Since when is this an appropriate word?
 

For the THIRD time in the last week I've read the word "FATTIES" in a mainstream media article. I find it so offensive. If a person is fat, call them fat, obese, etc., but fatties?! Funny how when the political correctness police could actually do some good, they are nowhere to be found.

I get so tired of fat bashing being so socially acceptable. Is it just me being sensitive or does it feel to anyone else like it's getting more prevalent?

Can you link to the articles? I don't think I've ever seen it except in fiction pieces or opinion pieces written by people who are purposefully offensive...but wow, how annoying and offensive to have it in a mainstream media article!

Were they quoting people or did the author say something like "The study showed that the fatties consumed more beef than the non-fatties"?

Fatties has a really patronizing tone that I don't like. Personally, I prefer lardass.

Robin - you are too funny.

Seriously, I do have the same question as Amanda

I find it offensive too! But - I grew up being called all sorts of names from a jerk brother (who just last week at 45 called me a fat pig...pffftt)...but, what do you do?

Mandalinn, Maybe I'm using mainstream incorrectly? I meant published articles (including opinion articles or entertainment-type articles where the author is trying to be humorous) from non-obscure sources. But I think even if it is opinion or humor, being published by such sources just puts it out there that it's an appropriate word.

The one from today was on cnn.com. The headline was "Four Fab Fatties Make it Big on Record Chart". After the link, they tell you that the musical group describes themselves using the word - which brings up a whole different issue - but cnn was clearly using it to grab attention, and a reader who maybe doesn't follow the link just sees the word used in print.

One was on MSNBC.com and was used in the title (No Fatties Here): http://yourbiz.msnbc.msn.com/archive...10/351401.aspx

I couldn't remember where the other one was, so I did a search for articles with the word "fatties" in them and got 5 pages of them. Here are just a few:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinbe...tein14.article Just as reduced driving improves the environment by cutting back on the pollution that warms the atmosphere and has deleterious effects on health, so more restrained eating should keep the food bill in check and cut back on the growing number of fatties.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle...k_makeove.html Leaves aren't the only things going through colorful changes these days. There's a new syndrome in town: Call it Makeover Madness! The signs are everywhere. Legal eagle Marcia Clark's gone blond. Former fatties Valerie Bertinelli and Kirstie Alley are approaching skinny-mini status.

http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.ph...rticleid=26401 Regarding the new TV show Big Band Theory: Now that nerds are the world’s largest minority (behind fatties), more shows are being created for and about them.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/...tml?source=rss As has been well documented in Asian countries whose populations grow in girth as they adopt more Western diets and lifestyles, the swelling number of French fatties proves that fat isn't an American monopoly so much as a successful cultural export.

In all cases, I think it was either meant to be inflammatory or funny. I just don't care for it...

We've come to accept informality everywhere. Calling strangers by their first name, corporate casual and even jeans and tennis shoes in workplaces that in the past would have required dress clothes or a uniform, accepting slang and idioms even in news media. In that regard, I don't think it's a lot different. Though I agree it's offensive because the "ie" ending makes a term "cute" w, and therefore condescending. Remember when "Trekkies" fought for the term "Trekkers."

I find it offensive too. I think they need to stick to just fat or obese.

Although, you could call me a hypocrite because I typically hang on another internet forum where they religiously say, "NO FATTIES HERE." Then again, that forum is always rude and crude. Lol

LOL Us real Star Trek lovers don't care what the outsiders use to categorize. We just know they're great shows ;)

I LOVE your sense of humor!!!!

Oh I heard that word on utube it was a television interview with Jillian I believe.

I can handle "fatties" better than the word "Morbidly" when referring to obesity...gruesome? Grisly? Really? Ouch.

I can handle "morbidly" since by definition it means "caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology". So I welcome clinical terms, it's the belittling words I dislike!

I thought some more about it and I think the real issue for me is that it brings to mind the taunting song I learned in grammar school... "Fatty, fatty two by four, can't fit through the kitchen door".

This too is one of my bugbears and I don't think I'm being oversensitive. Being 'fatist' seems to be the last socially acceptable way to ridicule those who are differrent from the norm. The media is currently on the back of every story involving diet and nutrition and lays the ills of the country on the shoulders of the overweight. A recent article suggested that overweight women should not be having babies, unless they lose weight, as being pregnant and overweight strained medical resources.

I worry for my daughter (8) who is carrying a little more weight than her classmates. The government here (UK) were on about sending healthcare people into schools to record the weight of children with the parents of those identified as overweight being given advice about diet and exercise (and the children stigmatised at the same time). I would be horrified if I was labled in this way and assumptions made that I am too ignorant to know about proper nutrition. Anyhow starting to rant now, so I'll finish there.

And being called 'fatties' is a derogatory term in my book.

Kitty

Do forgive me for not actually giving a S**t but its only a word! Political correctness is my biggest bugbear ever, remember the old rhyme sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!

i once got called fat by a girl in a bar, standard response.
"i can lose the weight love but your stuck with your face!"