Body Shaming

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This (body shaming) is a strange phenomenon, both that it happens, and that it is taken so seriously.  It does happen in other countries, but it is shaken off with a shrug; if someone was totally out of shape, he or she would be hurt, but, well, they know they're out of shape most of the time, so it is hardly news.  It is always easy to shrug off an insult that you've anticipated.

There is body shaming, and then there is some of this garbage that you read.  It is so off the scale that one must think of the perpetrator as a pathological case.  For instance, read some of the posts on Pink's page: "Shut up u uptight fat butch dyke."  This person doesn't care about Pink's shape; he or she simply dislikes her.  Is it necessary to take offense from the pointless post?  One of the things that amaze me is that people take offense at the maniacal utterings of raving madmen.
"Did you hear what he called me???"
"Yes, sweetheart, but he's crazy."
"But it makes me feel terrible!  What if some little kid heard it, and learned those naughty words?  Just because he's crazy doesn't mean he gets to insult me, does it?"
Yes, that's what it means to live in a world where crazy people are not all shut up behind soundproof walls.  Part of being civilized is to take some shit from random loonies.  Let's get over it, as a society.  Sticks and stones, people.  What happened to sticks and stones, that admirable response to verbal abuse?

I regret that we're becoming a nation of verbal abuse sissies.  Just as we don't allow our kids to start howling when a kids makes a face at them (and yes, I know: some of our kids do howl if anyone makes a face at them.  They are not cut out for middle management) we can't allow ourselves to be bothered by so-called body shaming.

Now, if someone in public office made a disparaging reference to someone's physique, and if that physique was not objectionable on public interest grounds, e.g. someone who was so thin that they fall through a storm sewer grating, or is so fat that they obstruct a squad car chasing a felon, then we have a problem.  If people are so unhealthily out of shape that it becomes necessary to remark on the fact as a matter of policy, e.g. we will have to permit a medical insurance company to refuse to give you an insurance policy, then the remark becomes reasonable.  Otherwise, public officials should not indulge in what is being called body shaming.  But if a private individual remarks that someone is overweight, it probably falls under their freedom of expression rights.  If the individual who makes the remark is manifestly unbalanced, it probably falls under the heading of Utterings of an Idiot.  In my opinion, such remarks must be ignored, not publicized.  Get over it, people.  We have very high standards of physical fitness now, and if you're out of shape, someone is going to call you out.  I'm out of shape, and every day I take a few minutes to mentally prepare myself for the possibility of being called a fat so-and-so.  If I can do it, so can you.

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