Holy Underwear Batman, An Article on the Bullying of Fat Kids That Doesn't Fat Shame!

[polimicks]

From Yahoo, no less. Now all we need is the Goat-legged Boy and the apocalypse is upon us.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/bulliestargetobesekids.html

The article discusses the fact that bullies target obese kids, and in its advice section to parents not ONCE does it tell the parents to put their kids (the victims) on a diet.

I like to have fainted dead away.

Seriously. I stand amazed.

Granted, their are a few moments of FAIL in the article. Like when one of the scientists cited discusses how obesity is a "brain-based" disorder. Oh for the love of Pete.

But by and large, the article isn't a steaming pile of crap.

Yahoo, you have totally blown my perception of your articles.

Comments

[marcochacon.livejournal.com]

As someone with an overweight 8 year old daughter (who lives with her mother, my ex-wife) I worry about this a lot. She's going into 3rd grade and I fear her life is about to get far, far harder as she starts getting social rejection for being heavy (she's had a little of it already).

-Marco

[polimicks.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your fears for your daughter, and I wish I could allay them.

Honestly, the tips for parents on dealing with it at the end of the article are not that bad. I will stress, however, believing her and not blowing off what's happening as "not that bad" and "everyone goes through it."

I can tell you what happens when parents minimize bullying like that: http://polimicks.livejournal.com/32044.html

Even if you can't DO anything about it, it's important that you stress to your daughter that it ISN'T her fault (dear Gods don't give her diet tips or bribe her to lose weight), and that you understand that she's hurting and that you're hurting for her.