i dont think most ppl aer prejudiced against fat ppl..its just ignorance..they see a fat person and something about them makes them laugh thats all...i think its more ignorance than anything.....

I think that some people are prejidiced against
fat people, but I know I'm not one of them. I hope it makes you feel better to know that there may be some people like that out there in the world that are that mean and idiotic, but not everyone is like that.

People dont necesarly have any hatred towrds fat people we just sorta catogrize them as FAT[/B]

Were all gonna go to hell fat peorple to!!!

An irrelevant post within a misplaced thread. Wow, YN just keeps getting better and better.

To get back on "topic": I agree with Cowgurl's post, and would like to elaborate on some of the points she raised.

Humans, by nature, have a need to categorize people. Placing unique individuals in broad groups makes us feel more socially adept and comfortable in daily life. It seems to me that we identify new acquaintances by noting two or three key traits about them that immediately stand out. For the sake of our sanities, we need to be able to identify those around us as "the dumb brunette girl", "the funny short guy", "the tall athletic dude", etc. Unfortunately, this is an extremely destructive social behavior. Even more unfortunately, it's almost impossible to avoid. Simply put, we're wired to be judgemental ******s.

I think we can all agree that everyone should be more analytical of their initial impressions of people, but we can't just sit around waiting for people to become more sensitive. It's not going to happen to the majority of humanity anytime soon.

The most effective way to combat these negative stereotypes, it seems to me, is to be outgoing and try to expose many different parts of yourself (wow, just realized how perverted that sounds; shut up, you know what I mean) to everyone around you. People will come to realize you're too deep for their umbrella categories. For good first impressions, it seems a person's best bet is to try to play up their positive facets. If you're an overweight blonde girl, for instance, people might write you off as "the fat blonde girl." But if you're also exceptionally funny, that could quickly change to "the hilarious fat girl" which could just as quickly change to "the hilarious girl with the dyed pink hair."

Even allegedly "positive" traits can grind your nerves if they're your only identifying factor. People often write me off as "the tall guy." Because I'm timid, in a few groups I feel that's almost my entire identity: "the tall guy." Human nature is a b!tch for everyone.

DRC

Lokwa Mbunzama Narcisse

Male, born 23 01 1978
infogroupe @ yahoo.fr



In English, translated by Elisabeth Slåttum

CHILDREN AND YOUTH AS PARTICIPANTS OF SOCIETY

Everyone knows that democracy constitutes an essential element to the establishment of peace in the world, and provides a harmonic development integrating the whole population by favoring dialogue, tolerance and exchanges between people from different cultures.

We will now demonstrate what the role of the African youth in the society is.

Indeed, the youth represents more than 50 % of the African population and has thus an important role to play in the African society, and in particular in the African democracy, because as we all know, democracy is power to the people, by the people and for the people. It is not surprising that the youth is represented in this structure, but what type of youth is needed in this representation? The youth, representing the vast majority of the African population, must understand the different problems that society is facing, in every sector; education, health, economy, industry, environment, new technologies, research, etc. To be able to find suitable solutions contributing to the development and the establishment of peace between the peoples and thus lead to a better democracy through good governance.

Consequently, today’s youth, being tomorrow’s future, must work hard, must be educated, and must understand the big challenges that the society is destined to face, must fight the big curses, diseases, AIDS, SARS, hepatitis, floods, storms, wars, tribe conflicts, murders, attacks, drug peddling, suicides, abortions, corruption, for the young people represent the most vulnerable population facing the big changes caused by the globalization.

We, the youth, should work harder to eradicate the big axes that are handicapping our progress and democracy in Africa, it is time to act, it’s now or never, our future depends on what we do at this moment, which Africa will we pass on to the future generations? What continent should represent us at the next world summits? A continent destroyed by diseases? A continent where the children will still be without schooling? Where there is no drinking water? Where hunger is the main reason for meetings? Where the wars never end? A continent where the teachers flow toward the Western countries to have good salaries (brain flow / knowledge assets losses)? A continent where you become president by coup d'état, What is our future? Let’s reason together to come up with solutions which will be real remedies to Africa’s problems, so that tomorrow we, the youth, can contribute with our knowledge to the realization of the favorable objectives to a good democracy and to a lasting development.

yup

I agree. We are prejudice by nature. I mean, just look at the word: Pre (as in before) Jud (as in judge)... we always judge people whether we like it or not, in some cases it's discernment, but in most cases it's just your personal bias that you place on others.

I do see that we do tend to judge overweight/ fat people a lot more. I think it's kinda funny that being fat used to be great- it meant that you were healthy and that you had enough money to stay well-fed.

But nowadays if you're not skinny or at least average weight and size you're "fat". In that case I'm a lardcake. lol.

But seriously, yesterday I was at the mall with one of my good guy friends and he saw this girl who was a little overweight, wearing some clothes a little too small for her and her belly was jiggling a little, and he started laughing! I couldn't believe it! She wasn't a beast or anything.

I do think that if you are a little bigger, your clothes should be bigger too, unless you like hanging out of your clothes, then feel free! Personally, if I have areas of my body that I'm not comfortable with or don't want to be made fun of for, I cover them up. But it's your choice, I guess.

Anyway, back to the topic. Yes, there is prejudice. YEs, it's annoying. BUT there's not a whole lot we can do about it. We can whine and complain all we want, but it starts with us on a personal level. If we stop backbiting and gossiping, and judging (which is almost impossible for some of us, and definitley not all of us) then we'd probably put an end to it. Until then, oh well. I guess that's just the way of things...

when the aliens come they'll eat the fat ones first.

My dad says everyone is secretly predjudiced, and much as I wish it weren't true, I know it is. Remember your first day of school, where you looked at all the kids you didn't know, and hadn't even spoken to, and thought: "that one will be stupid, that one's fat, and she's a ****"? Don't you remember that? You can't look at a person without putting them into a category. It's what seperates humans from animals, we love to categorize. And I know that it's hard to be stuck in a group by someone you don't even know, but the thing is, you should be more assertive about how you're not just fat or whatever, that there's so much more to you than anyone is seeing. I don't think that this predjudice crap will ever end, we'll still be like that in our heads even if we don't say it aloud, but there are ways you can prevent it from becoming more than what it is.