Campaigners from the Size Acceptance Movement have approached BoJo in an attempt to make discrimination against fat people a hate crime. Such campaigners believe that pointing out a particularly fine pair of thunder-thighs is the equivalent of racism, and feel the UK should follow the route of ‘fat-friendly’ San Francisco, where doctors cannot press patients to loose weight.
Apparently fatism is widespread, as surveys show 93% of employers would rather employ a thinner person than a fatter one even if they are equally qualified. This could be for sound economic reasons; employers obviously believe that there are benefits to employing a thinner person. Perhaps they believe an overweight worker sends out a negative, sloth-like image of a company. Maybe they believe that a fat person may have heavier breathing, which could be off-putting in an office environment. Whatever the reason, the fact is that employers frequently make choices about applicants based on appearance and personal judgement; it helps them pick the best workers for their organisation.
Being fat is not even like being of a certain age, gender or race - such things are unavoidable. Much more often than not, a person is overweight because of their own lifestyle choices and habits. If ‘fatism’ is to be miraculously eliminated by the imposition of more legislation, then obviously all body shapes must be protected from criticism and ‘discrimination’ by law. Complaints about emaciated models must also be banned in case their feelings are hurt.
The overweight should not be forced by the government or by doctors to lose weight; what they do to their bodies is their own choice. Fat people are just like any other person, and as such should learn to live in a society where not everyone may like what they do or how they look. Private lifestyle choices should be neither prohibited nor protected by the law. People should of course be able to eat as many cream cakes as they like, but it shouldn’t be illegal for others to laugh when they walk in a funny way because of it.
