I agree. Just the other day my b/f and I were looking at a rather large woman, belly hanging to the knees, large husband and grossly obese 10ish year old daughter at Subway. Not being a skinny-minnie myself, I made a comment quietly to my b/f about "there's teaching your kid to eat right!" She ordered this young little girl a foot-long bacon-ranch chicken.
I blame a lot of my poor eating habits and obliviousness on my mother. She'd always go on about eating healthy and the 4 food groups and such, but she'd give adult-sized portions to us and insisted we didn't leave anything on our plate.
She'd hoarde the cookies to herself, and we'd have to "compete" with her to get any by eating as many as quickly as possible (just like she did) as soon as they were home from the store.
Now, I can't say it's entirely her fault - not even close, as I was plenty guilty of stashing cookies, going to MacDonalds with my friends on the sly, and trading my good sandwich for cupcakes at lunch-time. (And I discovered that instead of using the money given to me for the hot school lunch, I could save some money if I bought soda and a hostess pie).
But I feel badly for this girl at the subway, because this is the example set before her, and she's going to struggle with morbid obesity her whole life, based on what I saw in her parents. I made poor choices on top of the poor example, and ignored the parts about veggies being healthy - but this girl hasn't got ANYTHING going for her. To her, bacon-ranch chicken IS the healthy food mom wants her to eat, and in foot-long portions.
Maybe it bothers me (being overweight) because it makes me look at my own self closer and self-critically.
I agree about society, too. I had a really hard time getting work when I was really overweight. A lot of people were looking for excuses to lay me off, and told me I was lazy, uneducated, etc. But I was putting in 12 hour days, am working on my Master's Degree, and at a recent evaluation (since I'm up for a promotion) to see what it would take to fill in my current position, they've found it would take 5 full-time people to replace me. So obviously my ability, efficiency, education and work-ethic aren't the problem here...
I used to hunt and hunt for jobs, getting turned down. This job I have now, is the longest one I've had, going on 4 years. When I interviewed for it... I was a fit and healthy size 12. As much as it made me proud that I finally broke the fat-barrier, it also pisses me off, too, that such a thing was an issue as to whether I was qualified or not. I don't usually bring it up, because it sounds like a "the world is out to get me" kind of excuse thing, but I honestly think it was a legitimate concern, and I was being discriminated against. And only someone else who's been there can understand that it's not just made up in my head.
--Janis