Is This Mother Right, Or Just Prejudiced?

[NoMercy]

Apologies if this has already been posted.

Is this mother a prejudiced person or is she right and has fat acceptance gone too far?

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4859606/amp/Mother-refuses-let-daughter-taught-FAT-teacher.html

[anneasquith]

Woof,, it would appear we are in the presence of perfection in AB ,

[woofgang]

yep...spoiled only by the bitter tongues.

[murraymints]

perfection is but a myth. imperfections on the other hand are sometimes only too obvious !!

[woofgang]

I don't confuse facts with prejudice....but if you can honestly read all the posts on here and call em unprejudiced then you must have a very limited understanding of that word.

[murraymints]

I speak not for other people that would be presumptious.. intent and perception is not always clear in the written word either

[woofgang]

well I think your intent is pretty clear here
"a spade is a spade.. a fat person is fat.. why should the world tiptoe by because some have a huge bitter chip (or far too many chips of the deep fried variety ) on their shoulders.. just sayin'..."

[jordyboy14]

Surely we are missing something here there is a difference between FAT and Obese I know many FAT and jolly people but not many Obese and happy people

[ummmm]

I think you'd be surprised how many people are classed as obese.

[jno]

I had fat teachers. I had thin teachers. Why would I be more influenced by the body size of some than of others? Or indeed of any of them?

[woofgang]

jordyboy that fat/obese line (actually also the fat/not fat line) is an artificial construct drawn by medical or social opinion. I worked in the NHS with people with disabilities and I can honestly say that the people who I met whose body shape gave them problems (as opposed to giving other people problems)at BOTH ends of the spectrum, all had an underlying issue, either physical or psychological or both. Following on from your previous dubious generalisation about personal hygiene, Are you now saying that you are personally capable of applying that artificial construct by eye or have I missed the publication of a research based and validated jordyboy scale of body shape?

[Garaman]

She writes 'It’s not politically correct to comment on anyone’s size any more', but a lot of fat people think it OK to comment on a thin person's size.

[jim360]

"I am pretty fat myself and I know exactly why. There is no medical condition that can get around the laws of physics, I'm sick of all this chaval cack about glands etc, complete and utter bowlocks. It's a simple equation."

I'm not sure it's such a simple equation as you are implying. I am not fat, by any reasonable standards, although maybe I'm a little podgier than I'd like after especially the last couple of months. On the other hand, my Mum is. This has been the case for both of us for the entirety of my life. What's also been the case throughout the entirety of my life is that, when it comes to mealtimes, I eat for about three people and Mum eats for about half a person. You absolutely can't accuse her of overeating, nor of being sedentary (she does a lot of gardening, and walked us to school or to the bus stop, and plays or has played badminton, or went swimming for a while, and so on).

Unfortunately the damage was done years and years ago, it seems, and Mum's never been able to lose the weight, in any significant sense. But not because she overeats -- as I say, I can shove enough down my fat gob in one meal that would keep her well-fed for a couple of days, and essentially I've done that day in, day out for 20 years. Yet I've never got fat.

Sometimes, the "simple equation" is screwed in favour of, or against people. I've been lucky, apparently, to have the metabolism needed to avoid putting on weight (if I hadn't I am not sure I would be the world's heaviest man, but presumably I'd give the title-holder a sit-down for his money). My Mum, sadly, hasn't been so lucky.

It does well not to judge people for their body size, until you understand how they got there and what they've done or tried to do about it. Maybe the teacher mentioned in the article was fat due to bad luck rather than for self-inflicted reasons. Or maybe not. But either way, it's a very judgemental attitude to take.

I'm not advocating "fat acceptance" in the sense that we should celebrate obesity, but certainly I'm no fan of being rude about people whose circumstances I don't know.

[woofgang]

Its never been polite to make personal comments about anybody unless they are compliments.

[ummmm]

Jim - but you don't know what your mother was eating when you weren't with her.

[ToraToraTora]

fair enough jim, all i'm saying is that food is needed for energy, lots of people seem to require much less than they actually eat others seem to be able to use all the energy they consume regardless. I guess the former group would survive much better in a famine. It is perhaps ironic that half the world is fat and the other half is starving!

[jim360]

I don't know how she got to where she is now, although I imagine it happened long before I was born, for sure. What I'm saying is that, as long as I've known her, then you can't link her weight to her diet *now*. That's the point.

And you certainly can't look at the food I pile in and think that it's how I keep such a trim figure.

[Sqad]

Jim makes a good point.
There are medical reasons for people being fat e.g Steroids, underactive thyroid, tumours of certain glands...BUT all rare compared with the main problem of lack of exercise and over-eating.
Jim is lucky at the moment...eats like a horse, but remains thin, whereas his mother, eats sparingly and is obese (fat).
One needs to get back to Jim when he is of his mother's age and see how his physique has altered, or not, as maybe the case, as age and genetics play a large part in one's body shape, as does emotional and psychological make up.
Jim is correct, overweight is NOT just an insert into a scientific formula governed by Laws.

[Cloverjo]

My OH is obese, and eats quite a lot but not really enough to justify the 'calories in minus calories out equals weight' thing. His whole family tend towards fatness. It's not all laziness and stuffing.

I'd rather a good teacher regardless of her weight. Anyway, the teacher mentioned in the OP must know the name of the writer of the newspaper piece, and will know that it was she who was being sledged. Awkward!