mid-day editorial: 'Heavy' issues call for greater sensitivity

Over a month after this paper first wrote about the plight of the world's heaviest woman, Egypt-based Eman Ahmed (weighing approximately 500 kg), the interest in her case is still going strong. Be it her visa issues or the fact that no airline is willing to carry her to Mumbai for a life-saving bariatric surgery, the masses have actively followed her journey thus far. Even as her family fights tooth and nail to bring Eman to Mumbai, a senior bariatric surgeon has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for her transport and medicines.

While the subject ‘weight loss' or the inability to do so effectively is a topic that resonates with many, Eman's struggle has tugged a number of heartstrings. She has been battling weight issues since childhood, but now, she is on the precipice of life and death.

In a society obsessed with weight issues, where the mantra is ‘thin is in, stout is out', reams are spent on the subject, theories and nutritional advice exchanged and unhealthy number of body fads circulated. Thanks to our flourishing glamour industry, six pack abs are considered ‘fab' and the frail are referred to as ‘fashionably thin'. Failure to fit into these two categories invites barbs from the society.

Perhaps, we should start by not body shaming people. Our movies tend to stereotype weight issues - they caricature them at worst, ridicule them at best. Infantile one-liners about body shapes part of so called comic repartee. Maybe it's time to grow up and think ‘fat is not funny'. For people like Eman, it's tragic, for they have to battle self-esteem issues throughout their lives. Let's not make it harder for them.

While we pray Eman manages to come to Mumbai, let us display more sensitivity in dealing with such weighty issues.