Fear of offending big problem

But don't say "obese" - it's offensive. Photo/File

When I read in the Chronicle a couple of weeks back, that the Whanganui District Health Board was seriously looking at the issue of using or possibly losing the word "obese", I just about choked on my cheesecake.

I was beyond stunned that we now live in a society where the dictionary is having to be re-written for fear of offending the fatties in this world.

Let's get real here - is there ever going to be a nice way of putting it? Are the chunksters of this world really going to feel any better about themselves if we introduce a more politically correct term like "dimensionally disadvantaged"?

The statistics are there - in black and white. It quite literally is a huge problem of epidemic proportions and, unlike most, I'm prepared to admit those statistics include me.

I'm not going to blame clever marketing or claim food addiction, nor am I going to attribute it to some traumatic life event, uncovered after months spent on a shrink's couch. I'm guilty of feeding myself the wrong food, but I draw the line at feeding myself with lame excuses. Whatever you call me isn't going to alter the fact.

As the saying goes, the truth hurts - but for me, I prefer it to denial, which serves absolutely no purpose. How can you bury your head in the sand when you can barely reach down and touch your toes?

While there is no need to be cruel and nasty, I'm a believer in calling a spade a spade. Disguising the truth in flowery words achieves what? I'm sick and tired of walking in a world where the footpaths are made from egg shells.

We need to lighten up ... in more ways than one.

Before the porkers, it was the mentally ill, the same sexers or those with a different skin colour. You can make a statement rooted in undeniable fact, but if it's negative it gets deemed as cruel, insensitive or racist.

For a supposedly free country, it seems near impossible to do or say anything without offending somebody, somewhere.

Where will it end? Will we be forced to come up with a sugar-coated term for child abusers, kiddie porn peddlars and rapists because they have feelings, too?

We've gone from taking offence at the smallest of things to actively looking to find offence. It's almost as if we're not happy unless we have something to gripe about.

We've become a nation of complainers. Bitching and moaning over just about anything to anyone who'll listen. We busy ourselves building bandwagons, manufacturing missions and creating causes - save this, protect that, ban this, preserve that, no matter the cost, financial or otherwise. And some of the causes are becoming more radical.

I'm sure we could all be Gareth Morgans, appointing ourselves God by declaring that one species of animal is more deserving of life than another. Only humans could think they have the right to upset the balance of nature.

It makes about as much sense as your employer being financially responsible for the result of you and your partner's private sex life. Nine months later ... pfft. Why settle for six months paid maternity leave, let's round it out to a full year. Plenty will jump on that bandwagon, let's hope it's fitted with the correct car seats.

What does it say about us when convicted criminals in prisons get a better standard of living than those who barely exist on low incomes, thanks - in part - to do-gooders and civil righters. Or when victims have fewer rights than the offenders - it just goes on and on.

Fighting for a good cause has become a cause for concern and, in many cases, the wrong people are paying the price.

I'm all for supporting a good cause, but there has to be commonsense reasoning behind it and financial viability - it can't be an argument based on an emotive story and misconstrued fact.

Whether it be the culling of cats or banning the word "obese", we need to look beyond the cause itself and ask ourselves why we are supporting it.

Despite all the talk, real answers are thin on the ground. We might find some, though, if we are prepared to dig under all those egg shells and face reality for a change.

Kate Stewart is an unemployed, chunky mother-of-three, currently running amok in the city ... approach with caution or cheesecake.