by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: September 01, 2009

People are bullied for a multitude of reasons. Usually they are singled out by a bully because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, because of their popularity or intelligence, or due to some perceived 'flaw' that can be exploited to make them feel uncomfortable. Being overweight clearly falls into this category, since the 'ideal' is to be slim, and so anyone who fails to conform to this ideal is regarded as a perfect target by those individuals who are insecure about their own position and want to have power over another person.

It may not even be clear whether a person is overweight or not, since few people go around telling everyone their weight, but once bullies have found some aspect of a person's appearance to fixate on they will keep going on about it until that person starts to believe what they are told. If a person does happen to be overweight they end up feeling even worse about their appearance and might start eating more than usual, simply adding to their weight problem. Alternatively, if they are depressed they might go off food and find that their weight plummets as a result, not that this will matter for the bully. Once they have found a target they are often unwilling to let go, and so they will find something else 'wrong' with their victim.

Even those who didn't have a weight problem to begin with can become convinced that they have and girls, in particular, are sensitive to people's criticisms about their weight. If they're regularly told that they're fat they start to believe it and think they need to lose weight. Some even take it to extremes, and find themselves developing an eating disorder.

Bullying isn't acceptable, and yet it goes on everywhere, be it at school or in the workplace. It is not even that uncommon for overweight individuals to walk down the street and be at the receiving end of nasty comments made by people who don't even know them. Morbidly obese individuals are especially likely to draw negative attention because they are still quite a rare sight, and there are people who think nothing of calling them a 'fat pig'. These bullies either don't take into consideration the impact this has on a person's feelings or else get great enjoyment out of seeing another person suffer and showing off in front of their friends.

Overweight individuals seem, for some people, to be an acceptable target for mostly emotional abuse, since their size makes them less than ideal, and if they are conscious of their weight anyway it makes them all the more vulnerable. Bullies can therefore receive great satisfaction from picking on them.

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