Fat Prejudice

Lionel Shriver presents various intriguing points and ideas pertaining to the life of someone who is "fat." He states the dramatically different treatment that exist between someone who is thin and someone who is on the "fat" side. Generally, the point he is trying to get across to his audience is that "fat" people get treated much worst than a thinner person entirely based on their weight. Specifically, he states that fat people are required of themselves to exert more effort to please the people around them. They either have to alter their personality and be someone they aren't or they have to attempt to drastically change their physical traits.This theory that Shriver presents isn't solely focused on a person's weight. It can be broadened out to other physical attributes such as teeth and other blemishes.One specific example that Shriver presents in this article is when he relates his philosophy to his personal experiences. He states that when he was 15 years of age, he got his teeth straightened via braces. Prior to his straighten teeth, his contemporaries use to tease him about this obvious flaw. They use to call him names like Bugs Bunny. However, after he had his teeth straightened, the way his classmates treated him changed. They started to treat him nicer and with more respect and even though he was they same person in their eyes he was different. This example does directly align with what I faced in my earlier childhood. I also had my teeth straightened via braces. However, prior to me straightening my teeth, I had an under bite and people use to treat me with less respect than someone who I guess had straighter teeth than I did. After I got my braces taken off, the same people who use to degrade me started to give me complements and began to be nicer to me.These are the things that exist in the society we live in to this current day but we have to learn to deal with it because the world isn't fair.

There is a specific relation that Shriver attempts to reveal to us. He basically states that everyone will at some point face some type of mistreatment as a result of their inability to meet the beauty standards that exist in society. One thing that every human being has in common with everyone else regardless of how they look is the effects of aging. A person's beauty begins to slowly and gradually deteriorate with time. As much as a person might try to change this it is INEVITABLE. Eventually wrinkles will catch up to each individual on this earth. This does in fact apply to either gender. However, women start to feel the affects of aging much earlier than men do. Therefore, no matter how attractive or admirable you were when you were old eventually you are going to at some point feel some type of prejudice. One quote that generalizes my entire point is "You will never look better than you do now!" The ideology that this quote depicts is from the peak of your beauty your looks will never incline it will always take a downfall from that point on.