. But chubbiness is honestly rather nice. Also, when not able to afford food for a while, there is a dual benefit of having reserve stores of energy which automatically are utilized as needed. So, "fat" is, or at the very least can be, both individually useful and aesthetically pleasant.

Excessive fat is not healthy, nor is it attractive.

"Fat" has translated into my life as "the reason why guys never want to date me and why I can't wear cute clothes."

Seriously, people judge me as soon as they see me, I don't even need to have AS for people to reject me. :/

Are you saying that NTFS is better than FAT, therefore obsolete and practically useless? A bit discriminatory don't you think?