Brawndo said:
Let make this perfectly clear: being fat should not be a protected class like race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Unlike those categories, being fat is almost always a choice. Only a small percentage of people are overweight because of a legitimate medical condition like hyperthyroidism. And sure, eating disorders with psychological roots exist, but let's be honest: most fat people are fat because of poor food choices and because they lack the willpower and motivation to exercise regularly. They just don't like to be called out on it.
To begin, about two years ago, I would have agreed with you entirely. I even got into a prolonged argument on these very forums about the issue around the time I started coming here.
But there are some significant problems with the logic here:
First, the number of people who are overweight because of medical conditions is
significantly higher than people regularly assume.
Second, while there are numerous conditions associated with being overweight, a lot of people who are overweight are more or less perfectly healthy.
Third, why shouldn't people who lack willpower and motivation be a "protected" class?
Regarding the second, the parallel to other protected classes is easy to draw - it's unfair to treat all overweight people badly based on the fact that some overweight people are especially unhealthy. Compare smoking, which is universally a health problem.
But the third is the big one. The only justification I can see for the third is the assumption that willpower and motivation will magically increase if these people are emotionally tortured. As it turns out, that is not what happens.
In many ways, it relies on a very strange disconnect. If you have an "eating disorder" that results in obesity, how is that ontologically distinct from "lacking willpower and motivation" that results in obesity? Why is one somehow justified while the other is not? It makes no sense and is indicative of the weird secret dualism people cleave to that suggests that you can separate psychological function from some magical ineffable "willpower". People are not responsible for psychological disorders, but somehow they are responsible for a lack of willpower? How on earth is a lack of willpower or motivation
not the very "psychological roots" you're discussing?
I don't think anyone is arguing that they should be a "protected" class in the sense that we shouldn't try to reduce obesity. I think people are suggesting that the best way to do this is to treat those people with respect and try to figure out real solutions rather than hoping that we can somehow pressure them into losing weight.