195.6; Is It Still Ok To Call Someone Fat?

Have you seen this:  Bully Calls News Woman Fat?

Sometimes I feel like calling someone fat is the last class of people that are 'ok' to prey upon.  If I hear someone say "that's so gay." I call them on it.  It's not right and they need to think about what they're really saying.  If I hear someone use the work 'retarted' I again call them on it.  It's not a descriptor for something and it's not nice to call someone with a disability names.

Yet, I've heard people call me fat.  I've been told that I wouldn't likely be hired as my current job title because I was "so large".  I've heard people call overweight persons 'fat' in a derogatory manner.  Why is this still ok?  And if you tell me that it's not happening, I'm here to tell you that I heard it this week.  If you're telling me that it's not ok in your area, I want to know where you live and if you call people on it.

I think the internet is the cause for a lot of this name calling.  It's anonymous.  No one has to do it face to face.  And often people are 'protected' with no way to track them down.  It's made a generation of people who don't think and don't think that what they're talking about has real world implications.  That it's not abstract, there is a real person on the other end.  They simply don't see that.

When I was a kid, if I called someone a name, I was in big trouble.  But I see actions from parents lately that are horrible at kids sports games.  They call the other team names, they make fun of them...all in front of their own kids.  What are the kids taking from this?  It's ok to do that.  But it's not.  It's simply not.

When you use a derogatory name for someone, it's a real person.  Understand that words do have power. Know when to say something, how to say it and when to say it. 

And lastly, be kind.  EVERYONE has struggles and needs a kind word at times.