Jurors Biased Against Obese Women?

[Kelsan 117]

I just finished reading this article published on Yahoo for ABC News.

Male jurors are more likely to find obese women guilty than lean women, but they didn't show the same weight bias against their own gender, a Yale University study found.

"I think it's one more nail in the coffin of how painful it is for people that are of larger sizes," Lynn Grefe, president and CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. "These people could be healthy. We're judging people. We're making stereotypes. We did this with race years ago. We did it with religion."

As if reading this article wasn't depressing enough, I then ventured into the comments section expecting to see some humanity, compassion. Boy was I naive! It's so sad to read what people think of overweight/obese people. Like we're lazy, we smell bad, we're disgusting, etc. It's actually making me tear up a little bit. There were hundreds of comments like that.

I've always new this wasn't an ideal body image, but I had no idea of the disdain people seem to have to overweight people. Truly sad!

Just had to vent, thanks for reading. Have any of you experienced discrimination because of your size?

[Ms skinniness 3,003]

When I look around and see all the children that are obese, it truly makes me sad. These kids are tortured daily by their body size and the added fact that children are just plan cruel. Then when I look at the majority of adults that are obese also, it validates the fact that there are prejudices in our world with different labels. There are 3 ingredients in food that are addicting and that's sugar, fat, and salt... I never realized exactly how big I was before surgery and now I look at myself with different lens. Yes, now there rose colored lens! How do we go about changing the world? My way is sharing about my experiences with others. :ph34r:

[Kelsan 117]

So true Ms. Skinniness. Reading that article/comments has really opened my eyes about other people's perception, especially for a child.

[SoCalDixieGal 172]

I've completely stopped reading the comment section in the press. The anonymous nature of the comments enables people to truly be hateful. And it's the same horrible people saying the same thing over and over again.

[Kelsan 117]

I was 195lbs when I got prenant with my child and after telling my husband's family the great news, my father-in-law said, "just try not to eat too much, or anything that's not necissary." I was floored and tried to convince myself on the way home that I heard him wrong. I was 240 when I left the hospital after giving birth, so sorry father-in-law!

[SoCalDixieGal 172]

I'm back on the soapbox . . . fat discrimination is alive and well. When national news is made when a celebrity gains or loses a few pounds it will never go away.

Weight is talked about cavalierly on all fronts. Newscasters, celebrities, etc. All of a sudden they are a "SUCCESS" if they've lost weight. Congratulated if it's a lost, castrated if they gain. And, we all sit there and accept it.

Magazines sell when they feature headlines about weight loss. We buy those magazines, we click on the news stories and the world shows it's obsession.

Moms talk about their weight and how fat they are in front of their kids, and on and on. . . . We've created a society that enables this discrimination.

Now, I'll step off my soap box.

[Kelsan 117]

I totally agree with you SoCal! What I find really offensive to ALL women is after a famous woman has a baby she poses in a bikini/magazine cover. It's so disgracful. What they don't mention in the article is how the woman starved herself and stressed about the photo shoot for the first 4 weeks after baby was born instead of just enjoying motherhood.

[GeauxForIt 659]

I totally agree with you SoCal! What I find really offensive to ALL women is after a famous woman has a baby she poses in a bikini/magazine cover. It's so disgracful. What they don't mention in the article is how the woman starved herself and stressed about the photo shoot for the first 4 weeks after baby was born instead of just enjoying motherhood.

And they also leave out that celebrities have a cook on hand to prepare (or deliver) their food, personal trainers to come to their homes and work one-on-one with them using a personalized exercise plans, nannies to take care of the new babies (and/or other children) AND no clock to punch on a daily basis!!

Hell, I'd be thin, too, if I had nothing to do all day but work towards it!