A fat-phobic encounter
Jul. 27th, 2013 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skull_bearerSo I was at a really great house party run by an old professor of mine, and it was a really good time, a lot of really friendly fannish people, loads of fellow geeks, so I was wandering around chatting to just about everyone and it was really enjoyable.
However, you know that horrible feeling when you start talking to someone and it slowly dawns on you that their opinions are not only utterly unlike yours, they're downright opposed?
I was talking to two people in the sitting room, and they suddenly went on a rant on how more people died last year from overeating than undereating. Being the glass-half-full person I am, I said 'oh, that's good right? It means less people are dying of hunger.' And they shot back 'no it's bad, I hate humans and want them to die'. Then they went on about how if fat people die it's a good thing because they're clearly not putting in the effort to lose weight and are all lazy and just don't want to try and stay alive. 'If you see a bus coming towards you, you get out of the way, right? So why aren't these people doing the same?'
And I was just internally going WTF and trying to point out that there are a lot of socio-economic factors involved in food availability, and that bad food it typically cheaper than good food, and that a lot of people in lower economic brackets not only find it difficult to get access to good food, but often lack the time to prepare it.
Their answer: Well, they had time to go to McDonalds, didn't they? And Oh, I was in this position when I was an undergrad, and I didn't have any problems making the change.
These people, note you, are white, vegan, and very clearly middle class.
So after a few minutes of hearing this sociopaths discussing why fat people dying was a good thing and they deserved it, I left in disgust. I have to admit, it coloured the rest of my evening a bit. I was not expecting people like that at the party.
However, you know that horrible feeling when you start talking to someone and it slowly dawns on you that their opinions are not only utterly unlike yours, they're downright opposed?
I was talking to two people in the sitting room, and they suddenly went on a rant on how more people died last year from overeating than undereating. Being the glass-half-full person I am, I said 'oh, that's good right? It means less people are dying of hunger.' And they shot back 'no it's bad, I hate humans and want them to die'. Then they went on about how if fat people die it's a good thing because they're clearly not putting in the effort to lose weight and are all lazy and just don't want to try and stay alive. 'If you see a bus coming towards you, you get out of the way, right? So why aren't these people doing the same?'
And I was just internally going WTF and trying to point out that there are a lot of socio-economic factors involved in food availability, and that bad food it typically cheaper than good food, and that a lot of people in lower economic brackets not only find it difficult to get access to good food, but often lack the time to prepare it.
Their answer: Well, they had time to go to McDonalds, didn't they? And Oh, I was in this position when I was an undergrad, and I didn't have any problems making the change.
These people, note you, are white, vegan, and very clearly middle class.
So after a few minutes of hearing this sociopaths discussing why fat people dying was a good thing and they deserved it, I left in disgust. I have to admit, it coloured the rest of my evening a bit. I was not expecting people like that at the party.