Fatphobia Containment Thread

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Freak shows are always in demand, and by focusing on only the fattest and most notorious of landwhales all the "lesser" landwhales at home can go "At least I'm not that fat (yet)"

[Lindsay's Liver]

For some reason, Youtube recommended this stupid video to me and I guess I'm stupid because I watched it. It calls out fatphobia in movies and TV through a pile of clips, citing everything from Jabba the Hut to Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor" and I have a few thoughts.

1. Fatphobia is a woman's issue. I don't think I've ever seen a man, even the most liberal men, complain about how there aren't enough fat guys starring in action movies. I'm sure there are a few faggots out there on the train, but they're rare. And they're probably "non-binary" types.

2. The view that pop culture is such a huge influence on the world that we can solve social problems with more representation in movies and TV is also a feminine trait, even when men say it. Pop culture IS an influence on daily life, sure, but it's more complex than what a lot of the fatphobia whiners acknowledge. Hollywood can make a 100 movies this year that show fat people in a positive light and none of that will take away from how most of the fat people I know in REAL LIFE are undisciplined messes.

3. This video briefly mentions that in olden times, fatness was a sign of status. Kings and queens were fat. Fatness was glamourous in 1756. Fat Pride weirdos sometimes mention this and I think it's supposed to argue that it's not natural to be repulsed by fat people, Rather, it's the result of today's social conditioning. Again, they take the most shallow reading of this and ignore that obesity was merely a sign of wealth. It was a sign that you had plenty of good food and didn't have to do physical labor for it, which was very rare hundreds of years ago. That's it. It doesn't apply today in the first world.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

It calls out fatphobia in movies and TV through a pile of clips, citing everything from Jabba the Hut to Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor" and I have a few thoughts.

I'm prett sure the entire point of that movie was about the protagonist suffering from unjust fatphobia, much like how the original movie had the protagonist suffer from unjust nerdphobia.
Both protagonists tried to solve their problems by transforming into a Chad, which in turn means that the true problem is once again toxic masculinity.

[Kugelfisch]

The fatsos of ye olde times weren't nearly as fat as today's landwhales. Especially not to the degree that was seen as desirable. One should notice that curvy or "thicc" is still very much en vogue. Neither is fat.

Additionally, that was a pure noble phenomenon. The peasantry was absolutely not fighting over fat women.
You'll notice over the course of history that the nobles had very odd trends in what was seen as attractive or at least the trendy thing. The vast majority of the population did not at all share those tastes.

[rabidtictac]

Obesity wasn't attractive in the ancient world anyway. Look at greek statues. Look at ancient japanese erotic paintings. Or the famous greek pornographic urn paintings. Fatness has never been attractive because mate selection is based on choosings made by the animal/reptile part of the brain. We select for external factors which tend to support fitness to bear/rear children. That's all at a very superficial level of course. Affluence/security are also factors, which is why women are attracted to men with money and power.

It's never the fatness itself which is attractive. Obesity in ancient art is usually indicative of something other than just "obesity." Fertility is a good example. A certain kind of fat woman (fat-bottomed with wide hips) is sometimes seen in what archeologists tend to think of as fertility totems. But we don't really know exactly what they are. We will never have all the context on how the ancient world viewed certain things. But we do have ancient writings and we have ancient stories and obesity is not glorified in these.

Example: Dong Zhou is a huge fat piece of shit who can barely stand or sit (in the novel). His fatness is portrayed part and parcel with his gluttony and barbarity as reasons he should be despised. When he is killed, peasants jab wooden spikes into his body and they use his copious body fat as torches.

Alternate example: Although Lu Da (Sagacious Lu) from The Water Margin is a heroic person who selflessly risks his life to help others, he is also fat. His fatness is frequently made reference to in a comical manner. It doesn't make him more heroic, but rather undercuts his heroism with comedy. He is usually referred to as "big fat monk" by randoms in his stories. And he's always quickly picked out of a crowd because he's big and fat.

Fat people in the ancient world might have had money, but they also were usually more sedentary than their thinner counterparts. Ancient people weren't stupid. Besides, there are other indicators of wealth (untanned skin, for example) which were typically more desirable than piles of flab. One might as well ask why Michelangelo's David wasn't 500 pounds if fatness was so treasured.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

It's not even worth bringing the Greek into discussions about fatness since they were super obsessed about working out.

[ebin namefag]

Fat people stink and I don't like them.

[Kugelfisch]

Fat people stink and I don't like them.

Nobody likes them. They don't even like themselves, which is why they absolutely lose their shit when you draw attention to their fatness.

Can we also stop listening to that absolute bullshit about how models affect normal people? We've had decades of hungry skellingtons on the catwalk and yet people get fatter. Can't be that influential.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

People get fatter and unhappier because they're so fat

[ebin namefag]

People get fatter and unhappier because they're so fat

All the more reason to keep eating to make you happy again :^)