You know what provokes me the most about the discrimination?
I have friends with different kinds of problems; mental and physical. Two of them suffer from kyphosis, and one is in a wheel chair. The lady living in the apartment next door that I meet for coffee sometimes has ADD. And my best friend is diagnosed with bipolar II. I have a lot of friends and they all have flaws. My ability to look past these flaws as well as my own is how I survive in this world, because I have met so many people who consider flaws as traits and denies everything else.
Where I live it's illegal to discriminate mentally or physically disabled. You can be prosecuted for name-calling a black person, regardless of what you call him/her. People's reaction to this is always the same: anti-racist torch wielding know-it-alls. But if a "native" person is killed, a slap on the wrist is the most common. Two men in a bigger city not far from mine were sentenced to only ten years in prison for snatching, raping and killing two eight and ten year old girls. The killers are on parole now. If they had done this to foreign kids, they would probably have been locked up for life. I take all crimes very seriously, including racism, but the law around here is so hypocritical. You know, our government was a leading advocate of eugenics.
However, it is not illegal to harass (no comparison intended,) mentally ill, prostitutes, overweight, "ugly", dyslectic, people suffering from drug addiction or alcoholism. It seems like conduct and good manners are optional when it comes to treating people who can "help it". There is a woman with alcoholism living in my street that was harassed by phone and thrown garbage on by passengers in a passing car. She has never been violent or done anyone any harm in her periods 'off the wagon', but this town is "run" by rich Protestants. (I'm NOT starting a religious debate here). The harassment of the undesirables in my town is spawned from ignorance and bigotry that really thrives in this group.
Maybe "lardos" can thank themselves. But, you guys out there who poke fun at them, have you ever considered that people in addition to an appearance, however non-resembling to the modern beauty image, also has a personality? Maybe they have feelings too, and are different. It is so scary to see how some considers the overweight, as if the overweight is a hive mind of some kind. Even worse is the stereotype; the fat, lazy, smelly, dumb and uncouth jerk. The only thing that tops it is the public image of the mentally ill. Not only do people think of them as maniacs with no other aspect than the disease, but they are also dangerous and stupid. Mentally ill people can't help it, it's not like they want their lives to be complicated. Alcoholism, drug addiction and obesity are self-inflicted problems, but not always just voluntary, and even if it was, what gives you the right to harass them? You who make fun of these people should receive a fine and a mandatory crash course in manners. Personally I think you deserve eye for an eye. And that it all comes down to what kind of world we want to live in. Maybe one day it will be legal and widely accepted, not to mention encouraged that school children can beat up their class mates for not having "the latest thing".
Bullying the overweight is a Medieval and not to mention childish and ignorant practice. It has outlived the bullying of skinny people because being skinny is nowadays a vital part of the Western beauty image. And no matter what else people are or can do, if they're not beautiful they're failures, right?
