STOP THE TRAFFIK

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Taking Responsibility

I was thinking about an article on the BBC news site this morning about why it seems to be OK to abuse fat people. It's a good, thought provoking article and I agree that our society is completely negative about people who weigh more 'than perhaps they ought' (because that's debatable too).
I was thinking about sin and taking responsibility this morning and I linked it with this article. Fat people scare 'us'- is this because they have no-one but themselves to 'blame' for their obesity? Think about it- the whole concept of sin is alien to our culture. Sin means owning up, saying 'I did wrong' but this is counter culture because no-one likes to take responsibility these days. 'It wasn't my fault', 'It wasn't me'. You can't say that if you're obese. Well actually you can try with 'I had a difficult childhood', 'My parents fed me all sorts of unhealthy things', 'It's the food manufacturers fault because of hidden sugars and aggressive advertising'. You can try to pass the buck but ultimately we are all responsible for what we put in our mouths and if that results in us being fat, then woe betide us. Every mouthful that's eaten is monitored and scorned, every shopping trolley scrutinised. Society can elevate themselves as superior at the expense of overweight people.
Does this remind anyone else of the Judaic pharisees? I was listening to an HTB podcast of the woman caught in adultery and thought this seems to me a direct parallel. There is no escaping the 'guilt'- the woman was caught in the act, the obese person carries their evidence with them daily. The analogy doesn't follow through as there is no Jesus figure in the modern day version but I think the hostility and venom that overweight people are shown is similar to the righteous anger of the mob in Biblical times.
I'm not quite sure what the answer is but I think weight-ism is the new barrier to oppressive overcome. Hopefully recognition of this will help.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home