ExponentialDecay

but seriously Graditude, I'm not glad you're going to grad school. I'm worried you might find it too hard.

Do you not see how your improper metaphors could be grounds for inflammatory and ridiculous statements? If you don't want me to say that fat people are not cancer, do not compare fat to cancer. It's that easy.

Uhh, I agree? I think it's really incredible that in spite of making it abundantly clear, especially in the post that you quoted (!), that there are exceptions, we're still getting hung up on this. No one is speaking in absolutes that "this is the ONLY reason for obesity," except for you saying that's what I'm doing. That's not what I said, nor was it ever what I said. You're disagreeing with a point that was never made.
 
I didn't make a "blanket dismissal of the causes of obesity assuming that all factors in obesity are factors that can be managed." That never happened. I said most of the time this is the case, and by your own admission you agree with me! It is much easier to poke holes after you contort the argument than actually let it challenge your opinion though. To each their own I suppose.
 
 
Who said that? Judging by you last couple of posts, you're just content with making purposely inflammatory and ridiculous statements now. That's you're prerogative.

Dude, why?

Fat people are not cancer.

What you're failing to remember is that non-believers will burn in hell. I have no sources for this claim except what my mom says, but it's true, and you better believe it, because I said so.
 
 


 
No, my argument is centered around the point that fat people are people. (Feel free to google "people" for clarification on what people are). You should therefore stop reducing fat people to their fatness. 
 
 


 
Adipose tissue occurs naturally in the human body. It is not a "medical condition", in the same way that having ten fingers or being tall is not a medical condition. Once again: this is not an argument of whether an obese person should or should not lose weight (that falls under body autonomy). This is the statement that having fat tissue on your body in whatever quantity is not a priori a death sentence, or an excuse to be treated like shit.
 
 
Seriously, when a fat person comes onto the forum asking for advice on how to determine if a university will physically accommodate people of size, how do you think it is acceptable to tell them to lose weight? Nobody asked you your opinion, whether medical or stupid. Get the fuck out.

That is the most convoluted interpretation of an argument I've seen in quite some time. Poverty and health are inversely correlated. This has been proven in study after study. It's not just my argument, it has been scientifically validated. Your athlete example is so ridiculous because not only are you stereotyping where all athletes are coming from and who they are, but assuming a lot of factors that you know absolutely nothing about. There is more to athletes than just football or basketball (which is what I imagine you're thinking of when you think athletes). Even your use of the word "hood" tells me a little more about your stereotypes. But to answer your most ridiculous example question, I'll propose another one on the same level of ridiculousness. Why, if there are so many criminals and drug dealers in "the hood", isn't everyone in "the hood" a criminal or drug dealer? When you extrapolate ridiculous and invalidated claims, you can expect such in return.
 
 
 
 Please note that I in no way "correlate" the Fat Acceptance Movement with Feminism. What I do say is that like Feminism, the Fat Acceptance Movement is this radical notion that fat people are....people, just like women are...people. Deserving of equal rights and opportunities just like anyone else. "It is the belief that a fat person should not have to be okay with discrimination in the job market, bullying, harassment, or threats." You have no idea, individual to individual what makes a person fat, obese, or morbidly obese. You don't know what their lifestyle choices are. You don't know what medical conditions they may or may not have, or what medications they are on, or if they've had a physical injury that has kept them from being mobile. You don't know what their mental state of being is. You say relating it to feminism is a blanket dismissal of the issue but then proceed to make a blanket dismissal of the causes of obesity assuming that all factors in obesity are factors that can be managed when you have no variables, no facts and no information on the lives of those individuals. I won't deny that that yes, for many people, diet and exercise will be the answer, but making the blanket statement that is is the only thing needed, or they are obese ONLY because they've let go of factors that can be managed is an ill informed mindset. 
 
 
 
 
You make too many presumptions. The OP may well have read through some of the initial posts on this topic, found it not to her liking and moved on. I'm not really sure why people presume why if someone makes a handful of forum posts and disappears, the person was fake. This happens on forums all the time. People sign up, post a few times and disappear for a wide variety of reasons. 
 
 
 
Where to start? That type of condescension is only going to get you so far in America once the newness of you being European wears off on your campus. I used to live in Spain, and I love my Spaniard friends - none of them were academics but I never once heard a single statement of condescension from them. Actually the only time I did was from an academic studying my program originally from Barcelona. Not really sure where I'm going with that anecdote and I'm probably stereotyping a little bit about my favorite people but really , your posts are very ill informed. Europe is great, and yes people are thinner over there but Europeans also have completely different lifestyle from Americans. The cities are much more compact, the reliance on cars is vastly diminished, the public transportation  is far superior, the freshness of the food is very different, the treatment of the food itself is also very different. You'll see for yourself when you come here. And you will gain weight here even eating the same exact way you do there. I say this from experience and from every single one of my American and European friends who travel back and fourth between Europe and America. All the Americans lose weight after being in Europe and all the Europeans gain weight when they come to America. 
 
Your anecdote is kind of pointless. The person talking obviously knows what the root cause of their weight problem is. Someone who does, says it and is fine with that is one matter. They might be content with that - in which case, so? If they want to lose that weight, then they already know what they have to do and just haven't done it yet. You can chalk that up to whatever is going on with that person - maybe their lazy, maybe their busy, maybe they're just content don't really care so much. Point is, you don't really know - and someone like that won't change unless they want to. Much like Mr. Gnome up there. His functional alcoholism doesn't prevent him from continuing his work and as a result, hasn't stopped drinking. The second point is - that you can't assume this is true for every overweight person. You have absolutely no idea what other variables are at work. 
 
OP's original issue of health and disability is a concern - but she in fact asked about fat-friendly campuses. Not to be concern trolled about getting healthy. It is simply not anyone's business but hers to choose how/when/if she wants/can/is able to get healthy and/or reduce her size. 

Well, I'm an economics major, so I wouldn't know about sensitivity, but I definitely know that any feature of my kentish boarding-school education did not contradict the overall goal of becoming more knowledgeable and better educated. So sorry, sugar, but your angle that you have a European and therefore starkly original view on the issue is neither accurate nor original, and you can stop touting it. Stiff upper lip
 
I'm not entirely sure why you read my responses as "badgering", whatever that means in Spain. If Gnome says that fat people must be held responsible for their fatness because people from broken families are held responsible when they become serial killers, YES, he is comparing fat people to serial killers. I'm glad you're going to graduate school in Rhetoric and Composition this fall, where they will be able to teach you this astonishing bit of analysis. 
 
 
 
 
I believe you have been provided, prior in the discussion, with links to studies showing that the health scares you mention are quite weakly correlated with obesity and in most cases more contingent on lifestyle than on BMI. You will also have been provided with links that show that, in the majority of cases, people who diet gain their weight back within 5 years. This is old research, mate, but it makes for some fascinating reading.
 
But I will go back on a point. You will say, especially since health risks are contingent upon a healthy lifestyle, shouldn't we "build a framework around the ideal of being healthy"? No, your argument is completely impalatable to me, for two reasons. 1) you say you're promoting health, but you're actually promoting thinness. I understand that you're concerned that she can't walk more than 20 paces, but you don't even stop to consider why that is - whether it's a medical condition or a lack of physical conditioning. You immediately pounce on her fat. This whole discussion so far has centered on fat people, not unfit people. I have less of a problem promoting health, but your idea of health includes the idea fat person=unhealthy person, which is patently untrue. You say promoting an "ideal" like it's easy, but it actually involves a lot of measuring and defining of that ideal - because how can you promote an ideal if that ideal is not measurable? Inevitably such a policy would lead to the statistical discrimination of some population. 2) Whenever you're building a social ideal, you're engaging in social engineering. I'm not a libertarian, but I don't believe that creating a mythology of something is useful for anything but social control. People should 1) have access to information that shows that it is physical fitness that reduces the risk of metabolic disease and so on, and not how fat or thin you are, and 2) be able to choose if they want to reduce their risk of metabolic disease, or do something else with their lives. I cannot cede the last point. Body autonomy is a basic freedom, and basic freedoms are protected in the United States. Gnome will chime in here with something along the lines of, "but why must we make special accommodations for fat people, then?" - and you don't, actually. It would be, you know, decent of you to treat fat people like people (not patronize them, not talk down to them, not tell them what to do with their bodies, all of which you have been doing here), and not expressly hinder them from living their lives (you shouldn't be going to grad school if you're so fat!!!). Just do what you do with any other group of people you dislike. Step away and move on.
 
I'm pretty sure I haven't dissuaded y'all from being assholes, but I hope I have at least elucidated my position.
 
And now we can close this thread, because it is apparent that there is no such thing as a fat-friendly campus. I doubt there's even a fat-friendly morgue.

Well, I'm an economics major, so I wouldn't know about sensitivity, but I definitely know that any feature of my kentish boarding-school education did not contradict the overall goal of becoming more knowledgeable and better educated. So sorry, sugar, but your angle that you have a European and therefore starkly original view on the issue is neither accurate nor original, and you can stop touting it. Stiff upper lip
 
I'm not entirely sure why you read my responses as "badgering", whatever that means in Spain. If Gnome says that fat people must be held responsible for their fatness because people from broken families are held responsible when they become serial killers, YES, he is comparing fat people to serial killers. I'm glad you're going to graduate school in Rhetoric and Composition this fall, where they will be able to teach you this astonishing bit of analysis. 
 
 
 
 
I believe you have been provided, prior in the discussion, with links to studies showing that the health scares you mention are quite weakly correlated with obesity and in most cases more contingent on lifestyle than on BMI. You will also have been provided with links that show that, in the majority of cases, people who diet gain their weight back within 5 years. This is old research, mate, but it makes for some fascinating reading.
 
But I will go back on a point. You will say, especially since health risks are contingent upon a healthy lifestyle, shouldn't we "build a framework around the ideal of being healthy"? No, your argument is completely impalatable to me, for two reasons. 1) you say you're promoting health, but you're actually promoting thinness. I understand that you're concerned that she can't walk more than 20 paces, but you don't even stop to consider why that is - whether it's a medical condition or a lack of physical conditioning. You immediately pounce on her fat. This whole discussion so far has centered on fat people, not unfit people. I have less of a problem promoting health, but your idea of health includes the idea fat person=unhealthy person, which is patently untrue. You say promoting an "ideal" like it's easy, but it actually involves a lot of measuring and defining of that ideal - because how can you promote an ideal if that ideal is not measurable? Inevitably such a policy would lead to the statistical discrimination of some population. 2) Whenever you're building a social ideal, you're engaging in social engineering. I'm not a libertarian, but I don't believe that creating a mythology of something is useful for anything but social control. People should 1) have access to information that shows that it is physical fitness that reduces the risk of metabolic disease and so on, and not how fat or thin you are, and 2) be able to choose if they want to reduce their risk of metabolic disease, or do something else with their lives. I cannot cede the last point. Body autonomy is a basic freedom, and basic freedoms are protected in the United States. Gnome will chime in here with something along the lines of, "but why must we make special accommodations for fat people, then?" - and you don't, actually. It would be, you know, decent of you to treat fat people like people (not patronize them, not talk down to them, not tell them what to do with their bodies, all of which you have been doing here), and not expressly hinder them from living their lives (you shouldn't be going to grad school if you're so fat!!!). Just do what you do with any other group of people you dislike. Step away and move on.
 
I'm pretty sure I haven't dissuaded y'all from being assholes, but I hope I have at least elucidated my position.
 
And now we can close this thread, because it is apparent that there is no such thing as a fat-friendly campus. I doubt there's even a fat-friendly morgue.

Well, I'm an economics major, so I wouldn't know about sensitivity, but I definitely know that any feature of my kentish boarding-school education did not contradict the overall goal of becoming more knowledgeable and better educated. So sorry, sugar, but your angle that you have a European and therefore starkly original view on the issue is neither accurate nor original, and you can stop touting it. Stiff upper lip
 
I'm not entirely sure why you read my responses as "badgering", whatever that means in Spain. If Gnome says that fat people must be held responsible for their fatness because people from broken families are held responsible when they become serial killers, YES, he is comparing fat people to serial killers. I'm glad you're going to graduate school in Rhetoric and Composition this fall, where they will be able to teach you this astonishing bit of analysis. 
 
 
 
 
I believe you have been provided, prior in the discussion, with links to studies showing that the health scares you mention are quite weakly correlated with obesity and in most cases more contingent on lifestyle than on BMI. You will also have been provided with links that show that, in the majority of cases, people who diet gain their weight back within 5 years. This is old research, mate, but it makes for some fascinating reading.
 
But I will go back on a point. You will say, especially since health risks are contingent upon a healthy lifestyle, shouldn't we "build a framework around the ideal of being healthy"? No, your argument is completely impalatable to me, for two reasons. 1) you say you're promoting health, but you're actually promoting thinness. I understand that you're concerned that she can't walk more than 20 paces, but you don't even stop to consider why that is - whether it's a medical condition or a lack of physical conditioning. You immediately pounce on her fat. This whole discussion so far has centered on fat people, not unfit people. I have less of a problem promoting health, but your idea of health includes the idea fat person=unhealthy person, which is patently untrue. You say promoting an "ideal" like it's easy, but it actually involves a lot of measuring and defining of that ideal - because how can you promote an ideal if that ideal is not measurable? Inevitably such a policy would lead to the statistical discrimination of some population. 2) Whenever you're building a social ideal, you're engaging in social engineering. I'm not a libertarian, but I don't believe that creating a mythology of something is useful for anything but social control. People should 1) have access to information that shows that it is physical fitness that reduces the risk of metabolic disease and so on, and not how fat or thin you are, and 2) be able to choose if they want to reduce their risk of metabolic disease, or do something else with their lives. I cannot cede the last point. Body autonomy is a basic freedom, and basic freedoms are protected in the United States. Gnome will chime in here with something along the lines of, "but why must we make special accommodations for fat people, then?" - and you don't, actually. It would be, you know, decent of you to treat fat people like people (not patronize them, not talk down to them, not tell them what to do with their bodies, all of which you have been doing here), and not expressly hinder them from living their lives (you shouldn't be going to grad school if you're so fat!!!). Just do what you do with any other group of people you dislike. Step away and move on.
 
I'm pretty sure I haven't dissuaded y'all from being assholes, but I hope I have at least elucidated my position.
 
And now we can close this thread, because it is apparent that there is no such thing as a fat-friendly campus. I doubt there's even a fat-friendly morgue.

Dude, why?

Well, I'm an economics major, so I wouldn't know about sensitivity, but I definitely know that any feature of my kentish boarding-school education did not contradict the overall goal of becoming more knowledgeable and better educated. So sorry, sugar, but your angle that you have a European and therefore starkly original view on the issue is neither accurate nor original, and you can stop touting it. Stiff upper lip
 
I'm not entirely sure why you read my responses as "badgering", whatever that means in Spain. If Gnome says that fat people must be held responsible for their fatness because people from broken families are held responsible when they become serial killers, YES, he is comparing fat people to serial killers. I'm glad you're going to graduate school in Rhetoric and Composition this fall, where they will be able to teach you this astonishing bit of analysis. 
 
 
 
 
I believe you have been provided, prior in the discussion, with links to studies showing that the health scares you mention are quite weakly correlated with obesity and in most cases more contingent on lifestyle than on BMI. You will also have been provided with links that show that, in the majority of cases, people who diet gain their weight back within 5 years. This is old research, mate, but it makes for some fascinating reading.
 
But I will go back on a point. You will say, especially since health risks are contingent upon a healthy lifestyle, shouldn't we "build a framework around the ideal of being healthy"? No, your argument is completely impalatable to me, for two reasons. 1) you say you're promoting health, but you're actually promoting thinness. I understand that you're concerned that she can't walk more than 20 paces, but you don't even stop to consider why that is - whether it's a medical condition or a lack of physical conditioning. You immediately pounce on her fat. This whole discussion so far has centered on fat people, not unfit people. I have less of a problem promoting health, but your idea of health includes the idea fat person=unhealthy person, which is patently untrue. You say promoting an "ideal" like it's easy, but it actually involves a lot of measuring and defining of that ideal - because how can you promote an ideal if that ideal is not measurable? Inevitably such a policy would lead to the statistical discrimination of some population. 2) Whenever you're building a social ideal, you're engaging in social engineering. I'm not a libertarian, but I don't believe that creating a mythology of something is useful for anything but social control. People should 1) have access to information that shows that it is physical fitness that reduces the risk of metabolic disease and so on, and not how fat or thin you are, and 2) be able to choose if they want to reduce their risk of metabolic disease, or do something else with their lives. I cannot cede the last point. Body autonomy is a basic freedom, and basic freedoms are protected in the United States. Gnome will chime in here with something along the lines of, "but why must we make special accommodations for fat people, then?" - and you don't, actually. It would be, you know, decent of you to treat fat people like people (not patronize them, not talk down to them, not tell them what to do with their bodies, all of which you have been doing here), and not expressly hinder them from living their lives (you shouldn't be going to grad school if you're so fat!!!). Just do what you do with any other group of people you dislike. Step away and move on.
 
I'm pretty sure I haven't dissuaded y'all from being assholes, but I hope I have at least elucidated my position.
 
And now we can close this thread, because it is apparent that there is no such thing as a fat-friendly campus. I doubt there's even a fat-friendly morgue.

Wow! Are all US campuses going to be like this? Ha ha. If anyone asks me, "Middle-Aged Boy Kylie, what do you think of controversial issue X?" I will be sure to maintain a blank expression and ask, "Hm, why don't you tell me what you think first, earnest young American" as I scan for the nearest emergency exit. Man.
 
Exponential Decay, you're starting to badger a bit. You seem to be willfully exaggerating or misunderstanding the points that some posters are trying to make, pretending that someone was equating the obese with serial killers, etc.
 
Anyway, I have to start packing things up for the big move across the Atlantic, so I would like to conclude with an anecdote. Yes, I know anecdotes have little probative value.
 
Let's say that we're in a pub near a uni in the UK: a member of staff is discussing his weight problem (massive beer belly, mostly) with an earnest American student. Of the rest of us at the table, I of course suspect he's trying to apologize in advance for planning to hit on her later, maybe seeing how she reacts. Cue concerned student face. Student explains that it's not his fault: maybe genetics? maybe lack of fresh food within walking distance of where he, um, grew up? The prof is black, by the way, and the student is white. English prof takes swig of ale and says, "Nonsense. It's because I generally eat too much of the wrong type of thing and don't get off my fat arse enough."
 
So my question is, to those who have been steadily downvoting anyone who suggests that obesity is a combination of environmental and personal causes, what would you do as the earnest young student in this case? Would you insist on your multifaceted explanations of the professor's weight problem, or would you accept an intelligent, self-aware person's assessment of his own situation? Would you be shocked, shocked that he was a bit rude and offhand about his condition, and perhaps think he wasn't a very nice person for being so direct about obese people... oh, wait, he is obese. So is that OK now?
 
I think a good feature of US education is probably its emphasis on sensitivity. An equally good feature of UK education is its emphasis on vigorous debate with occasionally shocking humor. This has been an eye-opening thread in many ways,,,
 
Best of luck to all as we start the new adventure in grad school!

Jesus, you're comparing being a serial killer to being fat? My linguistics vocabulary is a little rusty, but that's some slicey and dicey semantics, innit?
 
What I don't understand is why you think a fat person must do everything in their power not to be fat. To take the OP's example, why must she put off graduate school until she loses weight? It's not like she's not gonna spend the next 5-10 years of her life glued to her desk for the best outcome, so it's not like her mobility issues have a significant impact on her work productivity, the validity of her research, her intelligence and writing skills, etc. Fat people can still go to graduate school, you know. So can people with cancer. Or people with depression. Or people who are debilitatingly insecure unless they have a boyfriend, like your friend LittleDarlings. Or people who have bombed a small village during their tenure with the US Army. All of us have shit going on all the time. Why do you insist on making a person's body weight an insurmountable hurdle to them living their life? A fat person is a stereotype, but they are also still a person.
 
I'm not sure responsibility, and excuses, are a useful rhetoric here. You've admitted that people can be fat owing to a lot of factors - but why does it follow that all these factors must be surmountable? I get you're super proud about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or some shit, but it doesn't work out for other folks, either because they don't want it, or because they're plain out of luck. I get why you're so invested in maintaining the human-will rhetoric. It's like 99% of your identity. But you actually owe a lot to other people (starting with your parents), and some of it is good, and some of it is bad. Some people are fat because they are, and you can sit here splitting hairs all day, and that won't change their reality.
 
So basically, I don't understand why all fat people must get skinny, and I don't understand why those fat people who are not skinny must be shamed for being skinny. 
 
No one should be excused. No one should be excused from being treated like a human being and given basic respect.

Hey Gnome Chomsky, how did you troll your way into graduate school? Because I would be honored to avail myself of your skillz.
 
What the fuuuuuuck, man, where do you even come up with these illusions? I mean, I've only been on volleyball, hockey, and crew, but in those sports, the majority of olympic athletes come from well-to-do families, because, guess what, sports are different and you can't generalize across all sports! Also, whenever I watch those linebackers in the NFL, I shamelessly stuff my face with chicken wings because, oh man, I have a LONG way to go . 
 
Oh wait, they're NFL athletes, so they're probably fit, right? They probably run that football obstacle course or whatever in 48 seconds and benchpress your mom 3x10 even though she's so fat, because they're professional athletes. But they're still fat. Oh shit. Holy shit. FAT PEOPLE CAN BE ATHLETIC TOO. 
 
This is cray cray. I mean, next thing you know, we're gonna be discovering that FAT PEOPLE EXIST NATURALLY IN THE WILD.
 
sanctorum cacas!
 
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/955775-nfls-all-time-fat-guy-team
 

 


 

Jesus, you're comparing being a serial killer to being fat? My linguistics vocabulary is a little rusty, but that's some slicey and dicey semantics, innit?
 
What I don't understand is why you think a fat person must do everything in their power not to be fat. To take the OP's example, why must she put off graduate school until she loses weight? It's not like she's not gonna spend the next 5-10 years of her life glued to her desk for the best outcome, so it's not like her mobility issues have a significant impact on her work productivity, the validity of her research, her intelligence and writing skills, etc. Fat people can still go to graduate school, you know. So can people with cancer. Or people with depression. Or people who are debilitatingly insecure unless they have a boyfriend, like your friend LittleDarlings. Or people who have bombed a small village during their tenure with the US Army. All of us have shit going on all the time. Why do you insist on making a person's body weight an insurmountable hurdle to them living their life? A fat person is a stereotype, but they are also still a person.
 
I'm not sure responsibility, and excuses, are a useful rhetoric here. You've admitted that people can be fat owing to a lot of factors - but why does it follow that all these factors must be surmountable? I get you're super proud about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or some shit, but it doesn't work out for other folks, either because they don't want it, or because they're plain out of luck. I get why you're so invested in maintaining the human-will rhetoric. It's like 99% of your identity. But you actually owe a lot to other people (starting with your parents), and some of it is good, and some of it is bad. Some people are fat because they are, and you can sit here splitting hairs all day, and that won't change their reality.
 
So basically, I don't understand why all fat people must get skinny, and I don't understand why those fat people who are not skinny must be shamed for being skinny. 
 
No one should be excused. No one should be excused from being treated like a human being and given basic respect.

It seems to me that the distinguishing characteristic of a good scholar is professional integrity. Professional integrity would not allow the good scholar to make unsubstantiated claims, ignore or misuse evidence, engage in excessive sophistry, avoid answering the question at hand. Y'all are fucking graduate students. Why are you making up arbitrary percentages and throwing around concepts you haven't seen since 9th grade physics? Metabolism research is not your subfield. I suspect it is not even your discipline. Why are you opening your traps (without a single cue from the OP), when what you say can neither prove nor illuminate the subject at hand or the subject that you so eagerly try to foist upon this topic? You have done 0 research on the topic of obesity, body weight, and metabolism. You have read 0 peer-reviewed articles. You vehemently refuse, above all, to listen to anybody who does not agree with your viewpoint. Your knowledge of this topic is equivalent to that which is expected of a first-semester freshman. I am sure that you, like the freshman, have many bright ideas and exhibit potential. But right now, you have nothing of substance to say. 
 
So shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down.

Wow wow wow. Put down the sacrificial knife and step away from the scapegoat. The poor girl didn't murder someone. She didn't sell out your best mammoth scout-out to a rival tribe. She's just fat. In my country, people are constitutionally entitled to being whatever body size they are without fearing criminal prosecution. Or are you one of those gross liberals that want to control what brand of twinkie we feed our kids???

Some great posts here from future researchers in the life sciences that not only ignore research in body weight and obesity, but show an astounding lack of empathy. I am so excited for the future of medicine and related fields.

...your chances of not being homeless when you move are exactly proportional to your ability to afford rent in and around NYC.
 
my best friend lives in brooklyn too! she fucking hates all the hipsters that have gentrified the neighborhood.

I am really disappointed to see some of the fat-shaming posts on Grad Cafe. If intelligent, scholarly people going to get graduate degrees still stigmatize obesity as sheer laziness, it's very hard to criticize the average person on the street, the media, etc. Smh. 

Some great posts here from future researchers in the life sciences that not only ignore research in body weight and obesity, but show an astounding lack of empathy. I am so excited for the future of medicine and related fields.

Well, if you're really good, you will continue being a star in your postgraduate institution. The field of comparative literature is especially prone to this, from what I've gathered. I actually think this isn't a function of prestige as much as it is a function of graduate school. Nobody goes into comparative literature for the career prospects (although few people, I think, can handle a PhD in any subject for the career prospects alone), so you're gonna end up nose-to-nose with equally nerdy and insufferable people. Such a situation definitely psyches me out, so I'm developing a coping strategy that involves lots of arrogance, brown-nosing, and martinis.

Well, if you're really good, you will continue being a star in your postgraduate institution. The field of comparative literature is especially prone to this, from what I've gathered. I actually think this isn't a function of prestige as much as it is a function of graduate school. Nobody goes into comparative literature for the career prospects (although few people, I think, can handle a PhD in any subject for the career prospects alone), so you're gonna end up nose-to-nose with equally nerdy and insufferable people. Such a situation definitely psyches me out, so I'm developing a coping strategy that involves lots of arrogance, brown-nosing, and martinis.

Some great posts here from future researchers in the life sciences that not only ignore research in body weight and obesity, but show an astounding lack of empathy. I am so excited for the future of medicine and related fields.