Now this is a subject we are all familiar with. The news and health magazines have been talking about the prevalence of this subject for practically my entire life, referring to this subject in America as the “Obesity Epidemic”. This is also the subject of the latest book in the series, The Giant.
Within this book, the character being bullied, Kal, is being bullied for being bigger than everyone else. Here is the issue though, as mentioned in the book and within scientific data, obesity is starting to become the norm. It is now fairly common for someone to be overweight due to the culture and diet present within America and other developed countries. If it is now common though, why are kids still getting bullied because of this?
Simple, culture.
Within different cultures, and in different time periods, to be considered obese was, or is, beautiful. Centuries ago, to be overweight meant that you were smart or rich enough to be able to have more food than everyone else. To be overweight meant that you were healthy since you had an abundance of food.
For many cultures, this changed within the past few centuries. At this time, people began to realize that to be obese was unhealthy and food became more easily obtainable so you didn’t have to be smart or rich to get it. Once this happened, if you began to eat more than what was necessary, you were seen as lazy, a glutton, or unattractive. Even though obesity is becoming more prevalent, these views haven’t quite changed yet. Because of this people still get picked on for being obese since the viewpoints of their parents and culture have been passed down to them and our culture hasn’t quite changed it’s view yet. For opinions and biases such as this, it takes a few generations to truly change.
Hopefully within our lifetimes we can see this change.