Fat Is The New Black.

Overweight people know what it feels like to be looked at and judged – but maybe EVERYONE knows that? Maybe we all judge each other based on appearance all the time? I know I do it. Do you?

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When we are walking down the street, we are constantly looking at people and making quick assessments. Will this person hurt me. Will this person try to mug me. Am I safe here? Is there anyone around not making me feel safe? Logically these are assessments we need to make in order to stay safe. The trouble is, we’re all making wrong assessments. We’re making assessments based on our own history, our past experiences, what we’ve read, what others have told us.

It is no different to you driving past a car accident. How many of you think “He must have been going too fast” “That car must have run into that other car” “He lost control going around the corner”. We want to try and learn from the mistake that driver made. Anywhere you have seen an accident, you will find it difficult to drive past that spot without remembering what you saw. Perhaps not consciously, but your subconscious will do it for you. There’s a whole science to accident investigation. Our assumptions are probably way off. We still make them anyway.

If when you were a kid, Santa scared you, you might subconsciously be scared of men with beards, right? You might have thought, when you saw that above image – that man has a huge beard, I find that scary, I would keep away from him. If you have had bad experiences with people of color, people of a certain sex, people who dress a certain way, teenagers, homeless people, bikers.. you will subconsciously steer well clear – maybe even consciously. People who have had good experiences with those people might give them a smile, approach them and say hi, feel more comfortable in their presence.

A book I highly recommend to change your thinking on many topics is Gavin De Becker’s The Gift Of Fear – here is a quote from it –

Our intuition fails when it is loaded with inaccurate information. Since we are the editors of what gets in and what is invested with credibility, it is important to evaluate our sources of information. I explained this during a presentation for hundreds of government threat assessors at the Central Intelligence Agency, making my point by drawing on a very rare safety hazard: kangaroo attacks. I told the audience that about twenty people a year are killed by the normally friendly animals, and that kangaroos always display a specific set of indicators before they attack:

1) They will give what appears to be a wide and genial smile (they are actually showing their teeth).
2) They will check their pouches compulsively several times to be sure they have no young with them (they never attack while carrying young).
3) They will look behind them (since they always retreat immediately after they kill).

After these signals, they will lunge, brutally pummel an enemy, and gallop off.

I asked two audience members to stand up and repeat the three warning signs, and both flawlessly described the smile, the checking of the pouch for young, and the looking back for an escape route. In fact everyone in that room (and now you) will remember these warning signs for life. If you are ever face-to-face with a kangaroo, be it tomorrow or decades from now, those three pre-incident indicators will be in your head.

The problem, I told the audience at the CIA, is that I made up those signals. I did it to demonstrate the risks of inaccurate information. I actually know nothing about kangaroo behaviour (so forget the three signals if you can — or stay away from hostile kangaroos).

In our lives, we are constantly bombarded with kangaroo signals masquerading as knowledge, and our intuition relies on us to decide what we will give credence to.

Australians are going to have a particularly difficult time forgetting those kangaroo signals, because we see kangaroos reasonably often. ;) Right Aussies? And I can tell you, every time I see one, the above passage is remembered within my skull.

So you may be reading this post wondering – where is she going to talk about fat being the new black? I’ve written before about being one of only two fat people in a room of over 500 high school students to hear a lecture titled “Fat People Are Dirty People”. That was over 15 years ago. Our situation has not improved, people.

Fat people are looked at, judged. People who are overweight can feel the looks of disapproval wherever you go, and they even come from people who aren’t exactly stick thin themselves. If you eat in public, expect disapproving glances. You can almost feel the people thinking “They shouldn’t be eating that”. Fat people are called names, have jokes told about them – and they are expected to laugh! – are taunted, teased.. they find it harder to get a job, they find it harder to be promoted, they find it difficult to travel – seats too small, people don’t want to be stuck next to the fat person.. this list can go on for pages, my friends.

Can you take that previous paragraph and say the same thing about a race, a color? Not these days. It is illegal to discriminate based on race. It is considered inappropriate to shoot disapproving looks at people of color or race. People of color or race are not judged on what they are eating – unless they are also overweight!

It is not illegal to discriminate based on weight. An excellent article you should read is Do We Really Need A Law To Protect Fat Workers? – a couple of quotes from the article but I hope you will go and read the entire thing.

“Hiring, firing, discipline, training, wages, we’ve got more than 40 studies now in both the lab and the workplace,” says Mark Roehling, a management professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing. “People in all of them tell you they discriminate on the basis of weight. I had one guy tell me there was one kind of person he absolutely wasn’t going to hire – a fat girl. And the punch line is, this guy was overweight himself.”

Consider Roehling’s survey participant, the one who told him “there was one kind of person he absolutely wasn’t going to hire – a fat girl.” Now replace “fat” with “black.” It’s the textbook definition of discrimination. And because it would be so unfair, so wrong, so illegal to follow through with it, it’s hard to imagine that anyone in today’s society would dare.

Another very good example of what I am talking about appears to have reared its ugly head on Facebook. According to mo pie from Big Fat Deal in the blog post Face! (Book) which I have put a couple of quotes from but again, I encourage you to read the full article –

Although Facebook does crack down on religious and racial hate groups, fat hate groups are flourishing. I’m not suggesting that these groups should be shut down; I think the worst ones (like “let’s kill all fat people”) have been, and I’m more inclined to let people say their piece than be censored, where possible. Even so, I did a couple of searches and poked around and found hundreds of groups dedicated to fat hate.

Here are some more Facebook groups: “Dammit, I Hate Fat Chicks!” “DISLIKES- FAT GIRLS WHO WEAR SKIRTS AND TIGHT CLOTHING” “Fat Chicks – Exercise or die!” “Fat people should go on starvation diets” “God d@mm!t I hate fat people!!!” and “If you’re fat…we aren’t friends.” A group simply called “I Hate Fat People” has 529 members.

Replace fat with black, hispanic, asian, any race, any culture – would it be accepted? No way! Facebook cracks down on religious and racial hate groups because LEGALLY THEY ARE REQUIRED TO DO SO. They are not required to do so when it comes to weight.

The sooner “weight” is added to the civil rights act in the US the better. The law says (in part, you can read the whole thing here) –

to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;

And maybe a couple of other things should be added there – ie sexual preference and possibly others – what would you add?

Until then, it is accepted that you can say whatever you like about fat people, refuse to employ them, refuse to promote them, treat them with disgust, treat them without respect – and there is no way those people can do anything about it, other than to lose weight. I wouldn’t bother, personally. Losing weight does not always solve the problem, because once you’ve been a fat person you will always appear that way in people’s minds. I’ve experienced that myself as I wrote in my previously mentioned post..

So in the meantime, we overweight people have to accept ourselves as we are, and refuse to hear those who want to treat us badly. As Martin Luther King said –

Don’t ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.

Thanks for reading my article, if you liked it, stumble it so the word can get out to more people. If you have a spare moment, please leave your thoughts in the comments. ;)

This post is a part of a two week special on Race, Society and The Internet in conjunction with the Hump Day Hmmm.

Hump Day Hmmm, life lessons, politics, what not to do, wrong world

Crikey!

People who have arrived here looking for the Brltney Cr0tch Sh0ts that all of you are so desperately searching for, I do not have them here on my site. You can find them on What Would Tyler Durden Do – an excellent blog. Please visit there ASAP. I don’t have what you’re looking for, but I’ve told you where to find it, so please now go away! ;)

To all my normal readers, whoa, that was pretty scary. I’m number 15 on google searches for Brltney Cr0tch Sh0ts. I’m number 7 on comcast searches for Brltney Cr0tch Sh0ts. Over the last 24 hours there has been over 3,000 unique hits from people who are searching for that. Someone remind me not to post about cr0tch sh0ts again, will ya’all? :) But if you’re looking for some traffic, probably teenage boys with meat in hand raring to go, this might be something you want to post about on your site.. ;) I have over 100 people viewing this site as I type.

bitches, blog housekeeping, wrong world

Oh my god..

It’s much worse than I suspected.. Britney flashes the entire world for a second time, and this time you get at least as good a view as K-fed ever did. Ouch, did I just type that out loud?

I just can’t believe she would do this. WHY Britney, WHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYY? You wore Mickey Mouse ears. You were a pop sensation. You had it all. Now you have two kids, no lowlife scumbag husband hanging off you spending all your money and shagging every girl in sight, you had every chance of getting back to the good life, but you choose to hang out with Ms I’m Famous For No Good Reason Paris, and Miss The Next Elizabeth Taylor Minus The Class Factor.

These people are not your friends, and you should not be flashing your crotch at the world.

In other news, a slight scare in the enormous evil creature area. Anyone who said cockroaches would survive nuclear war clearly have not met my cats. While I was jumping around screaming and generally freaking out, they saved me, again.. ;)

saved

Yay Kitties! See, pussys can be used for something OTHER than evil! ;)

celebrities, kitties, what not to do, wrong world

Buy these girls some taste?

Paris

She’s been seen >*in* her underw3ar

And she’s been seen without it so many times that it’s impossible to find on the internet now, searching for the pictures gets you – 1 – 10 of about 972,000 results, all of which mention the photos but nobody puts them anywhere, probably because people want to keep their lunch on the inside. Trust me, there’s plenty of Paris nak3d cr0tch shots. Thank me for not giving you links to them ;)

Lindsay

The first time could have been a mistake. The second time looks like carelessness. The third time was sheer stupidity, in more ways than one, because her stylist figures – if she’s wearing leggings, maybe nobody can tell if she’s not wearing underw3ar.

However, the stylist forgot to check if the leggings were not see through. Fortunately for us we did not see any cr0tch shots but the pics were still pretty ugly

I am still trying to work out who the heck this chick is, and what she has to do with anything, and why she’s famous at all. Apparently she’s been in some movies. I have not seen any of them, thank god for that. But clearly she’s good papparazzi fodder. Girl, put some f*cking underw3ar on, we don’t want or need to see your ugly cr0tch!

Britney

Then Britney was hanging around with Paris a bit too much, and oops! She made every teenage boy who’s fantasised about her wonder why the heck they ever cared. Britney, you have two children, and I guarantee you this will haunt them all their life. This is pure nastiness.

And now, the really bad news.. ;( All three of these chicks are hanging together now.

blp

Deities, please save us from a future generation of underw3ar-less women (or even worse, underw3ar less teenage girls) and make these women have a major fall out, at which time they regain their brains and put on underwear again?

I’ve edited this post to make it harder for search engines to pick up, but it may be too late. :(

celebrities, what not to do, wrong world

It’s all too much..

Not the best of days today. Sephy and I had plans to read 100 blogs. About 5 blogs in, I found something which inspired me to make the one photo a day project. And while making that blog, I found that blogger the new version has a kick ass way of changing colors and fonts, so I decided to switch this blog over to the new style. You may have noticed, it looks a bit different. I almost deleted it entirely at one point, I was so frustrated with trying to get it to work right.

So after about an hour of freaking out, I think I’ve worked out that anything that involves working with computers would not be a good job for me. However, I did enjoy making the graphic at the top of the new blog page.

But it kinda put a damper on the reading blogs, in fact took a huge chunk of time out of my day. I managed 25 in the end. I was going to keep going but then I got to a blog where some woman had commented she couldn’t wait for her husband’s cat to die so they don’t have to have a litterbox anymore, and I kinda got a bit mad. Like hello, selfish bitch. I can’t wait for you to die so you can quit taking up space here on our planet. I stopped myself from commenting on her blog and I won’t post a link to her blog here so ya’all can show her the kind of love I know you all want to.

So what does one do when it all turns to shyte? There’s only one thing to do.. watch William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes. I haven’t done it in ages but I’m off to do that now.

bitches, challenges, wrong world

Just did my daily blog rounds..

I read probably 20-30 blogs a day. This can take up significant time, except when nobody has said anything and then you just close the tabs. Not pointing fingers anywhere in particular of course, but FFS! Say something, say anything as long as it’s something!

Today I have a lot of thoughts which I really don’t want to share with you. I’ve shared them with my other half. We’ve bounced off the walls for a bit and then eventually made a decision. I wanted to share them with Sephiroth but he’s nowhere to be seen, probably asleep. That’s ok but when you get online please skype me.

It’s been a rough 24 hours. Things have been very unhappy at work this last couple of weeks, and quite frankly it’s been making me ill. You’d know from some of my blogs that there have been issues. You know I’ve had evil tonsilitis. You don’t know there’s been a lot of stress and migraines and various other unpleasantnesses.

You don’t know that today, I went to work all fired up and ready to be a part of things only to be kicked in the teeth, yet again, for the 50 millionth time. I don’t need that in my life. Nobody does. And my parents do not need the stress this situation has placed on all of us. The other half can handle it. He somehow doesn’t get cut to the bone by the nastiness. I do, and it hurts.

I know the solution to the problem is to remove the poisoned apple from the barrel. As yet, my Dad does not seem to think he can do this. So the current solution is to remove myself from the situation until the apple is extracted.

The thing I will share with you – I am now staying home and baiting. No more work for me at this stage. If the situation at work changes, maybe this will be reconsidered.

You may not have heard this vicious rumor, but if you have the following text is especially for you. In other news,

apparently I am the genesis of all evil in the scambaiting world.

I’d be ok with that, if I actually was. You see there are people who think I spend all my time plotting against them, that I talk other people into being my spokesperson, and that I am “generally spreading disaffection” wherever I can.

Let us make this clear, once and for all.

I am not holding any grudges against anyone. THIS MEANS YOU TOO!

What do I spend all my time doing? Hmm.. baiting scammers, taking their calls, helping other baiters with their baiting projects, mentoring, blogging, reading blogs, listening to music, visiting nice beaches (see below blog), watching movies (not often enough!), cooking, cleaning, ironing, and various other chores plus a million other things. Don’t forget, playing pool. ;) Oh, and being mesmerized by the glitter lamp. That probably takes up 50% of my time ;) hehe

The people who think I would rather waste my time plotting against them instead of doing any of the above are seriously disturbed individuals. If you have ANY proof that I have been doing this, let’s see it. And not the “Oh this person said” or “That person said” shit you’ve pulled before. Actual written quotes.

I know there are none. I know you can’t do this. I know WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS GET BACK TO BAITING. Stop this monthly drama crap, quit the bullshit, BUILD A BRIDGE AND WALK OVER IT NOW.

Because *I* did it LONG AGO. As did other people you are holding grudges against. You say we have an agenda? Perhaps you are the ones who do. You want to know what’s on my agenda? Baiting scammers. Is that on yours? If not, WHY NOT?

All I want to do is bait, and get on with my life. I don’t care about any of those people who think they are so important that I am sitting here thinking of ways to hurt them or get back at them. I just want to hurt the scammers, not people I once thought of as friends.

Of course I’m sad that they weren’t really my friends – or were my friends as long as they thought they could control me. Of course I have regrets about how things turned out. I’m NOT perfect and I never claimed to be. I can be a pain in the ass. You know what though? Nobody else was doing the things that needed to be done. So I had a couple of choices – delegate and hope people helped, or just do it all myself knowing it would get done. For the most part I chose the latter.

I work hard, and I get a lot done. This threatens people who would rather sit around and talk shit. That’s fine.

Just leave me the hell alone, and I’ll do the same for you.

Now Robin, back to the batcave. Let’s bait some freaking lads people!

Gossip, scambaiting, wrong world