Should prejudice/discrimination against the obese/markedly slender be treated like racism?

Sometimes you read things in the press that you can't make up even if you tried. Case in point: yesterday's London Times( Sept 11, 2014) had a front page story suggesting that prejudice/discrimination against the obese should regarded in the same way as racism or sexism.

As if to complicate the issue that very same issue contained an article suggesting that the phrases "geeks/nerds" should regarded as reprehensible as racist slurs like n-----r or y-d and today's edition of the same paper carried a readers' letter noting that whilst she would never use phrases like"fatty" or "fatso" to an obsese person's face, she(the writer was obviously a woman; no man would be referred to as "anorexic") found it nonetheless odd that people felt free to comment on her very slim build with jokes about being" skinny" or "anorexic", ending with the plea that "Slim Jims have feelings too!"

This seems kind of OTT to me- granted you can be bullied or insulted for being either too fat or too thin, esp at school, but for being a "geek/nerd"?

It so happens that my favourite sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" is based on a group of "geeks/nerds"( most notoriously Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons) and their continuing misadventures- I find it hard to think of it as the equivalent of "Stepin Fetchit" or "Jew Suss".

Surely we dilute the power of the concept of discrimination and prejudice by extending it to such arguably undeserving groups as the obese, markedly slender, or "geeks/nerds" who can at least either lose or put on weight( excluding cases of glandular problems)?

With apologies to those of my readers who may be "fat" "skinny" or "geeks/nerds", I for one am not convinced that your problems are on an par(and in some cases at least dying) with those suffering from racism, sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia!

Does anybody think as I do?

Terry

If you ain't repping 250+ on the bench I ain't messin with ya'!

Being on par or amount of problems is irrelevant. Discrimination and prejudice are wrong no matter what.

No.

I was a rather brown skinny nerdy boy when I was young. Now, I'm a rather brown nerdy man, and frankly, the few black of my school were not that cool with me.

But I never was stopped at an entrance because I was wearing glass or because I was skinny. Taxis never snobed me because I seemed nerdy, trust me.

When you are morbidly obese, sometimes, it's not your fault and it's kinda sad and unfair to have to pay double for a place in an airplane, but when it's not, you have to move your ass and watch about your body health. I mean, when you stopped washing yourself, you don't really have the right to complain if peoples complain about your smell, well if you don't take care of yourself, eat crap, and never make exercice, this isn't much better.

JERK.

Oh please..

I'M JUST THAT SUPERIOR ALPHA MALE!

No. Due to people can change (usually) how they look. Obesity is unfortunate but sometimes it's the genes that are the problem, but nothing some hard work can fix.

Lifting is love, lifting is life.

Uh no. I was often teased and called anorexic because I was naturally really skinny back in elementary school and a bit in high school. It brought me down, but I dealt with it, joined a sport and starting gaining muscle/mass. Just deal with it and improve yourself. There is no need for this.

WE ARE NOW ENEMIES, JERK.

ummmmmmm NOOO? Most people choose to be fat.

Not really. I don't think discrimination is acceptable, but I wouldn't equate racism with fat-shaming or...whatever the opposite of that is.

the only concept more stupider than "race" is "racism."

that being said, what i got from this article is that 'prejudism' should be a word now because being prejudice towards the weight/physique of a person is not at the level of being prejudice towards the sex/gender/nationality/ethnicity/ and/or the out dated concept 'race' of a person.

i'm all for 'prejudism' being a word now. however, one cannot act like 'prejudism' of weight/physique/hobbies is at the same level of the 'prejudisms' of sex/gender/"RACE"/et cetera

Nope. Being made fun of/ left out because of your weight sucks but it's not as bad as racial or religious discrimination.

It's not THAT hard to lose weight.

How about we just not have prejudice or discrimination at all? That would be nice.

Whilst I agree that jibes about being either obese or markedly slender- "fatso" "fatty" "beanpole" "skinny" "stick insect" "anorexic"-can be particularly cruel esp during adolescence(BTW "stick insect" or "anorexic" obviously only apply to girls or women) when you irrespective of your given sex are painfully self conscious anyway, and agree with the Times letter (obviously written by a woman) to remember that "Slim Jims have feelings too"(as do the obese), in good conscience I cannot agree the above insults are as cruelly hateful as racist, homophobic or Islamophobic ones with their implicit threats of violence(sometimes fatal as we saw with Matthew Shepard or James Byrd)

Terry

Hate is hate... Anyone who says otherwise is a conceited *Expletive* in my opinion.

Prejudices and discrimination based on ethnicity and gender are worse than the examples provided in the OP. While I agree with the other posters above who say discrimination and prejudice is wrong in any form, to equate it with labels like geek and/or offensive weight descriptions is a wee bit skewed. Judging someone purely by their ethnicity is to me, the most loathsome stance.

@dernman: you answer was short , to the point and perfect. Hats off :)

While I don't support prejudice against the heavy-set, I can't argue with how race and religion usually doesn't negatively impact your health.

People are way to over sensitive nowadays, not saying victims of racism and what not dont have a right to be pissed (they should and im glad there are protests going on), but (for example) the people who try to call Avril Lavigne racist for her song "Hello Kitty" (even though many Japan officials say the song is not racist but cultural and like it) are basically making it hard to take anything involving discrimination seriously

What kind of question is this? What does obesity have to do with racism?

If they were enslaved and murdered for that, sure.

QFT. I think that's really the bottom line. Once a hate group starts offing nerds, then we can talk about it in the same sentence as race.