I think a big part of it is the media, and second, as someone else pointed out, children learn from their parents. Sometimes it is so subliminal. Even if an adult says all the right politically correct things, what is a child really going to learn if he or she then sees the parent laughing at a fat joke on TV. Because bottom line, what counts in life is what you do, not necessarily what you say.

I live it myself. Not only do I have Tourettes Syndrome, I also am a large woman, and it's the latter that gets the most jibes. Next time you watch TV, or a movie, watch how many fat jokes there are. Watch how many "bad" characters they want to make look dumpy and stupid are overweight. Watch how many stereotypes there are ... whenever showing a large person they're shoving food their mouth. You never saw a skinny person do that? I have. More than the larger ones.

What's scary is that this is the last frontier. Why are we not included in "difference is good"?Take any of those scenes, which now seem the norm, and imagine it differently. How many scenes have you seen recently with a comical overweight person shoving huge turkey legs into their mouths and the food is dribbling down their lips while they talk, and it's okay, and funny to most. Take that scene, and switch it to a black person and a watermelon ... it would never even pass the censors. Or a disabled person trying to pick up the food, you get my drift. So what's the message? It's not only okay to make fun of fat people, it's better than okay, it's humor!.

And this goes all the way down to the kids, who are the most impressionable. The baby looney tunes have characters called the big butts who go into restaurants, need two chairs, and stuff their mouths with food. During the same cartoon they showed a cartoon about respecting the differences in others. Oh well.

I watched a series once about Henry 8th on A&E a few years ago, and there were various experts here and there during the show explaining some of the history. In a segment where they were discussing how the people viewed the king, the narrator said something like he was very overweight, and since overweight people are so gross and disgusting, the people would make fun of him.

Think of the subtlety of that. She didn't say at that time in history people considered overweight as being unattractive (in fact, it was considered attractive, a point she never made). She said since they are disgusting, etc. Much of why people are taught to belittle is so sublte.

lBut there is one more I think is one of the strongest reasons, and that is the strong will always go for the weak. The tall guy makes fun of the short one.... the short one wouldn't dare make fun of the tall one, he'd get smushed.

Overweight people, people with disabilities, others in that type of situation, most of us have grown up with self-esteem issues. We are treated like 2nd class citizens because at times we feel that way. Most overweight people, when a comment is made, will actually apologize for themselves, saying they are on a diet, etc. Or the disabled might retreat. We ignore, and wish we could crawl into a hole.

And these weak, immature people who have low self esteem themselves know they can do this because nobody will ever call them on it. And then the peer thing sets in.....

There was one day I came out of a restaurant with a friend, and some teenagers were sitting on a car, and one of them made a rude comment about my weight. For some reason, I just had it. I was just tired of it, and of these people thinking it was not only okay to do, it was cool, and seeing me as a non-entity, and knowing I would just ignore them, not make eye contact, and slink away. I didn't.

I turned around, walked right up to the kid, stared him straight in the eye, and very calmly and politely said, "Excuse me, did you say something to me?" I thought he was going to die. He went so pale.

I'll never forgot this moment. LOL

He stammered and said, no he didn't.

I said I thought I heard him make a comment about my weight, and I was wondering why he felt that he had to attempt to hurt my feelings my making fun of me. Was there any specific reason for it, and I'd be interested in why he found it so funny.. And I stared at him waiting for an answer.

There were 4 of them, and you never saw such totally quiet teenagers your life. For the first time in my life THEY were the ones who wanted to crawl into a hole and die. And I was standing proud and straight. They just slouched and looked away, and didn't respond. I walked to my friend, we got into his car, and left.

Another time it was a group in a car while I was with my sister walking through a restaurant parking lot in a small touristy type area. I don't reember exactly what they said, but I remember it was nasty.

This time I took a bit different tactic. Because it was a touristy type place, there were a lot of cops around. There were two cops sititng in a car nearby, and they ignored it, because who ever does anything about that? It's okay to make fun of fat people. That's not trouble, kids will be kids.

I went over and explained I was walking with my sister to the restaurant and these kids in a car started makiing extremely rude comments about my weight.

I said that I knew the town depended a lot on the revenue that the tourist trade brought, and if this was how they alliowed their visitors to be treated, that wouldn't be a very good advertisement for others to follow. I said I would be hesitant to visit again if I knew I would be ridiculed.

The cops said okay, and I went back to my sister. By the time we got to the car, the cops had stopped the kids, and it seems they had beer in the car, and they were arresting them. he he he

So I learned a big part of the secret. They will think you are second class if you think you are second class, and they will never change their opinion. Why should they.

Once you look them straight in the eye, they have to acknowledge to themselves that you are a human being, and it makes it a lot harder for them to do it.

Interesting thing....the kids who were arrested (I didn't get them arrested, they did by having beer) yelled out and called me a bi*ch. But if you notice, bi*ch is in no way a weight related slur. Which means I changed their opinion of me from a stupid, ugly funny, fat nasty person to just a plain old nasty person.

Is that neat or what? LOL