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Can we reclaim the word "obesity?"

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Juicy   United Kingdom
Joined 17 years
I have always carried the party line on that one, and thought that 'obesity' and 'obese' should not be used. I assumed they were medical inventions. But I just looked in the dictionary, and it has its roots in the 1500s. So I thought about it more, and she's quite right. A word is a word is a word, and we should reclaim any of them that don't have bad values built in (like 'overweight', as she points out).

Hard to imagine calling myself 'obese' and enjoying it the way I do 'fat', though... smiley
14 years

Can we reclaim the word "obesity?"

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Maximum   Australia
Joined 15 years
sethman wrote
I'm not sure it needs to be reclaimed, so much as reevaluated. Right now, obesity means fat to the point where it's super unhealthy. What we need to do is separate being fat from being super unhealthy. There's a big difference between being fat and just eating badly while not exercising. Hell, there are super thin people that fit that description too.

To me, obese is a disgusting word. This is the case with most people, and it's always going to be disgusting. The current use of the word only needs to change by making it "super unhealthy," as opposed to "fat and super unhealthy."

I'm really worried that that didn't make any sense at all.


Deffinetly made sense and I kind of agree, I mean i'm not overly against the term obese, but I see no need for the word when we already have the delightful "fat". smiley
14 years

Can we reclaim the word "obesity?"

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Juicy   United Kingdom
Joined 17 years
I'd never heard of them before, Tubby. Who are they, do you know?
14 years

Can we reclaim the word "obesity?"

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Juicy   United Kingdom
Joined 17 years
Thanks for that. Disappointing, and sad. Ah, well.

Regardless of the source, however, I suppose the question still remains: Is 'obese' a word that CAN be reclaimed? And should it?

My own sense, as I think more about it, is that all the words that have been reclaimed by communities--nigger, queer, etc.--have been words that were insults. 'Obese' has never been an insult in that way, but rather a medical categorisation. I can't think of a thing from medical terminology that has been reclaimed. Maybe that's because as we collectively (everyone, not us here) have too much faith in the profession as a whole?
14 years