I'm French and I hope we do not align with the American cultural doctrine of self-reinforcement, which has, I dare say, slowly drifted towards a worrying train of thought were everything is equal, any opinion has value, any choice you make is to celebrated.<p>By all means, I don't see shaming as the sign of a healthy society and I hope for people never to have to suffer humiliation or belittling, but there should be, in my opinion, a certain level of acknowledgment that being overweight has dire consequences for not only one's health on the middle to long term, but also terrible side-effects in terms of public health and the economy at large.<p>As we're spending dozens of billions caring for diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension, heart attacks and the myriad of other diseases that correlate heavily with the lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet, we're neglecting research, schools and the social fabric that used to make France a great country to live in.<p>The ultimate irony is that we used to have a formula that worked just fine to gift us with one of the highest life expectancies in western societies a few decades ago, before we decided that Burger King, Coca Cola, Subway, McDonald's and KFC really were what we had been missing for so long.
> citing a book whose French author described with horror seeing Americans eating alone, or at any time of day.<p>> “France is a very rules-based society,” Ms. Saguy said. “There are rules about eating in France, about mealtimes, and you need to follow the rules.”<p>I would call that BS. French people eat whenever they want and nobody cares really. That being said, my personal experience is that French (and Europeans in general) are still much more conscious of what they eat than Americans, which is probably why they are thinner. I was surprised while living in the US to see even very educated people feed their kids with junk food and sodas.<p>However, this is gradually changing. More and more people eat junk food (e.g. Mac Donald's is extremely popular in France) thanks to food corporations propaganda and lobbying. Not surprisingly, obesity rates are increasing. Small relief, obese people won't be discriminated against when we're all fat.
As a french, I don't think the blame is upon fat people, but more about obese people. I think the general view on obesity is that it is a health issue you can clearly do something about with just a little bit of will. I have no idea if this view is correct or not from a medical standpoint though.<p>On the other hand, i am a bit skeptical about the "you're fine no matter how you are" mentality in the US regarding obesity. It <i>is</i> a health issue, so it's great not to blame people but saying "you can stay like this for how long as you want" is also a bit weird imho...
Sorry, I’m struggling to see the problem in this. Unless you’re genetically predisposed to being overweight, it is caused by diet and lifestyle. We know this. We have all known this for a long time. If you are actively choosing to avoid changing your diet and lifestyle, and the COST of your decision will eventually become something your employer and your fellow citizens must pay, to the point that it will lead to significant strain on finances, why should they support and embrace your behavior? Should we also fake sympathy for smokers?<p>This isn’t a race or gender issue. This is a lifestyle issue. I know my opinion is politically incorrect, but this is what a lot of us are actually thinking. Even if we openly say the opposite.