Ugh, The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance

It encourages healthy habits and its funny/cute. This fat organization really needs to lighten up. If someone takes it to a personal level that is THEIR problem. Gosh I'm so tired of people getting butt-hurt over every little thing.

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.

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

You're correct but I believe there is a flaw in the way that they test many children. They hand out ADHD meds without thinking twice or being thorough. Most of the time it is the doctor diagnosing them and they aren't even referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

I'm not trying to start an argument or anything and that statement wasn't meant to be offensive. I'm just trying to bring up the point that eating habits plays a large role in body AND mind.

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.

Nope. Actually I checked it out and it is just ridiculous. They refer to people with higher body weight as "fat people" on a site aimed to stop discrimination against the overweight. I find it humorous to say the least

I'm really sick of how sensitive everyone is. If you find this exhibit offensive don't go to Disney! Simple as that.

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.

I'm saying, since a more polite approach didn't sink in, that IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS IF OTHER PEOPLE ARE UNHEALTHY OR FAT! Your responsibility begins and ends with YOU! You needn't concern yourself with whether other adults have healthy lifestyles, and it's unhealthy FOR YOU if you do.

@silverkittyca, not, MikeSEA. Thanks, Mike!

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.

Nope. Actually I checked it out and it is just ridiculous. They refer to people with higher body weight as "fat people" on a site aimed to stop discrimination against the overweight. I find it humorous to say the least

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.

Nope. Actually I checked it out and it is just ridiculous. They refer to people with higher body weight as "fat people" on a site aimed to stop discrimination against the overweight. I find it humorous to say the least

I hate people

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.

Well i was responding to another post with my reply, and that's what i said to it. I never said that the Disney show was a good idea geesh! Someone asked a question and i answered it. You're the one that took what i said to the disney show which i wasn't even talking about . I'm not in disagreement with you regarding the disney show so why are you attacking my opinions when they are the same. I don't think the disney show is a good idea in terms of villains or heroes . But i mean it IS true that bad health choices can lead to obesity, i think that's the message they were trying to send, it was just a poor execution. It is clearly getting shut down till it's improved so what difference does it make anyways.

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.

If children are properly informed and educated, they will have that understanding of what behavior is good and what is bad. If they are not, then they are not. bad eating habits and habits in general are developed not inborn.

Do you believe that fat people deserve to be discriminated against? What about people of color? What about the disabled?

You think that's offensive? You should hear how they treat their employees...

Personal crap aside, I'm wondering where in Epcot that was because just last year I was there for two days and walked the entire park and never saw anything like that. But y'know maybe it's just me but some of the newer generations of parents get offended if you look at them wrong. I mean look at the uproar a couple parents caused over a My Little Pony character because she had wonky eyes and was referred to as "derpy", something they instantly said was the equivalent of "retarded" and therefore offensive to mentally challenged/disabled kids.

The world today...

It hasn't opened yet, and, at this point, probably won't.