I am shocked and appalled at attitudes to overweight people after the plus size wars documentary on channel 4.
Prejudice and discrimination build around what we think is threatening to society but how can this ever lead to anything good.
Penalising people for being overweight by denying them clothing does not solve the problem, it is a form of oppression. It was thought that equality between the races and the sexes was threatening to society so they were denied their rights. Same sex couples are only just having measures penalising them being lifted. Whatever you believe about race, gender, sexuality or body size it is an injustice if they are discriminated against for those things.
There are several factors that contribute to people being overweight for me I've always been this overweight perhaps it was a poor diet as a child and a bad attitude to exercise due to inactive parents and their attitude of 'quit if you don't like it' that has left me with this to overcome for myself which I am slowly doing. Cheap food is really processed and extremely bad for you. People have to cook less and less with this stuff on offer. People are just less aware of what it means to have a healthy balanced diet. For many to do something active is to spend lots of money on equipment and facilities as many urban jungles have few open spaces and we're afraid to use them anyway.
Being able to wear beautiful clothes when you're overweight doesn't normalise it, it just means you can wear beautiful clothes whatever your size. If most of our teenage girls are overweight why is that? As a young person living at home their parents are responsible for them. Young people are transitioning into being interdependent rather than independent but they need guidance not to be made to feel like the scum of society, ugly, abnormal people who are sucking the NHS a dry.
Rant over.
The documentary
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/plus-sized-wars
Appalling attitudes in the telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/11554755/The-cynical-lie-that-fat-is-fabulous-and-why-plus-size-bloggers-should-never-be-considered-role-models-for-young-women.html
Interview with a plus size model in reaction to Jamelia's comments
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jamelia-is-wrong-about-banning-clothes-for-fat-people-size-20-model-jayde-adams-explains-why-10196161.html
