You’ve heard of racial prejudice, what about shape prejudice? How fat is too fat? Who cares?

When is fat too fat and when is it anyone else’s business? Judging people on size is becoming a bigger and bigger issue, no pun intended. To be fair the obesity problem in the United States is huge. (I’ve really got to stop trying to be so punny.) The real question is, “Should anyone be telling you to get in shape?” There are some interesting stories in the news that are out the last couple of days. Let me share some with you. The first one comes courtesy of FoxNews.com:

A Missouri man claims he’s being discriminated against due to his weight, according to MyFoxKC.com.

Gary Stocklaufer said he and his wife, Cynthia, were asked to adopt Gary’s cousin’s 3-month-old son because the relative couldn’t care for the boy anymore. But a judge — the same judge who approved Gary’s adoption of his now 7-year-old son — denied the adoption on the grounds of Gary’s weight, Stocklaufer said.

Click here for a video report from MyFoxKC.com

Stocklaufer said he weighs roughly 500 pounds — though he’s lost 35 and is working to lose more — and that his weight hasn’t stopped him from working as a truck driver or playing with his son. The couple said their attorney has filed a motion for a new hearing.

What is it that makes Mr. Stocklaufer unfit to be a parent? Is his health condition such that he won’t be a parent very long? I suppose that’s the argument against allowing this man to adopt. What’s to say Joe Schmo doesn’t adopt and get hit by a bus the next day, though? This kind of speculative decision making could set a dangerous precedent. What’s next? You smoke a cigar occasionally, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You eat fast food, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You own a firearm, so you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt. You’re a church-going-right-wing Christian, you shouldn’t be allowed to adopt! OK, maybe I’m going too far, I admit.

It just seems strange to me, that in this situation you’ve got a man who’s willing to adopt an unwanted child. This man already has in his care another 7-year-old adopted son. He has a wife, which, as far as we know, is in fine health. It takes a lot of time, money, and love to adopt a child. Why shouldn’t this man be allowed to adopt because he’s overweight? Would you say the same thing to someone who suffers from cancer, or diabetes, or some other disease? Wait just a minute, no one chooses to take on those diseases, but clearly Mr. Stocklaufer chooses to be fat! So what? That’s his business. Friends and family members certainly should encourage this man to lose weight for his long term health and well being. However, it’s not the governments job to tell this man what to do with his own body.

A trend that is very popular right now is to judge someone based on their shape. A lot of times, shape comes from many different factors. It may be due to genes, it may be due to bone size, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an out of shape slob. However, there is a real tendency for those who are obsessive compulsive about their weight, and the food they put in their bodies to come across as judgmental of others who don’t subscribe to their line of thinking. I fear that this is carrying it’s way into things such as court room decisions.

The often arrogant thought process I’ve discussed also leads to debate about laws that would force you to eat healthy. These laws, it is argued, would be enacted in the name of reducing health care costs. Again you’re starting to speculate and you see a slippery slope toward the erosion of personal choice at work here!

Another news story out today borders on crackpot research in my opinion. It comes courtesy of MyWay.com:

Study: Obesity Is ‘Socially Contagious’
Jul 25, 6:46 PM (ET)
By ALICIA CHANG

If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is “socially contagious” and can spread easily from person to person.

The large, federally funded study found that to be true even if your loved ones lived far away. Social ties seemed to play a surprisingly strong role, even more than genes are known to do.

“We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person’s weight status as friends who are right next door,” said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.

The study found a person’s chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend did, 40 percent if a sibling did and 37 percent if a spouse did. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled.

Researchers think it’s more than just people with similar eating and exercise habits hanging out together. Instead, it may be that having relatives and friends who become obese changes one’s idea of what is an acceptable weight.

For the rest of the article click here.

So, if you have a fat friend, you may be fat. If you and your friends are fat, you need to meet skinny friends! Does that sound as goofy to you as it does to me?
I’m not sure if this research is done as an attempt to excuse obesity as a disease, and take away personal responsibility (which by the way we’re all in favor of just not at the behest of the government when it doesn’t DIRECTLY infringe on someone else’s rights.) Then again this article may also be an attempt to say that fat people need to get it in gear and make friends with superior skinny people!