General

I was fat until I hit my teenage years and there was always an undercurrent of teasing etc against me and the other fat kids and showering after sport brought it to the forefront!But I agree that people are bullied for other aspects that are 'different' and not the norm..obesity is just one thing.I think it gets easier as you get older and teasing like that when you are young can make many kids very hurt and upset.
I haven't got kids,but if I had I would not expect them to be fat..think you have to guide children,but ultimately let them make their own choices in life as we all did.

I was a chubby kid...and I was made fun of for it. Never to my face though, odd comments about how I have "such a pretty face..."
Then when I was malnourished, and losing weight I magically had more friends...until I passed out once from not eating for 2 days.

I was still semi-popular. I never fought much with people, and I did date a few jocks/cheerleaders.

I do remember at my high school we had these things called Spirit Meetings, once a month we would all get together and talk about bullies and stuff. I remember a Senior when I was a Junior broke down and cried. He was state champ for wrestling and all that jazz.
He asked for forgiveness in front of the entire school, because he had made fun of me for 4 days straight. I remember him mocking me, and saying rude things... I let it go though.
He said he had done it because his father ridiculed him, and measured out what he ate. His dad loved him, just didn't show it right all the time, and was very controlling. He knew it was not an excuse.
There was hugging and he and I are still in contact.
I knew growing up I was different, and I knew and know that most of the time people make fun of others for a reason- they dont like you, they dont understand you, they need to destroy something or someone instead of themselves, or they are jealous of you.

True enough lol, the kids in the lower grades look for easy targets and as soon as the kid no longer fits that they move on.

I hope you're right, this world could certainly use more tolerance.

This is true, but you rarely get the kind of animosity with the others as you get when you're overweight. Everyone, and I mean everyone, goes out of their way to make you utterly miserable. It's a rather soul crushing experience, the only other group that is attacked more mercilessly than the fat is the gay. When other children sense that there is something that makes you very different on a fundemental level then they open the floodgates.

I'm not trying to say that others don't get picked on, I'm not even really trying to say that fat kids got picked on more than others. The message here is that fat kids, because they are easily identifiable as different, get another kind of ridicule.

I have pointy ears! I like to think it means I have secret Elven heritage ^_^

I was a fat kid. In summer camp, they had a pig calling contest for the final evening program, and the counselors picked me to be the pig. Then they found my parents would be there. They picked another pig, and I was upset.

Could you show me the way to realm of the Wood-Elves? I seem to have forgotten the way XD

For me, definately not. I think on some level I always knew I loved being fat. Though it was hard to focus on the positives about being overweight when I was being picked on. But usually once I was away from the bullies I could enjoy my fat.

Not to mention that I would often have dreams about getting really HUGELY fat. That was a clue lol

QFT