Recently I heard a friend make a comment that was somewhat sarcastic and somewhat meant to be a joke but it made me wonder. The comment was if we yell at smokers for smoking and tell them to stop why then should we refrain from yelling at obese people and tell them to stop eating. Now this is a hard topic to cover because there are so many outside factors that this does not even consider. Yes, before everyone comments I know that not all obesity is caused by overeating. However, for the sake of this argument I am going to be following on the assumption that what if it was. Well would it be correct to harass people that overeat and cause their own obesity. Is overeating an addiction just like smoking? Do we have the right to harass people for their overeating? Probably not, I know so do not post me a million times telling me I do not know anything and that I am wrong.
However, it made me wonder though. Overeating is considered an addiction just like everything else seems to be. The difference is that while yes it causes so many health risks to the person it does not hurt anyone besides the person them self. Nevertheless, why I wonder are we so polite about our discrimination against obesity. People have been known to lose jobs because of this discrimination. While you may hear someone yelling at a smoker on the street preaching about all of the health risks of smoking, you will not hear someone yelling at an obese person preaching the statistics to them and telling them to stop eating. It is just not socially accepted to harass overweight people but it is all right to go after the smokers, why?
I am not trying to justify it I am just trying to address a problem and find the root of it. As a society, we crucify people that smoke, drink, and do drugs. However, on the gray areas of obesity, we discriminate against overweight people but no one steps forward to speak against it openly, why?
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I agree, I think that overeating is an addiction that needs to be addressed. My logic for not saying anything to a big person is that their overeating is not affecting my health, but smoking is. I have a hard time breathing around smoke, so if someone is smoking in a prohibited place I do ask them to stop. If they don't I call the police or security. Of course, if it's permissible in that area the smoke is my problem to deal with and I keep my mouth shut. Overeating, however, doesn't affect my safety or comfort.
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I also agree... overeating is horrible and deadly addiction. Unfortunately it can be as bad or maybe even worse than smoking. I think if we see a loved one or someone that we are pretty close to overeating than you should give them a nudge and say " hey, you can do yourself some great harm if you keep living that way". We would do it to smokers, without hesitation. I guess it really is just the way we say it. We don't want offend anyone. Eating is definitely a sore subject.
Jasmin Muniz
I think that people do talk to others about obesity problems, when it's a close friend or family member. When you're very close to someone, you worry about them and their health. I think it's out of place for someone who isn't close to the person to comment on either their over eating OR smoking habits. However, it definately is more socially acceptable to comment on someone's smoking, and I think this makes sense. Obease people are usually self-concious about their weight, and it's rude to bring attention to someone's flaw that they may be embarassed about. Smoking isn't usually an insecurity for most people, and if it is, it's something that can easily be hidden.
Obese people already are subjected to a lot of rude comments and jokes, and they are generally very insecure about their weight, while smoking has been "cool" with westerners since Columbus. I think the huge emphases the government puts on not smoking (commercials, flyers, health class) is because celebrities do it. Celebreties are not fat, and therefore the public must already want to eat less. Considering the fact that our culture is steered by television, we are already getting weight loss commercials with every tv show we watch, which just happens to be a lot more than the occasional comercial about not smoking.
Overeating doesn't harm anybody but individuals, I don't think we need to really address it any more than it is being right now. What else can we really do? Hide food? I don't think so. I am not being sarcastic or rude here, I am serious.
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