Changing Cultural Attitudes to Weight

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Some people have suggested to me that there is a sort of cultural fascism that is taking place in the world today where people are being forced to be a certain weight in order to satisfy the cultural demands of a certain culture. I am talking in specific terms against the idea that everyone in the world has to aspire to the stick thin models that grace our biggest fashion houses today. This is an attitude that has taken place and hold in the entirety of modern culture and it fails to properly account of for the individuality of people’s tastes as well as the demands of their culture which might not necessary agree with that kind of ideal.

The cultural fascism is being perpetrated by everyone in positions of authority and care. From the ubiquitous presence of the television which always makes fun of allegedly fat people to the fashion houses that only make way for dresses of a certain size. If you are outside this ideal, they will make you feel guilty by changing the prices or taking such a long time to get the dress that you want. The shop assistants are trained to look down upon anyone who fails to meet the ideals of the community by attempting to look any different.

This has created an atmosphere where there is a total lack of respect for cultures which do not necessarily associate thinness with health or even beauty. I think that the people who have started this craze for size zero are behaving as if they were cultural fascist who are determined to make the world identical in all of its manifestations. I would support anyone who valiantly resists these approaches.
Everyone should have a right to be comfortable in their one skin and to choose the clothes that they believe best describe their personality. No one culture is superior to the rest and people who think in this way are the ones at the top of the agenda for creating tensions. There is no ideal weight that goes across cultures and therefore some form of allowance has to be given to those who are being harassed by the body fascists.

This does not mean that obesity is desirable in all cultures. It just means that consideration should be given to cultural diversity when preaching to people about the ideal weight that they should be aspiring to.

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