Posted on 05/23/2008 7:17:18 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
Stigma can be a powerful force in changing behavior. Just ask smokers, whose once accepted habit is now so marginalized that the prevalence of smoking has dropped to about 19 percent of U.S. adults from nearly 24 percent just a decade ago. A lot of factors figured into the decline since smoking's mid-20th-century peak, but the sense that smoking is disgusting as well as unhealthful and socially costly has certainly contributed to many people's decision to quit.
Now that smokers have been taken care of, the obese are the new scapegoats for a lot of our ills. Last week, a letter published in the Lancet noted that the obese contribute more than their thinner compatriots to food scarcity and global warming, given that they eat more and require more transportation energy to move themselves around. While the authors' intent was probably not to make the obese feel worse, the media translations of the study in my quick Google search turned up headlines such as "Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices" and "Scientists Blame Fat People for Global Warming."
You might think that the obese could use some blame. As obesity increasingly becomes the norm, maybe society has grown too accepting. Perhaps what is lacking is the same thing that helped smokers lose their butts: a healthy dose of social stigma. If only there were more shame in being fat, maybe more people would be motivated to lose weight. But in fact, researchers say, stigma does very little to motivate overweight or obese people to change.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
That’s it! I’ll have four instead of one.
Spot-on zinger.
In case you’re interested...
Hey, as long as they don’t pick on Twiggy types (like me), it’s groovy and I’m cool with that. :-)
The NRA is well organized and have an answer for every stupid liberal argument, God bless them. They are a shining beacon to demonstrate exactly how to fight simplistic retarded feel good legislation.
Unfortunately, the oil, food and alcohol companies are falling right in line behind the tobacco companies in trying to appease liberals hoping they will get what they want and go away. They’re the next ones to go over the cliff.
They’ll learn their lesson the hard way.
Thanks for inviting the great and gracious and eloquent Madame. :-)
File under "Mental images I could have done without."
OTOH, we may have just found a use for the Sunday New York Times.
You can express disgust, contempt or anything else you want, that’s perfectly fine, but it rarely stops there.
Smoking used to be cool — obesity has always been stigmatized. Some people eat “comfort food” to make up for feelings of rejection — more stigmatization will only make matters worse.
In most cultures including America (at least for men) being fat was a sign of prosperity.
Indeed. When I encounter something that I find “disgusting,” I simply avoid it and don’t put myself into the situation again. Funny, it works all the time, and I get what I want sooner.
When I was a child I was extremely active, they should have diagnosed me with HADD. My Grandparents used to tell me I was too skinny, which made me feel a bit inferior. then in the sixties when Twiggy and and the new designers came into power, I fit right in.. Still I was told by my folks that I was too skinny and that I should eat. Heck I could put away a quart of ice cream and by morning I would have lost at least 1 pound. Go figure.
Leave people alone is my view, I look on the inside not on the outside.
He can pry that burger from my plump greasy hands.
Fat people are harder to kidnap. We have that on our side, also, we’re not going hungry.
I nominate Little Richard Simmons to handle the problem.
Twiggy was hot back in the day. (Haven’t seen a pic of her since the ‘70s).
As far as the ultra-thin go, pick out almost any Ann Coulter thread — “Hey Ann, eat a friggen steak, would ya?”
For the record, I don’t have a problem with anyone stigmatizing anyone for anything. ....including AC for being a beanpole. Just as long as they don’t cry to the gov’t to do something about it.
Ummm....Bill....ever stop to think the reason you don’t see it much anymore is because you are a criminal if you do it anywhere? That gives the false impression that hardly anyone smokes. My guess is it’s different in different areas and states, but I’d say about 30 per cent of the U.S. still smokes. The Nazis, of course, claim far less.
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