It's only discrimination if it's about race or gender...or is it?

[rocksniffer]

Something interesting has happened, a hateful man talked shit about a popular woman, it sparked outrage and commentary but I haven't been able to find a thread about it here in gen chat...I am wondering why?

Could it be that weight discrimination doesn't even rate a few posts on this forum. I have noticed in my relatively short time here that every topic under the sun has been chewed til all the flavor has gone then been dried and chewed again. But none decided that this jerk's comments were way over the line. Sure the movie might be bad, I don't know I haven't seen it, but is it bad because the lead actress is over-weight.

This shit storm follows one concerning Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey, who also has been slammed, and has slammed back, because some think he is too heavy to run for President.

I am sure that there are stories, opinions, and wisdom floating around and I, for one, would be curious to hear everyone's thoughts on one of the most blatant forms of discrimination, at least in the US...isn't this type of discrimination at least equal to racism, sexism, religious discrimination...

ok friends, chew on that...

[Lyanna Stark]

Dunno about other places, but we've already had a lot of discussions in popular newspapers about "health hysteria" and employers meddling in people's eating and exercise habits. Not about weight discrimination per see, but definitely ties in to how society puts blame on people and also attempts to micro manage people's lives.

I mean sure, it's easy to say "people should live healthier lives" and point the finger, but like with many other things, Real Life is often more complex than that.

EDIT: Fairly certain this topic has been discussed more than once though, as I seem to recall discussions about airplanes and people benig forced to buy two tickets etc. and various opinions on that.

[Xray the Enforcer]

It is always poor form to start a thread with "well, I haven't seen it discussed yet on this forum, therefore y'all must be _____ (insert pointless, possibly offensive generalization -- in this case, that we all hate fat people)." Especially since you've been around here for, what, a couple of months?

Seriously, man. We have discussed weight discrimination at length here.

[mormont]

All sorts of monstrous things happen in the world every day, and don't get a thread on this forum. It's not actually a test.

People post not only because they think something is important, but because there's something about a story catches their eye, or it relates to them personally, or they think others will find it interesting... but a lot of the time, a story catches their eye but they're too busy to post it that day, and then they never get around to it, or one of a hundred other reasons.

I assure you, I know that weight discrimination is taken very seriously on this forum by many members and yes, amazing as it may seem, we've even had lengthy threads on the topic over the years.

Personally, like probably 99% of the rest of the forum, I'd never heard of these comments until now.

So: my suggestion. Instead of using this as a litmus test of the forum's character - not that a disparate bunch of random individuals can be said to have one character - try again. Start a thread discussing the comments themselves, not using them as a stick to beat your straw man of choice with.

[Tears of Lys]

Yeah, I've seen it discussed here.

I hadn't seen that review by Rex Reed. Looks like he's trying to get himself some publicity, I'd say.