Posted on 02/22/2015 8:21:25 PM PST by originalbuckeye
I would not make that connection, lumping in overweight people with smokers and tattooed/pierced/smokers.
However, as a precursor to what I am about to say, I do believe everyone has a right (or at least should have a right) to do what they want if it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
I don’t mind a tattoo or two on men, arm, leg, chest, etc.
And I don’t find a small tattoo on a woman in an unobtrusive place to be unattractive.
And the fact that I find piercings completely repulsive (and a lot of intrusive tattoos to be quite unattractive) should not have any weight in what someone else does with their body. (I will say that sitting across the dinner table from someone with those damned pieces of metal coming down out of their nostrils is nauseating, but I can live with it as long as eating across from them isn’t a long term proposition.)
But to lump overweight people in with people who smoke, get tattoos, or piercings is not right.
People who are overweight do not deliberately choose to be that way, and in many cases, desperately would like to change.
Some smokers, too, would like to change (and I can give some of them the benefit of being addicted, which would make them more like an overweight person) but that cannot be said of someone with piercings or tattoos which are totally and completely 100% voluntary and intentional.
I have a kind of funny story along those lines. My wife and I went to a movie a few years ago, and the line was moving slowly to the ticket booth. As we got closer, I could see it was what looked like a thin, 16 year old boy with acne and glasses, but he also had what appeared to be a prosthetic on his lip or mouth, probably for some kind of cancer surgery. As we got closer, I was filled with pity for him, because going through adolescence is tough enough, never mind having some kind of physical deformity.
Then, when I got up there, I realized it wasn’t a prosthetic, but a series of about 20 metal rings on the left side of his upper lip, and another 20 rings on the lower lip. Looking back, the way I felt was humorous to me in retrospect, but at the time, I was so irritated I nearly spit. Here I was, feeling bad for this kid because I thought he had a deformity, and it was 100% intentional. I felt like I wasted valuable emotional capital on him!
Now, if I get a job interviewee, and they show up like that, they aren’t getting the job. I don’t care how well they do it, I am not hiring them, period. Same with someone with tattoos on the neck, face, and such. I work in a setting with patients, and I just won’t do it.
I won’t pass judgement on anyone for their God-given physical appearance, but if someone intentionally does that to themselves, I don’t have a problem being judgmental. If I worked in a different setting, it might not matter. But I am not going to have someone like that occupying a receptionist position and greeting patients, no matter what Hollywood would like us to think is common practice.
If that makes me a bad person, I will have to live with that, because I am not going to change.
Sentimental value, I suppose. I’ve had that ring longer than anything else I own. And what good is a ring if you don’t wear it?
Hehehe...I didn’t get a class ring, but when I got out of Boot Camp, I got a Navy ring that looked just like a class ring, and gave it to a girl I had the hots for...
Never knew what became of that gal, or the ring...:)
Just another love-struck squid...
Well, that kinda makes the point. Being Christian, and by that I mean a devout, or evangelical Christian,is in and of itself a low social class indicator among most upper middle class crowds.
Think about it. There isn't a lot of scripture being discussed at the Merion Cricket Club.
OK ... Have you worn it regularly since you got it? “Rediscovered” it some time after HS?
Thanks.
Leave Julie Andrews alone!
Not really, I am thinking of the college grads, investment bankers, vets, military officers, commodity traders, software engineers, and medical doctors that I know. And their families.
As well as the really wealthy non Christians in our wealthy communities.
We are talking about social class. Obesity is definitely a low class giveaway. I am going to search for the study , but stats have shown, the lower the education level, the higher the weight.
And what I am saying is that having large families is less a lower class trait these days. I am seeing larger and larger families among the tech and finance class and in towns that are normatively state leaders in finances per capita.
I understand what you are saying, but that wasn’t the point I was making. My point didn’t have anything to do with class.
It had to do with grouping obesity (which is almost completely non-voluntary) in with strictly voluntary activities such as smoking, tattooing and piercing.
I liken it to lumping someone who has a large birthmark on their face in with someone who paid money to get a tattoo on their face.
And, as I inferred, I do see there is a common ground between smoking, obesity and alcoholism, as they may all have a compelling psychological/physical fusion, but I just don’t see it in tattoos and piercing.
I hear you. And this is the reason that , I see pierced and tattooed people as having an "out" from the class structure entirely. Some tattooed guys, and particularly women can be trailer trashy, but a pierced up tatted up person, depending on their "look" , can get away with being of no class at all. They seem neither low , high, or middle, which is the intent with rebellion against norms, as cheesy as that "rebellion" may be.
Now, there's a classic, liberal "comeback." It's kinda strange to see it here on Free Republic, though. What's your point? I inherently know tatoos are not a good thing, and there happens to be a point about it in the Bible. This bothers you, why?
What are you talking about? Who's "judging by appearances" here? I instinctively know tattoos are not a good thing to do to oneself and simply point it out with a Scriptural admonition.
I don't suppose you even understood my point. This is about tattoos. We have watched an unprecedented explosion of kids having tattoos and other forms of body mutilation in recent years. I inherently know tattoos are not a good thing to do to yourself, and point to a Scriptural reference about it. Not sure why that leads you down a rabbit trail of "what about all these other things?!" My point was simple. No need to over-think it.
I’m just curious as to the reasoning involved when people point out one rule of the bible and ignore others in the same book.
No one is ignoring anything. If you understood what Jesus did at the cross, then you would understand that.
This is also a common sense issue. We should inherently know that doing this to our bodies, that are made in God's image, is dishonorable. That Scripture only reinforces this truth.
Tattooed and Bowlegged - That’s the ticket!
(And no. Mrs Shibumi is neither.)
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