Please Please Stop Saying Anti-Fat Discrimination Is “The Last Acceptable Prejudice”

last-acceptable-prejudice

I’m normally thrilled to see supportive articles in mainstream media opposing anti-fat bigotry, but this is an exception. As I’ve pointed out before, virtually everything has been called “the last acceptable prejudice” by someone.

Framing anti-fat prejudice as “the last” prejudice is just fucking wrong, and let me count the ways:

1) It implicitly denies all the other prejudices that are, yes, still going on and denied, dismissed, minimized or otherwise considered acceptable.

2) It epitomizes Oppression Olympics.

3) It makes us hypocritical when we object to those who minimize discrimination against fat people. If it’s not okay for them to do to us, it shouldn’t be okay for us to do it to other groups.

See also this better-written post from Dances With Fat.

Oh, and one of those Huff Post articles pictured at the top? Check out the link Huffpost accompanied it with:

last-acceptable-2

Nice one, Huff Post!

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The three articles shown in the top image: ‘Weightism Is Pretty Much The Last Acceptable Version Of Discrimination’, Stigma Against the Obese the Last Acceptable Prejudice – ABC News, and Dr. Jonny Bowden: The Last Acceptable Prejudice in America.

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6 Responses to Please Please Stop Saying Anti-Fat Discrimination Is “The Last Acceptable Prejudice”

  1. 1
    Ben Lehman says:

    People who use the phrase “last acceptable prejudice” are the last acceptable prejudice.

  2. 2
    Nancy Lebovitz says:

    Fat stigma is certainly not the last acceptable prejudice, but it’s a lot more overtly acceptable than racism. (Fat stigma has been getting more public opposition in recent years than it used to.) I don’t know if there’s a good way to talk about this.

    Prejudice against teenagers may be the most acceptable prejudice, or at least even social justice people have been surprised when I brought it up. There may be another prejudice which is so acceptable I haven’t noticed it.

  3. 3
    Jake Squid says:

    Well, that depends how you define prejudice, Nancy. I think that prejudice against child killers is a lot more openly acceptable than prejudice against teenagers. But that may be because our definitions of the word differ.

  4. 4
    nobody.really says:

    Framing anti-fat prejudice as “the last” prejudice is just fucking wrong….

    How times change. I can still remember when Amp would say that we shouldn’t judge how other people fuck so long as it involves only consenting adults….

  5. 5
    Brian says:

    OK, I’m going to be the one to say it. We’re all thinking it. Why all the hate on prejudice?

    Who has TIME to evaluate 7 billion people and counting on their individual merits and flaws? I’m trying to live a life. Snap judgements save a lot of time and I’m a busy man.

    Hating on prejudice is the last acceptable prejudice. And it’s the one most out of touch with daily life.

  6. 6
    Nancy Lebovitz says:

    Brian, we aren’t all thinking the same thing.

    A good many prejudices are bad filters– they cause you to avoid people who could be good for you and trust people who are bad for you, though I’d say the wikipedia definition is inadequate– affinity fraud can also be an attack on mainstream people.