Ugh, The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance

The exhibit should take shots at the parents but they're the ones spending the money so that's not going to happen.

Personally, I agree with this.

Whilst the exhibit did sound ok it is really obese kids who will bear the brunt of the teasing / stigma rather than the parents who are making poor choices on their behalf.

"Shaming" children won't work except in the minority of case in my view.

As an overweight kid who was bullied to the point where I tried to take my own life at the age of 14, I agree with not shaming kids/teenagers about their weight. I agree with not making a big spectacle of obese people. I hate seeing obese people made fun of so much in the media. I went from being a chubby kid to an obese teenager and young adult because I was miserable and binge ate. It took making some good friends, finding a good job and a couple of other factors to find a mental state in which I could learn to like myself enough to WANT to lose weight.

I don't agree that we should just accept unhealthy lifestyles. I just don't think telling obese people they're lazy and lack discipline or pointing and laughing at them really helps the situation. Nor is it necessarily true. Some people are lazy that is true. But binge eaters usually have a mass of emotional issues that make them want to overeat, these should be dealt with using CBT or other types of therapy in my opinion.

Bollocks. The issues getting in people's way, the majority of the time, are their self control. I'm perfectly fine with a sedentary lifestyle filled with crap food being demonized. It's much better than ignoring the problem or promoting it as a perfectly fine lifestyle choice.

First, it's not really up to you what I do with my life. Second, I'm really happy for you that you have the self confidence right now to look at yourself, say "Poo, I probably ought to slow down eating this crap and move around a bit more, I'm filling out a bit around the middle". Really, I am. That's not sarcasm. I'm glad that you are there. My point is that a lot of people are not there, and telling them that their self-control is the problem is, again, calling them lazy. It's not going to make them feel better, it's not going to make them deny the one thing that they can rely on to give them comfort, and it's certainly not going to motivate them to get up and move around.

If you'd spent your entire life being told your "insert body part here" was horrifically ugly and you should be ashamed of it, you'd believe it. If I've spent my entire life being told I'm just lazy, imaging how good I'd feel about myself, how motivated to take care of myself, how inspiring that must be for me. My self-worth would be rock bottom. Why would I bother to change it?

(To the hypothetical person you are speaking of)
This is why: To prove to others and MAINLY yourself that NO you are not lazy, and NO you are not ugly. The self defeated attitude doesn't hinder anyone else but yourself. It isn't what other people call you, but what you answer to. You can't depend on others for motivation, it comes from yourself. And there are many of people on this site that wouldn't necessarily say they are motivated every day, and sometimes they feel like *kitten* and don't want to continue but they do. You can't wallow in self pity forever, eventually you are going to have to change it. And i personally won't feel sorry for somebody that feels sorry enough for themselves. I can be sensitive to obesity, but i cant be sensitive to self defeated attitudes. That's just lame.

Ah, so THIS is why it's okay to shame kids? Because if the Disney cartoon shows all skinny kids that are heros and all fat kids that are bad, and kids take away that they're bad if they're fat (and almost worse, that they're automatically a hero if they're skinny) it's their fault they have a "lame defeated attitude?"

Have you seen the entire exhibit? Do you have any idea what it's actually about, or are you just going off the really ambiguous write up in the article? How do you know it's skinny vs fat? How do you know it's not healthy teaching unhealthy how to be healthy?

There's a reason people get judged for being fat, and it's because it's bad for them and not normal. I'm not saying we all need to be a size zero or have washboard abs, but we don't need an association to promote unhealthy behaviors -- it's ludicrous! There is also a big difference between being "a little fat" and "obese." "A little fat" is my cousin who enjoys pizza and beer a couple nights a week. He probably couldn't run a marathon, but at least I don't have to worry about him getting type 2 diabetes. "Obese" is my other cousin who I'm seriously worried about because he's not even 25 and at the rate he's going, I doubt he'll make it to 40, and that makes me sad. He can't even walk across the room without getting totally winded. I accept my cousin and love him for who he is, but I do not support his lifestyle choices. Any mature adult should be able to understand why I'm not in favor of Carl's Jr. super size meals at 2 a.m. every night of the week, he certainly does. If you ask me, The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is only doing one thing, advancing stupidity.

I think I'll go start the "National Association to Advance Smoking to a Pack-Day per American" or maybe the "National Association to Promote Drunk Driving."

The obsession with other people's health is unhealthy in itself. You are responsible only for your own health, not every adult in the world's health. I really have never understood the vilification of smokers either. I don't smoke, but, as Tim McGraw says, "I got friends that do." I'd have no issue with the National Association to Advance SmokER (not smokING) Acceptance, and even the National Association to Advance DrinkER Acceptance. We needn't accept drunk driving, which clearly does affect other people's health, but really, how, hypothetically, does my being fat affect your being healthy? Would I not still be entitled to dignity and equality? In fact, bringing in drunk driving to bias this argument is just like bringing "marrying your dog" into a same sex marriage argument. It's not a fair comparison and it's done in an attempt to emotionally blackmail.

You seem to think the NAAFA promotes being fat or staying fat. They don't. What they DO advocate is granting ALL people, regardless of size, dignity and equality.

Bollocks. The issues getting in people's way, the majority of the time, are their self control. I'm perfectly fine with a sedentary lifestyle filled with crap food being demonized. It's much better than ignoring the problem or promoting it as a perfectly fine lifestyle choice.

First, it's not really up to you what I do with my life. Second, I'm really happy for you that you have the self confidence right now to look at yourself, say "Poo, I probably ought to slow down eating this crap and move around a bit more, I'm filling out a bit around the middle". Really, I am. That's not sarcasm. I'm glad that you are there. My point is that a lot of people are not there, and telling them that their self-control is the problem is, again, calling them lazy. It's not going to make them feel better, it's not going to make them deny the one thing that they can rely on to give them comfort, and it's certainly not going to motivate them to get up and move around.

If you'd spent your entire life being told your "insert body part here" was horrifically ugly and you should be ashamed of it, you'd believe it. If I've spent my entire life being told I'm just lazy, imaging how good I'd feel about myself, how motivated to take care of myself, how inspiring that must be for me. My self-worth would be rock bottom. Why would I bother to change it?

(To the hypothetical person you are speaking of)
This is why: To prove to others and MAINLY yourself that NO you are not lazy, and NO you are not ugly. The self defeated attitude doesn't hinder anyone else but yourself. It isn't what other people call you, but what you answer to. You can't depend on others for motivation, it comes from yourself. And there are many of people on this site that wouldn't necessarily say they are motivated every day, and sometimes they feel like *kitten* and don't want to continue but they do. You can't wallow in self pity forever, eventually you are going to have to change it. And i personally won't feel sorry for somebody that feels sorry enough for themselves. I can be sensitive to obesity, but i cant be sensitive to self defeated attitudes. That's just lame.

Ah, so THIS is why it's okay to shame kids? Because if the Disney cartoon shows all skinny kids that are heros and all fat kids that are bad, and kids take away that they're bad if they're fat (and almost worse, that they're automatically a hero if they're skinny) it's their fault they have a "lame defeated attitude?"

Why does it have to be someone's fault? Can't people accept it, move on and DO something about it?

I create my world. If I wanted to I'm sure I could find something/someone to blame, that made me see the world as unfair or made me feel like a victim, inadequate. Can't we all?

I choose not to.

Because when children see people who look like them portrayed as villains, they DO get the idea that at least some people think they are villains. And the fact is, not all skinny kids eat healthy either. Why SHOULD all the evil unhealthy eating characters in this be fat?

Fat acceptance is a load of bull****, but this exhibit is just as stupid.

Negative reinforcement against being overweight will not work - EVER. How many children have lost weight due to being bullied? I can probably count them on one hand.

Positive reinforcement is what is required. Show the healthy kids leading a good life, not the fat kids as being evil.

Wonderfully said

Note - I haven't seen the exhibit

FitLink, make up your mind. Are you a victim or the one taking responsibility for your choices?

The obsession with other people's health is unhealthy in itself. You are responsible only for your own health, not every adult in the world's health.

I don't see how FitLink has been inconsistent. It's possible people aren't understanding what's being said. We're responsible for our own health and actions. It can be also true that factors outside of our control do influence us.

Are we responsible for our own obesity? Sure. It's also true that people can feel powerless and defeated due to the actions of others. We can tell them that they're the one's in control 50 times every hour on the hour and it won't a make a difference if something else is going on causing them to not truly believe it.

And even if they do believe they're in control, seeing people shaped like them vilified can very reasonably be interpreted as demotivating.

What actually would have taken place in the exhibit?

Maybe Will Power helped Lead Bottom to get healthy? Wouldn't that be a positive message?

As someone has said above - you can't be obese and healthy. And yes there might be people who are eating healthily and be obese, which means they are on the right track - those people should see this as a good thing surely! I don't see how it would encourage teasing and bullying just by saying that healthy is good, unhealthy is bad.

Have you ever actually dealt with or watched a group of kids? They will pick apart "the other" with ravenous delight without actually thinking about reality. So that obese 12 year sees the exhibit, becomes confused because he or she actually trying to change her or his life through better habits and doesn't understand why he's the villain all of a sudden (because the fact that the villains are really behaviors and not people isn't literal enough), and the rest of the pack start making fun of him or her. That's reality.

A better solution would be teams of speakers, some of whom are fit and some of whom aren't, being seen working together to talk about good behaviors instead of being pitted against each other in a fictitious battle of good vs evil--when the real issue is cause and effect, not good vs evil.

I gotta be honest, this post sounds like it was written based on seeing how kids act through TV movies and teen TV shows, rather than real life. Maybe my childhood was strange, but growing up, I never saw or dealt with roving bands of children/teens going out of their way to pick apart "the other." We were actually rather accepting of people looking different. All of our judgement was reserved for attitudes and actions. And I see the same thing with my daughter, my niece, my nephew and their friends. Kids aren't as stupid as you're making them out to be. An obese kid that's taking steps to change his obesity sees that exhibit, and he doesn't see himself as the villain, he sees himself as being part of the fight against the villains.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, I guess. My experiences and first-hand observations just lead me to a different conclusion than yours do.

EDIT: I'm not so sure it's that I think they're stupid. I think that as a group, children are cruel and lack empathy.

So, so true:

Proverbs 22:15

15Folly is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

This is why although I do have a lot of kids over to visit my own children, i make sure there is constant supervision. With kids, even fairly young ones, things can get ugly all too quickly. It's sad but true.

Fat acceptance is a load of bull****, but this exhibit is just as stupid.

Negative reinforcement against being overweight will not work - EVER. How many children have lost weight due to being bullied? I can probably count them on one hand.

Positive reinforcement is what is required. Show the healthy kids leading a good life, not the fat kids as being evil.

Absolutely! I think Michelle Obama's campaign for a healthy lifestyle is one of the best. It doesn't poke at anybody but it shows the ways that kids can eat healthy and enjoy some of the bad foods in a healthy way. It teaches them how to prepare their own meals and creative ways to make them. But let's face it, this is Disney we are talking about. They always have a hero and a villain. It's just how they operate, lol .

Absolutely agree that demonizing fat people isn't helping. More importantly, while Disney's offerings have gotten better over the years, they could be MUCH better--they don't need to be rabbit food, but real food is good.

National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance

Wait...that's an actual agency?!

Overweight children is a huge problem. I work with children as a swim coach and I can't tell you how many times the kids come to practice bouncing off the walls from eating candy and ice cream before practice. We wonder why so many children have ADHD??

Just today one of the children (who is overweight I might add) was BRAGGING about how he ate an entire bag of cheetos and half a bottle of soda before practice. Then he proceeded to complain about having a stomach ache.

I have heard so many parents say "just get through this practice sweetie and then we'll go get you some doughnuts." NO, it doesn't work like that. You exercise AND eat healthy. GOSH.

I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND PARENTAL LOGIC!!!!

Overweight children is a huge problem. I work with children as a swim coach and I can't tell you how many times the kids come to practice bouncing off the walls from eating candy and ice cream before practice. We wonder why so many children have ADHD??

Um... ADHD has nothing to do with eating candy or ice cream. You can't give yourself ADHD. It's a neurological disability that is mostly genetic in nature.

What Does Not Cause ADHD

Diet: In the 1970’s it became popular to view ADHD as resulting from allergies or sensitivities to certain food substances. However, much of the research done over the past two decades was unable to support the claim that diet played a significant role in causing ADHD. Despite this, the popular media continues to discuss the role of food in ADHD, particularly that sugar may cause children to become hyperactive and impulsive. There is no research to back up this claim. In fact, Dr. Mark Wolraich and his colleagues found no significant effects of sugar on either behavior or learning in children.

Hormones: No studies have found any significant connection between problems with hormone functioning and hyperactivity or ADHD.

The vestibular system: . For a number of years some clinicians have proposed the theory that ADHD and some learning and emotional problems could be the result of problems within the vestibular system of the brain which affects balance. They contend that treatment with anti-motion sickness medicine could correct these problems. This theory is unsupported by scientific research and is inconsistent with what is known about ADHD and the vestibular system.

Poor parenting or problems in family life: No studies support the idea that ADHD is the result of poor parenting practices or other family environment variables. While parents of children with ADHD are likely to give more negative commands to their ADHD child and less positive attention, this may be due to the fact that ADHD children are often non-compliant and, therefore, parents are more likely to be more negative in their interaction with them. Furthermore, the interactions of parents of ADHD children whose behavior was not oppositional were no different than they were from non-ADHD children. It is important to note, however, that symptoms of ADHD and the degree to which such symptoms can impact the child’s functioning, can be reduced by parents who provide appropriate accommodations and interventions.

Television: No studies have found any connection between television viewing and ADHD. Nor have any studies indicated that children with ADHD watch more television than do those without ADHD.



http://www.myadhd.com/causesofadhd.html

Bollocks. The issues getting in people's way, the majority of the time, are their self control. I'm perfectly fine with a sedentary lifestyle filled with crap food being demonized. It's much better than ignoring the problem or promoting it as a perfectly fine lifestyle choice.

First, it's not really up to you what I do with my life. Second, I'm really happy for you that you have the self confidence right now to look at yourself, say "Poo, I probably ought to slow down eating this crap and move around a bit more, I'm filling out a bit around the middle". Really, I am. That's not sarcasm. I'm glad that you are there. My point is that a lot of people are not there, and telling them that their self-control is the problem is, again, calling them lazy. It's not going to make them feel better, it's not going to make them deny the one thing that they can rely on to give them comfort, and it's certainly not going to motivate them to get up and move around.

If you'd spent your entire life being told your "insert body part here" was horrifically ugly and you should be ashamed of it, you'd believe it. If I've spent my entire life being told I'm just lazy, imaging how good I'd feel about myself, how motivated to take care of myself, how inspiring that must be for me. My self-worth would be rock bottom. Why would I bother to change it?

(To the hypothetical person you are speaking of)
This is why: To prove to others and MAINLY yourself that NO you are not lazy, and NO you are not ugly. The self defeated attitude doesn't hinder anyone else but yourself. It isn't what other people call you, but what you answer to. You can't depend on others for motivation, it comes from yourself. And there are many of people on this site that wouldn't necessarily say they are motivated every day, and sometimes they feel like *kitten* and don't want to continue but they do. You can't wallow in self pity forever, eventually you are going to have to change it. And i personally won't feel sorry for somebody that feels sorry enough for themselves. I can be sensitive to obesity, but i cant be sensitive to self defeated attitudes. That's just lame.

Ah, so THIS is why it's okay to shame kids? Because if the Disney cartoon shows all skinny kids that are heros and all fat kids that are bad, and kids take away that they're bad if they're fat (and almost worse, that they're automatically a hero if they're skinny) it's their fault they have a "lame defeated attitude?"

I didn't know we were talking about children due to the words in your post such as "in your entire life" and "a lot of people" you never said children, and neither did I. I'm not for shaming children in any way. And neither is Disney, the villains were overweight i guess ( i haven't seen them) but i didn't hear that they were kids, so i don't see how the kids are being shamed with that either. Am i for the skinny people being heroes and the fat people being villains, well no. Do i think that usually most obese people are unhealthy, absolutely. Some of them aren't, but lets be honest that is an exception to the rule, and most people are the rule not the exception. I don't think all skinny people are healthy either, a lot of them aren't. I could run circles around a couple of my skinny friends. However what i was saying was i would never ridicule an obese person, or shame them. But if somebody came to me and said "Why should i change my weight when all my life people have told me that i was ugly or lazy" then my reply is exactly what i would say to them. Okay you're obese, if you don't like it change it! If you do like it roll with it, but don't bring your children down with you. Teach them to eat healthy and give them that option. I don't agree with the villain situation in this post, or the shaming of children. But lets face it bad food isn't going anywhere. If you don't like the disney idea so much, why don't you come up with a way to educate them in a less condescending way, that doesn't cause them to feel sorry for themselves. Have at it!

I don't have to. Mrs. Obama already has. And I never said "in your entire life" OR "a lot of people." That was someone else. This thread is about Disney taking heat for an Epcot show where the villains are fat and the heros are skinny. I support NAAFA'S objections to it because in real life not all fat kids are unhealthy and not all skinny kids are healthy (a lot aren't) and vilifying fat people while portraying skinny people as heros isn't likely to lead to healthier kids and will likely lead to bullying.

Overweight children is a huge problem. I work with children as a swim coach and I can't tell you how many times the kids come to practice bouncing off the walls from eating candy and ice cream before practice. We wonder why so many children have ADHD??

Just today one of the children (who is overweight I might add) was BRAGGING about how he ate an entire bag of cheetos and half a bottle of soda before practice. Then he proceeded to complain about having a stomach ache.

I have heard so many parents say "just get through this practice sweetie and then we'll go get you some doughnuts." NO, it doesn't work like that. You exercise AND eat healthy. GOSH.

I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND PARENTAL LOGIC!!!!

...Being that my son has ADHD I find your comment on that topic to be completely ignorant, rude, offense not to mention off topic.

The concept of there being an association dedicated to advancing fat acceptance is so funny. You know you are in America when....

when you're too lazy to go to their site to see that they're trying to end discrimination based on weight, and instead you just judged a book by the cover?

Got it. Thanks for the update.