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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