ObesityHelp

Hey All,

A friend of mine recently had an experience with her doctor that I want to share.  When she was in the room with the doctor (an older woman), the Dr. said to her, "I had a larger person in here
before you...this is the cuff for fat people but you get the regular one."  (My friend is overweight and works diligently to keep healthy and lose weight).  This same doctor has also said to her, "Weigh****chers is the best and only way to lose weight."  Even after said friend told her she had lost 20 lbs on her own with diet and exercise, the doctor still shook her head and said, "No, Weigh****chers is the best way."

I was horrified to hear that she said the cuff was for "fat people."  This actually started a conversation between us about the social stigmas of weight prejudice vs. what is the balance
of responsibility for them and the other person.

Is that any different if the other person is in the service industry (e.g. a
doctor, teacher, UHaul rep)? For instance, certain words have big
social stigmas (e.g. "fat"), so what's the line of protecting a
person's feelings and not using that word...and being honest and using
a word that 'accurately' describes someone's physicality without,
necessarily, the negative intent that is typical of the word (so
stereotyping the word instead of looking for other meanings of intent
(e.g. body language, tone of voice).

She also happens to be a minority (she's asian) and deals with the impact of being both asian and overweight.  She also brought up an interesting topic dealing with that:  Do people 'expect' certain races to be more likely to be fat than others, therefore it's more of a surprise when the other races are fat?

She's going to co-host the Backstage Pass Radio Show  with me next Monday (6-7pm EST), and we're going to focus on these topics - the social impacts and prejudices of weight.  Would love, love, love to get some feedback and thoughts on this!   Please feel free to leave your thoughts here, and I can keep comments anonymous on-air.  And as always, your calls into the show are highly encouraged!  (347) 857-2052

Thanks a bunch for your thoughts and views on this!