The Damage Caused by Insulting Someone Because of Their Weight

What right does anyone have to comment on another person's weight? Unfortunately, there are far too many people with an opinion and who aren't afraid to voice that opinion. If you're too skinny you may be told to your face that you need to eat more or that you have an eating disorder, regardless of the truth. In most cases, however, it is being overweight that is the problem. When you're carrying a few too many pounds, as determined by wider society, you suddenly seem to become a legitimate target for abuse. How are you meant to feel about yourself when you're continually told that you're a fat, lazy pig; that you should try eating more salads. People see you, make assumptions about the person you are and then hurl nasty insults at you.

Of course, these individuals aren't taunting you in the hopes they will somehow motivate you to lose weight, but rather because they get enjoyment out of being nasty. They don't care that hearing such insults makes you loathe your body even more than before and that it is eating food which provides you with a certain degree of comfort, despite knowing that it is only fuelling your weight issues. You can quite easily end up trapped in a vicious cycle of feeling bad about yourself for being overweight, turning to food to make yourself feel better, only to gain weight and feel even worse about the situation. Although there may be more overweight individuals than there were in the past, being 'fat' is still not seen as acceptable.

There will be those who talk about the health implications of being overweight and, clearly, if you're substantially overweight you may run into health problems, but it's not as if you don't know this. The chances are if you're carrying too much weight, you'd prefer to be lighter, but losing weight isn't easy, especially when you have self-esteem issues and an unhealthy relationship with food. When someone is nasty to you because of your weight, they're not doing it for your sake, but rather because it makes you feel uncomfortable and self-conscious or gets a laugh from their friends. They probably don't spend too much time considering how it makes you feel.

Ultimately, you can end up even preoccupied with your size. It may only be one aspect of the person you are, but you come to be characterised and defined by your weight. You see yourself as the fat one, which in a society obsessed with slimness can have a negative impact on your self-worth. It doesn't help that in the media there are always stories about how being fat can harm your employment prospects and chances of success in all areas of life. There is the option to lose weight, which is fine, but at the same time it is kind of depressing that there is so little acceptance of people who do not conform to the skinny ideal. After all, people come in all shapes and sizes, so why should you have to justify your weight or anything else to someone who doesn't even know you?