More nonsense from the nanny state

[bazwillrun]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18262887

You can call a duck a chicken but its still a duck

Call it what you like but it wont change an undeniable fact that if youre fat, well youre still fat, end of, dress it up with all sorts of PC correct blarney but fat is fat.

[Gromit]

// The 80-page report was drawn up by MPs and Central YMCA, the world's biggest young people's charity, after a three-month public inquiry during which hundreds of witnesses made submissions.

It concludes that a toxic combination of the media, advertising and celebrity culture account for almost three-quarters of the influence on body image in society, yet the "body ideal" typically presented was estimated to be not physically achievable by nearly 95% of the population. //

http://www.guardian.c...y-image?newsfeed=true

This report is not saying you cannot call someone fat. It is saying that professionals should avoid the term as it is unhelpful and instead promote a healthier lifestyle than anyone can .

[Gromit]

...anyone can achieve.

[hc4361]

Why would you call anybody fat, though, unless they asked your opinion?

Back in the 60s a 10 year old girl said something that I have never forgotten. She said of some older boys that were bullying her, "They can call me a ba**ard if they want, but why do they have to call me a black ba**ard?"

A fat person is still a person.

[ludwig]

'We need to get you to a weight that's less challenging for your scales.'

That's the kind of thing doctors should be saying to avoid upsetting people.

[friedgreentomato]

Funnily enough I think it may have to do with peoples feelings.

[Sqad]

baz.....spot on.

I have been campaigning on this point using AB as a medium for years, but what has AB done....opened a while section on weight which has played into the hands of the diet clientele.

Obese and overweight are used to placate the fat and the only way to get the message through is to call a spade a spade......"Your'e fat" when asked.

Sorry folks...that's how i see it.

[ludwig]

'I feel you're currently at greater than average risk of harpoon injury'

That's another one. See, it's not too difficult to avoid the bad words.

[emmie]

i rather agree with sqad on this one, if a doctor said you are fat, it is hurtful, but it might make you do something about it. Couching it in terms as described is more like avoidance of the issue. I confess to being overweight at times, by eating too much, and it doesn't get any easier the older you get. Only one example but how do you let a child get to 63 stone, the teen who recently had to have 30 people or so to get her out of the house. it isn't right and the long term prognosis for us isn't good if we continue avoiding the issue.

[sp1814]

But surely a more clinically correct term is: "your weight is dangerous to your health".

Saying, "you're overweight" or " you're fat" are actually a bit woolly. They are too unspecific. People need facts rather than observations - such as, "if you don't lose 4 stone, you are in danger of developing type 2 diabetes".

That's what doctors need to say rather than, "Mr Jones - you're fat".

[jake-the-peg]

Well apparently we have to call you "opinionated"

If you ask me that's PC gone mad

[ummmm]

There are very few fat people that don't realise that they're fat. There are very few fat people, in my opinion, that are happy being fat. They go through life disliking the way they look on a daily basis. Doctors should take this into consideration.

[Sqad]

sp...good thinking, but it doesn't work.

For the past two decades we have been treading on eggs shells not to call fat people "fat" and we have had the media and doctors telling people to lose wait otherwise they will develop life threatening diseases.

It hasn't worked.....fat people are getting fatter.

[whiskeryron]

Not more bloody P/C nonsense when the hell are we going to get back to basics & start living life again without this constant rubbish ?

[Mosaic]

bring back Bombay Duck, I say.

[Old_Geezer]

This is not about whether we should stop calling people fat but whether health professionals ought not stop calling them overweight and start calling them fat instead. The word "overweight" *IS* the "weight-neutral language" description. "Fat" or "Fatty" or "Beached Whale" or "Gross Slob" or any similar description is not.

There is something not right with society when it needs to be pointed out that name calling and making folk feel worse than they already do is not the right thing to do. Real world trolling. People who wish to help others would instinctively know that rarely is making someone feel bad the right thing to do. And those who don't wish to help but get pleasure from baiting others ought to try to become better people.

[emmie]

i have never made mention to anyone about their weight, and the doctor did say i needed to do something about it, so i did. I can't say it's easy, but if you gorge on fast food, crisps, soft drinks, then you are like as not to pile on the pounds. A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips as the saying goes.

[Sqad]

O_G.

\\\ People who wish to help others would instinctively know that rarely is making someone feel bad the right thing to do. \\\

Remember that old saying "one may have to be cruel to be kind?"

Nothing else seems to have worked.

[mrs_overall]

Baz, I believe that instead of saying someone is suffering from obesity, the PC term these days is that they are suffering from cake retention

[rowanwitch]

Doesn't work for me... I'm fat...very fat by most peoples reckoning
I know the health risks...have dieted that often and always put on more each time... Fat people usually know they are fat... obese is a more scary word when you have to frighten someone

And as put by another poster when I said I'd been swimming I did look like a whale going up and down the pool...

But it is not a good idea to call children fat...they can be damaged as to a young mind they can only see it as an insult or attack on their self image and that is sometimes how the whole diet/binge or other eating disorder thing can start

[Old_Geezer]

The "cruel to be kind"/"tough love" philosophy was why I stated "rarely" rather than "never".

It may work for some, but I suspect many will just react either angrily or depressed and having felt attacked and backed into a corner, stubbornly refuse to bother any more.

Those who know they wish to lose weight will have already tried many things. They already know they would benefit from losing weight, and in addition they are already fighting to avoid feeling down about it. It nothing else has worked tormenting/taunting them doesn't seem justified as a reasonable last option.

At most such bullying might kick start someone who is in denial, but most people are not daft, they know if their weight is a health risk for them.