~Jenn

From the Telegraph and the Daily Mail in the UK:

Ridiculing someone as ‘fat’ or ‘obese’ could become a hate crime under an idea being floated by a group of MPs and a leading charity.

The Government should consider putting ‘appearance-based discrimination’ on a legal par with race and sexual discrimination, the report suggests.

Rosi Prescott, chief executive of Central YMCA, said if there was strong evidence that appearance-related discrimination was widespread, the Equalities Act should be broadened to include it.

That would make it a punishable offence to harass someone because of their appearance, for example by drawing attention to their weight.

 She said: “All the rules that apply under the Equalities Act now would also apply to appearance-related discrimination. They would be applied consistently.”

Society should be more accepting of overweight or obese people, said Ms Prescott, who even questioned whether they should be told [Jenn: By DOCTORS!!] if they were carrying too many pounds.

She said: “If they don’t feel overweight, and there are no health indications, what’s the problem?”

 

I think my head just exploded. For fuck’s sake, give your head a shake. If they don’t FEEL overweight???

 

Let’s for a moment put aside the fact that these idiots want to make calling someone fat the same as a racial slur. What’s next, telling someone that they have terrible taste in shoes and possibly smell funny sends you to jail? Since when did being rude and a bit of a dink and hurting someone’s feelings become a criminal offense? Oh wait, maybe soon in Britain.

 

I wonder if I’d get arrested for calling myself a Former Fatty. Can I go to jail for hate-crime-ing myself?

 

My biggest issue though, is that these people would be ok with making it a criminal offense if a doctor tells their patient they are overweight. Almost two-thirds of British adults are now either overweight or obese. This isn’t just about people calling other people names and making them feel bad. This is about telling a medical professional they can’t tell their patient they are at risk of complications like diabetes and heart problems because they don’t want to MAKE THEM FEEL SAD. You know what makes people sad? When their loved ones die of something that they could have prevented. Telling someone they are at risk of illness or death if their lifestyle continues shouldn’t get a doctor put in a squad car. Telling a doctor to wait until a severely overweight person who doesn’t “feel fat” shows symptoms to bring up their weight as a risk factor is absolutely ridiculous.

As you all know, I was fat. And not just kinda. I even had fat deposits in my eyes. I was told by my doctor I was overweight, and that my weight was going to cause issues with my joints and my heart and my blood pressure. And she then offered to help me NOT be fat so my health would be ok. Because that’s her JOB. My doctor sent me to a nutritionist, and offered to meet with me weekly to check my progress. You know why she did that? So I wouldn’t get sick later. Prevention. If doctors are forced to wait until a person shows symptoms it might be too late. And purely from a practical standpoint, I can tell you from experience it would have been a lot easier to lose 20 pounds than it was to lose 65. Stop the gain earlier, and it’s better all around.

Political correctness is now at risk of hurting people’s health and shortening their lives. Unbelievable.