Shotha
Well-Known Member
I'm curious to know what terminology fat people and their admirers consider to be sensitive terminology these days. I live in New Zealand, where such issues have passed us by. I remember seeing TV shows a couple of years ago, which suggested that fat Americans preferred the word fat. "Overweight" seemed to be one of the most disliked words, drawing comments like "Over whose weight?" and "It implies there's a right weight and a wrong weight." I personally tend to reject words with the element "over" in them, because nature does know the concept of excess. I notice that the words "obese" and "obesity" are used around here. I used to think that the word "obese" just sounded so beautiful but now I try not to use it, because of its etymology. It is from the Latin obesus meaning "one who has overeaten" and so has the element "over" in it. Friends descibe me as "big" and say that I prefer big men but for me the word "big" just doen't cut the mustard, because people can be big witout being fat. The word just ducks the issue.
I'm curious to know if anyone in Europe or America has done a survey of the words that fat people and their admirers like and dislike. I would like to do such a survey in New Zealand, as I'm trying to stir up some interest in fat activism in this country.
I seem to be the only one over hear who tries to talk positively about fat. In the 1990's I ran a Chubs and Chasers Club over here and broke linguistic conventions in a noticeable way. In Western European languages words for "fat" tend to collocate with words for "horrible" and "ugly". This is mere convention and if enough people break conventions, then new conventions can be established. In our club newsletter, a 12-page monthly production, I chose to follow the conventions of other cultures, where the words for "fat" collocate with words for "beautiful', "handsome" or "attractive". It raised a who few eyebrows but quite a few people who were neither fat nor fat admirers thought that our new way of speaking about the subject was good, because it expressed the way we felt.
And of course, most relevant to this topic is the subject of self-denigration, a form of behaviour, in which most discriminated against and oppressed groups indulge. I try to educate other fat people into not putting each other down.
Any input about the topic of fat-sensitive terminolgy would be greatly appreciated, remembering that linguistic sensitivities will vary from country to country.
Finally, is there anyone apart from myself, who would like to see the big and tall shops start calling themselves "fat and tall shops" instead?
I'm curious to know if anyone in Europe or America has done a survey of the words that fat people and their admirers like and dislike. I would like to do such a survey in New Zealand, as I'm trying to stir up some interest in fat activism in this country.
I seem to be the only one over hear who tries to talk positively about fat. In the 1990's I ran a Chubs and Chasers Club over here and broke linguistic conventions in a noticeable way. In Western European languages words for "fat" tend to collocate with words for "horrible" and "ugly". This is mere convention and if enough people break conventions, then new conventions can be established. In our club newsletter, a 12-page monthly production, I chose to follow the conventions of other cultures, where the words for "fat" collocate with words for "beautiful', "handsome" or "attractive". It raised a who few eyebrows but quite a few people who were neither fat nor fat admirers thought that our new way of speaking about the subject was good, because it expressed the way we felt.
And of course, most relevant to this topic is the subject of self-denigration, a form of behaviour, in which most discriminated against and oppressed groups indulge. I try to educate other fat people into not putting each other down.
Any input about the topic of fat-sensitive terminolgy would be greatly appreciated, remembering that linguistic sensitivities will vary from country to country.
Finally, is there anyone apart from myself, who would like to see the big and tall shops start calling themselves "fat and tall shops" instead?
