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I feel like I'm prejudiced against obese people

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Okay um I am not sure how to say this, and I don't want to get kicked off the forum.

Why would you think that your statements would get you kicked off the forum (maybe for your spelling, but not your statements :D )? There's nothing wrong with being attracted to overweight people, it's just not the norm.

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Howard Roark? I've not read the Fountainhead for a while, but I don't remember him portrayed as being especially attractive (at least not in the way the characters of Atlas Shrugged were).

Howard Roark

Tall, slender. Somewhat angular—straight lines, straight angles, hard muscles. Walks swiftly, easily, too easily, slouching a little, a loose kind of ease in motion, as if movement requires no effort whatever, a body to which movement is as natural as immobility, without a definite line to divide them, a light, flowing, lazy ease of motion, an energy so complete that it assumes the ease of laziness. Large, long hands—prominent joints and knuckles and wrist-bones, with hard, prominent veins on the backs of the hands; hands that look neither young or old, but exceedingly strong. His clothes always disheveled, disarranged, loose and suggesting an unknown. No awkwardness, but a certain savage unfitness for clothes. Definitely red, loose, straight hair, always disheveled.

A hard, forbidding face, not in the least attractive according to conventional standards. More liable to be considered homely than handsome. Very prominent cheekbones. A sharp, straight nose. A large mouth—long and narrow, with a thin upper lip and a rather prominent lower one, which gives him the appearance of an eternal, frozen half-smile, an ironic, hard, uncomfortable smile, mocking and contemptuous. Wrinkles or dimples or slightly prominent muscles, all of that and none definitely, around the comers of his mouth. A rather pale face, without color on the cheeks and with freckles over the bridge of the nose and the cheekbones. Dark red eyebrows, straight and thin. Dark gray, steady, expressionless eyes—eyes that refuse to show expression, to be exact. Very long, straight, dark red eyelashes—the only soft, gentle touch of the whole face—a surprising touch in his grim expression. And when he laughs—which happens seldom—his mouth opens wide, with a complete, loose kind of abandon. A low, hard, throaty voice—not rasping, but rather blurred in its tone, though distinct in its sound, with the same soft, lazy fluency as his movements, neither one being soft or lazy.

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  • 3 weeks later...

"I introduced Ayn Rand to her and she is now an huge fan." Pun intended? haha

On a more serious note.. Generally speaking obesity is not a physical genetic disorder. It is a behavioral problem. Whether that is a genetic issue is yet to be seen. However, behavior modification is not really that difficult; there are plenty of unmedicated schizophrenics that operate just fine in society...

As for it merely being an aesthetic issue... That is completely absurd. It is extremely self-destructive. You WILL be unhappy if you are obeise. You WILL die sooner than the rest of us. You WILL be ridiculed.

As for my personal experience with the obeise... They tend to have serious character flaws, leading to unhealthy relationships with me. The one I'm currently friends with makes an attempt to prove his selfworth CONSTANTLY.. Which is annoying as he is a jerk about it. He tries to prove his intellect to me as if it makes up for his being fat... Essentially he has no dignity and lives in the constructs of his own reality ( he's DILUSIONAL ). He is clearly unhappy due to his obeseity.

As for not having energy... It's BECAUSE you are obeise... sorry. Start excersizing and eating a proper diet and you will have more energy.

As for being attracted to obeise women, you should seek counseling if you percieve it to be a problem or a threat to your happiness. If not, you probably have a wide selection. Pun intended...

Nicotene causes cancer and heartattacks.. So does McDonalds... Sorry

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The thing is, merely seeing that an individual is overweight doesn't indicate anything about his moral status.

A person's moral status isn't fixed or dictated by any given immoral choices from the past. If a person has made a commitment to reason and morality, say, a year ago and hasn't deviated, he is *moral* (though depending on his past before this commitment, you may be justified in practicing caution in your dealings with him).

So when you see an overweight person for the first time, you really have no idea of the context. Maybe he's been trying to lose weight but has dug himself into a metabolic hole that it's hard to dig out of, or contracted a condition that's made weight loss difficult and slow. Maybe he made bad choices in the past, but has actually lost 70 lbs. in the last year and deserves to be treated as a hero, and instead you are judging him as immoral. Hell, maybe he's an actor putting on weight for an upcoming role.

The point is you have no idea what the *meaning* of his being fat is, by merely looking at him, and therefore are making an error in assessing his moral character based on scant information.

One prominent Objectivist writer used to be quite heavy (and his wife, who is also a writer, still may be), and I would guarantee he (and she) would blow your moral socks off. You'd be depriving yourself of great value by refusing to deal with him, and doing him an injustice by saying that his weight problem trumps his great work as a writer in moral importance.

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"

As for my personal experience with the obeise... They tend to have serious character flaws, leading to unhealthy relationships with me.  The one I'm currently friends with makes an attempt to prove his selfworth CONSTANTLY.. Which is annoying as he is a jerk about it.  He tries to prove his intellect to me as if it makes up for his being fat...  Essentially he has no dignity and lives in the constructs of his own reality ( he's DILUSIONAL ).  He is clearly unhappy due to his obeseity.

Have you told this friend that you would like him better if he lost weight? Maybe he will make the effort then. Take way his intellect, though, and what do you have? Just a fat body. If he were skinny, it would merely be a skinny body. Intellect and sense of humor are very important to me. Obviously because he's big, he probably can't engage at physical activity, such as sports, at your level. Would it be touching if he made the effort and succeeded all so he can play with you?

There is this guy that I just can't get to hang out with me though he thinks I'm wonderful. If he were to tell me that it is because of my beer belly, then I would laugh, get hard in a month, and then win my "date". Then I'll be free to bombard him with my character and make him see how silly it was to discriminate against me based on that.

But of course it is always nice to look at yourself in the mirror and see a beautiful physique. A friend of mine who was tall and lanky once, began his body building with the idea, "I love the idea of scultping my own form". One can be one's own Michaelangelo. This is part of the delight in exercising. The other one is the euphoric runner's high.

I really hate it when people say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is true in a way. Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. But the eye is the nature of the human mind in its response to harmonious objects of this world. There is a whole science behind this idea that I am not yet prepared to validate but it is worthy of validation.

Americo.

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I have no problem with him being fat. I have a problem with him being an arogant jerk. It is not like I'm in any great physical shape or good at most sports. I'm sure he could engage in sports at my level. I believe his personality flaws are a result of his weight.

It probably went something like this:

He couldn't find a girl in high school. His character sufferered as a result. Now he can't find a girl. His character suffers as a result.

It's a vicious cycle. Fat Bastard, "I eat because I'm unhappy, I'm unhappy because I eat".

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I have no problem with him being fat.  I have a problem with him being an arogant jerk.  It is not like I'm in any great physical shape or good at most sports.  I'm sure he could engage in sports at my level.  I believe his personality flaws are a result of his weight. 

It probably went something like this:

He couldn't find a girl in high school.  His character sufferered as a result.  Now he can't find a girl.  His character suffers as a result.

It's a vicious cycle.  Fat Bastard, "I eat because I'm unhappy, I'm unhappy because I eat".

Now I'm curious. What types of things does he say? Give me some highlights and then I'll probably leave it at that.

Americo.

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Essentially he likes to get accross the idea that he is awesome...

Ex. Stoned smoking a cig. I am discussing my current situation in college. He goes off on a tangent about how he got into the University but I am at city college. I ask him what his gpa and sat scores were out of hs. Laugh a little then go inside. (i scored 300 points higher and had a gpa slightly higher, but because my major was competitive i did not get in...)

He calls me boy(and others aswell). It's not like he's a redneck... He just wants people to know he thinks he's the best. Essentially he is saying you aren't a man compared to me...you're just a boy. I tend to think it's the other way around...

When he first moved in with my neighbor, he started a discussion about literature. He completely pre-judged me by my demenor and what little he knew about me. He would ask if I had read something in an extremely condescending manor. I think I failed to mention that I'd read most of the books he read in college, before I was in highschool. It is not as if I approached him in a condescending way... owe your FAT, that makes me better than you. I am sure people have in the past... so to him I am guilty by association.

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I'm sorry but I've met more messed up beautiful people then I have overweight people.

It's merely a matter of taking care of yourself. People these days sit at their desks every day in cubicles, go to Mc Donalds four times a day and ride in their cars while never walking and they don't think about this because if is busy. I honestly don't think being overweight creates immorality.

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Essentially he likes to get accross the idea that he is awesome...

Ex.  Stoned smoking a cig. I am discussing my current situation in college.  He goes off on a tangent about how he got into the University but I am at city college.  I ask him what his gpa and sat scores were out of hs.  Laugh a little then go inside.  (i scored 300 points higher and had a gpa slightly higher, but because my major was competitive i did not get in...)

He calls me boy(and others aswell).  It's not like he's a redneck... He just wants people to know he thinks he's the best.  Essentially he is saying you aren't a man compared to me...you're just a boy.  I tend to think it's the other way around...

When he first moved in with my neighbor, he started a discussion about literature.  He completely pre-judged me by my demenor and what little he knew about me.  He would ask if I had read something in an extremely condescending manor.  I think I failed to mention that I'd read most of the books he read in college, before I was in highschool.  It is not as if I approached him in a condescending way... owe your FAT, that makes me better than you.  I am sure people have in the past... so to him I am guilty by association.

Okay, so I'll leave it at that. I wouldn't like this guy the first time he called me "boy". I'M the only one that calls people "boy". :lol:

There are so many wonderful people out there. It seems as if you have a mission to see this guy in Peter Keating's catastrophic scene. Remember that if Capitalism leave Communism alone, it will self destruct. So will this guy. You just don't won't to be around when he blows! :lol: (I'm sorry, I just couldn't pass the comment up).

As a young friend of mine used to say, "Eea-sy!"

Americo.

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Areactor....

I wasn't implying that these 'beautiful' people with unusual metabolisms are any better than those who are overweight that also treat their bodies like shit.

If you don't excersize, eat right, and treat your body right... that is bad You are taking a risk. Regardless of your weight.. I did not mean to imply that fat people are bad and skinny people are good...

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