Society associates ‘fat’ with ugly

Despite beauty being subjective, there will always be the argument of what is deemed beautiful and what is deemed taboo or ugly.

Society has delivered the message numerous times that being fat automatically means that a person is ugly, regardless of any other factors.

Although this stereotype is true anywhere, it is especially true in a college setting. It’s common to hear students say they want to lose weight because they don’t want to be fat, and they feel “fat” and “gross” on any given day. Some even blatantly state that being fat is ugly.

Losing weight is understandable — I can sympathize with it, because I, too, go through those phases. But putting down other people just because they are bigger and automatically saying things like “They’d be prettier if they weren’t fat” is entirely inexcusable.

Society plays a huge, inevitably dangerous role on young peoples’ lives, whether we want to admit it or not.

The kind of message displayed on shows such as TLC’s “My 600-lb Life,” a show about obese people and their weight loss journey, can be upsetting, but it is an a example of the kind of perceptions society fosters.

Now, I am not promoting obesity as a good thing, of course, because can be an unhealthy lifestyle, but how these people are seen as nothing more than being fat is terrible. There is always more to people than their weight.

People will watch it and poke fun at the people who cannot move for one minute without catching their breath, and they jokingly say the show makes them want to stop eating forever.

When I watch the show, I pay attention to the fact that many of these people do indeed have a factor of mental unstableness that plays a role in their eating habits. Eating became their coping method to escape whatever was bothering them mentally. I cheer the people on who make it to their goal weight or want to take up ihcg injections to reduce weight, and I am happy toward the end of the journey when some of them are happier and on track to a better lifestyle.

It doesn’t make sense how others cannot look at the bigger picture of what the show is trying to convey, and that their only thought is how ugly the person is. There are cosmetic surgeries for hire and procedures like liposuction in Tampa, FL or CoolSculpting in Brookings, OR that can make a complete transformation of oneself in no time.

It’s not fair, because I’ve dealt with these types of comments all of my life — others comparing me to my sister because I was heavier set.

Calvin Klein, for example, sparked controversy for releasing pictures of a size 10 model who was labeled as “plus-sized.” If that is considered plus-sized, then what about actual plus-sized people? According to the San Francisco SFGate, the average dress size for women is 14. Are these people not good enough to model because people have a mindset so strongly embedded in their minds that being fat is gross?

There is more to people than their physical appearance, and it is not fair to claim someone is ugly just because they are fat.