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Good or Bad Science: "Fat people are diseased, so we make fun of them."
jungleroomx
It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered User regular
It's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered User regular
The summary is that we make fun of fat people because our body's immune system does it as a sort of defense mechanism as if it were a disease.
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2814756.ece
Interesting bit at the end, where one of these fat activists think that being unhealthy is something to be proud of and that "Food Nazi's" are simply just doing to be dicks.
What say you?
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2814756.ece
Revealed: why slim people dislike the overweight
By Roger Dobson andIan Griggs
Published: 29 July 2007
From the taunting of the chubby child in the playground to cruel jibes at fat people in work and social settings, few could doubt there is widespread prejudice against the overweight. However, according to research reported in Evolution and Human Behavior some people suffer abuse because being too fat is mistaken by the brain for a sign of disease.
Researchers say the immune system can be triggered into action at the sight of obesity because it doesn't like the look of what it sees, and associates it with infection.
Just as it orchestrates attacks on viruses and bacteria and triggers nausea at the hint of bad food, so it sends out signals of disgust in some people at the sight of an obese body that is designed to encourage avoidance and survival.
The finding comes just days after research in The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that obesity is contagious, in a social rather than bacteriological sense.
"Antipathy toward obese people is a powerful and pervasive prejudice in many contemporary populations. Our results reveal, for the first time, that this prejudice may be rooted in multiple, independent mechanisms. They provide the first evidence that obesity serves as a cue for pathogen infection,'' say the University of British Columbia researchers.
They say a behavioural immune system appears to have evolved in humans that is designed to detect body signs that are related to disease, like rashes and lesions. The sight of them triggers disgust as well as negative attitudes and avoidance. The system errs in favour of over-reacting because failure to react to a real danger could be fatal.
Researchers carried out a number of experiments, including word associations and tests where they compared the reactions and views of men and women to obesity.
The results show that people who agreed with comments such as "it really bothers me when people sneeze without covering their mouths" were more likely to agree with statement such as "if I were an employer looking to hire, I might avoid hiring a fat person". The greater the fear of disease, the stronger the negative feeling about obesity.
But Clarissa Dickson Wright, the surviving half of the Two Fat Ladies cookery duo, said the research merely served to cover up the general prejudice of narrow-minded people. "In the 1960s there were a lot of bigoted people who were anti-black, anti-Jewish, anti-everything but when they couldn't get away with that any more they turned into food-Nazis instead and began attacking people who were fat," she said. "I suspect that this is what really drives people to be negative about fat people rather than an unconscious reaction.
Ms Dickson Wright said there was an aversion in America about even using the word "fat", as she found when her programme was shown there.
"Reporters asked me: 'How do you feel about the title of the show?' and I said: 'Which part? There's two of us and I hope you're not suggesting we're not ladies.' They just couldn't say the word."
"It's a way to put sexism on the agenda," said Beth Ditto, the lead singer for The Gossip.
"All this stuff completely negates what feminism stands for, and you can't act like that's not connected to other issues."
Interesting bit at the end, where one of these fat activists think that being unhealthy is something to be proud of and that "Food Nazi's" are simply just doing to be dicks.
What say you?
jungleroomx on
0
Posts
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
The bigger problem I see here (and that is shown in the article) is that people want other people to be obscenely overweight. It's not healthy at all.
Cow.
This would also reconcile the above study with the fact that obesity is treated differently in different cultures and time periods.
The idea of a real research team getting funded to find out why we make fun of fat people in itself is laughable to begin with.
I didn't get that from the article at all. Got more of a don't attack people because they are different vibe from it. If anything of late the trend seems to be getting people to develop healthier habits.
I think the retardedness comes in when people start applying these findings to justify fucked up behavior. Studying the biological basis for social behavior in and of itself is perfectly fine I think, and pretty fascinating too.
They use the word "food nazi's" and compare being overweight to racism and anti-semitism.
Fair enough. I just think promoting being overweight as "Okay!" is very irresponsible. It's a condition you don't want to be in, and unlike race or body frame, it's something you can change.
Not everybody who looks overweight is overweight and vice versa.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I understand this. I get that not everyone is this way, and some people can't help it.
But there ARE people who can help it, and very well goddamn should help it, but don't and hide behind discrimination or some load about "glands" (A small portion of people who are overweight because of their thyroid can tell you its their thyroid, the rest use "glands"). There may be some psychological issues behind it, but whatever it may be obesity is extraordinarily bad for you and should be either treated as a symptom or a condition of something else, psychological or physiological.
None of this justifies nasty treatment of fat people. The pro-fat movement exists as a response to perceived cultural and personal discrimination.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Shut up, no one asked you. GOD.
I'm sorry. I see someone I normally disagree with and don't know how to react, so my body insults her.
Because this is science.
Not finding a way to be an insensitive douchebag.
Ever seen a weightlifter? They look like they're completely obese and out of shape, but I think setting world records for strength kind of means they're at least in SOME decent shape, considering the training they have to do.
If we're going the evo-pysch route anyway, I'd guess that its more due to people just being complete dicks since if I make you seem completely unbreedable with the more attractive I start to look. Its more 'just making stuff up' than 'science' though.
On a final note, I'm sure Beth Ditto has got more fame and media coverage for being fat than her music the number of times she's gets rolled out whenever these articles come around.
Weight lifters do not look obese unless this is some strange new definition of obese tht I've not come across before.
Those with barrel-shaped midsections kind of do, depending on the clothes they're wearing.
Well, yeah, they look stout.
The fat guy from Lost looks fat.
Bah. To the study, totally ridiculous. Fat was seen as a sign of wealth and good standing until, oh, about 80 years or so ago. Genetic predisposition my ass (which yes, is rather large).
Evo Psych is a bankrupt field; yeah, women love purses because the weight is similar to having a baby slung under your arm.
From that perspective, I'm not seeing the problems with evolutionary psych.
I love that ad.
t bliss: I wouldn't be so rabid if it wasn't for the fact that most evopsych researchers themselves are falling into the trap you mention.
Yes, Hypothyroidism is pretty fucking obvious.
Losing weight isn't hard, it's changing your habits.
Same as it is now anywhere where Vogue hasn't wormed its way into people's lives :P
No, what he's talking about is in powerlifting and olympic weightlifting the heaviest weight classes. Typically in weight controlled classes the lifters are lean. But in a unrestricted weight class the guys don't care so much, since having greater mass is only to their advantage.
for example here's one of the best olympic weightlifters ever.
and here are some of the best powerlifters, with a competitive bench press of over 1000 lbs
They might be strong as hell and be able to carry their weight because of their size but they certainly aren't what the average person classifies "a healthy weight".