Is the word "Obese" now a slur?

[ProudLBS]

38 minutes ago, Bloodflowers. said:

 

legend, I miss her

[loveisdead9582]

Isn’t it a clinical term to mean someone who is very overweight. 

[PoisonedIvy]

It’s not a slur

 

but I will say the term “morbidly obese” is WILD. You’re seriously saying someone is so large that it’s morbid.  a word that means extremely disturbing and unpleasant

[Konril]

No.

[305]

It's a literal medical word?

Next theyre gonna say "cancer" is problematic

[Cryptique]

that's SJW Era for you

snowflakes

 

OBESE is a medical term right, grow up and own your flaws

[scenekiller]

People have the right to be whatever size they want and to be confident in their skin obviously, but I'm so tired of this movement to make overweight people look marginalized when, at least in the USA, they're literally the majority

[Dancehall Queen]

9 minutes ago, Hephaestus said:

How is "obese" anti-black? Some people just say anything 

 

18 minutes ago, Pheromosa said:

Anti black? 

There’s hundreds of years of history that do back this up. Thinness being seen as a way for white people to show their racial superiority, thinness being a way for Europeans to separate themselves from people they view as animals who love sex and food and can’t control themselves, etc. 

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538

And beyond that, stigmatizing obesity isn’t helping, it’s the problem. It leads to black women not getting equal medical care and it compounds with racism and sexism to cause stress… which contributes to health problems. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/

Quote

Black women have also been identified as the subgroup with the highest body mass index (BMI) in the U.S., with four out of five classified as either “overweight” or “obese.” Many doctors have claimed that Black women’s “excess” weight is the main cause of their poor health outcomes, often without fully testing or diagnosing them. While there has been a massive public health campaign urging fat people to eat right, eat less and lose weight, Black women have been specifically targeted.

This heightened concern about their weight is not new; it reflects the racist stigmatization of Black women’s bodies. Nearly three centuries ago scientists studying race argued that African women were especially likely to reach dimensions that the typical European might scorn. The men of Africa were said to like their women robust, and the European press featured tales of cultural events loosely described as festivals intended to fatten African women to the desired, “unwieldy” size.

 

In the eyes of many medical practitioners in the late 19th century, Black women were destined to die off along with the men of their race because of their presumed inability to control their “animal appetites”—eating, drinking and fornicating. These presumptions were not backed by scientific data but instead embodied the prevailing racial scientific logic at the time. Later, some doctors wanted to push Black men to reform their aesthetic preferences. Valorizing voluptuousness in Black women, these physicians claimed, validated their unhealthy diets, behaviors and figures.

Quote

Regardless of income, Black women consistently experience weightism in addition to sexism and racism. From workplace discrimination and poor service at restaurants to rude or objectifying commentary online, the stress of these life experiences contributes to higher rates of chronic mental and physical illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and anxiety.

 

A 2018 opinion piece co-authored by psychologists, sociologists, and behavioral scientists in the journal BMC Medicine argued that bias against fat people is actually a larger driver of the so-called obesity epidemic than adiposity itself. A 2015 study in Psychological Science, among the many studies supporting this argument, found that people who reported experiencing weight discrimination had a 60 percent increased risk of dying, independent of BMI (and therefore regardless of body size). The underlying mechanisms explaining this relationship may reflect the direct and indirect effects of chronic social stress.

 

[Pop culture]

According to ATRL mods yes

[mathekr]

1 hour ago, Bloodflowers. said:

 

Ugh I miss rjoy's videos  

[VOSS]

If it’s not yet I’m sure we’re getting there

[Hephaestus]

29 minutes ago, Dancehall Queen said:

 

There’s hundreds of years of history that do back this up. Thinness being seen as a way for white people to show their racial superiority, thinness being a way for Europeans to separate themselves from people they view as animals who love sex and food and can’t control themselves, etc. 

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538

And beyond that, stigmatizing obesity isn’t helping, it’s the problem. It leads to black women not getting equal medical care and it compounds with racism and sexism to cause stress… which contributes to health problems. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/

 

Very interesting, thanks for the info!

 

I still don't fell like the term is inherently anti-black (and obesity is definitely not something that affects black people only, especially in this day and age), but now I can see why it can be considered like that. At the end of the day though it's a medical term and, assuming context and nuance matter, I really can't think of it as inherently offensive, let alone a slur.

[Coma Baby]

41 minutes ago, Dancehall Queen said:

There’s hundreds of years of history that do back this up. Thinness being seen as a way for white people to show their racial superiority, thinness being a way for Europeans to separate themselves from people they view as animals who love sex and food and can’t control themselves, etc. 

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538

And beyond that, stigmatizing obesity isn’t helping, it’s the problem. It leads to black women not getting equal medical care and it compounds with racism and sexism to cause stress… which contributes to health problems. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/

 

Crock of **** takes like this are the reasons Candace Owens does have a valuable purpose in this world after all. 

[Escape]

I was waiting for her to provide an alternative term but she didn't.

[blueberries]

it wouldn't surprise me if we got a WP for using this word cuz 

[Archetype]

No

[KillingYourCareer]

2 hours ago, WeFoundTrouble said:

It’s not a slur

 

but I will say the term “morbidly obese” is WILD. You’re seriously saying someone is so large that it’s morbid.  a word that means extremely disturbing and unpleasant

Omg, I had to look it up on a dictionary! I always thought morbid was like "morbido" (=soft) in Italian so morbidly obese people were like, so fat they were soft as pillows or something... turns out it's in the meaning of "morboso" instead

[Pop culture]

1 hour ago, KillingYourCareer said:

Omg, I had to look it up on a dictionary! I always thought morbid was like "morbido" (=soft) in Italian so morbidly obese people were like, so fat they were soft as pillows or something... turns out it's in the meaning of "morboso" instead

[Nano]

Obese people really are an oppressed group. But it's an oppression they can escape from if they really want to. If you don't like being overweight, put down the fork and start putting in the work instead of crying about it on the internet.

[VOSS]

3 hours ago, Dancehall Queen said:

 

There’s hundreds of years of history that do back this up. Thinness being seen as a way for white people to show their racial superiority, thinness being a way for Europeans to separate themselves from people they view as animals who love sex and food and can’t control themselves, etc. 

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/893006538

And beyond that, stigmatizing obesity isn’t helping, it’s the problem. It leads to black women not getting equal medical care and it compounds with racism and sexism to cause stress… which contributes to health problems. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-racist-roots-of-fighting-obesity2/

 

I’d be interested to see who is behind these studies.

There are a lot of groups that would benefit from linking racism and obesity

[Bubble Tea]

No it's a medical term. Just because xx% of the population is obese and wants to pretend it's fine doesn't mean it's fine

[spree]

ok, I'll refrain from using it and go back to lard ass. 

[Grumpy Cat]

no, now hit the gym

 

[Taylucifer]

no  what are we supposed to call fat/obese people then?

 

this is why it’s okay to bully fat people because y’all are annoying 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Taylucifer

[Mr.Link]

According to ATRL the word “sl-t” is a slur that should be restricted and protected. I don’t see why this one shouldn’t be based on that logic. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by Mr.Link