Aspies For Freedom

For some reason, I'm remembering an old PSA for diabetes.  It features two men.  One is fit, active, enters the scene riding a bicycle.  His pal is fat and sedentary.  The two converse.  The fit guy turns out to have diabetes and explains that, in addition to its other benefits, regular exercise and a healthy diet help him keep the effects of diabetes at bay.  Fatso is amazed to hear that diabetics are able to exercise at all.  At the end of it, as Mr. Fit rides off, ripped muscles rippling, Fatso remarks to himself, while chowing down on artery-clogging fare, "Man, I'm glad that I'm healthy."

This strikes me as remarkably similar to the treatment that can be meted out to people on the spectrum.

Sounds interesting. Can you elaborate to show an example for aspies, I am having trouble applying the same situation in my mind.

The situation stares me right in the face, sometimes daily.

For me to get along in society, I have had to consciously learn and "exercise" several rules and faculties that are "natural" to most people.  Nevertheless, these self-same people refuse to exercise faculties such as compassion, forebearance, understanding, or even simple consideration when faced with someone who is different from them, such as an Aspergic.  Aspergics, if they want to "get along", have to "work out" socially with people who differ from Aspergics.  The allegedly "healthy" people only "exercise" (exert effort) in their social abilities if they feel like it.  However, they're actually socially fat, flabby, and out of shape.  They're able to just coast along, so when the come across a situation that actually requires a little bit of stretching when it comes to interpersonal ability--moving beyond what they just coast along with, they turn out to be just like Fatso in the PSA.

Dogface, could you please try to lay off the deragatory fat remarks? I'm sure you could've made your post just as well, without using the term "fatso" and going into how they perpetuated the stereotype that people become fat, from simply overeating. Some people are genetically predispositioned to never being 130 pounds. Your negative language, only plays into society's assumption that everyone should starve themselves "healthy".

I'm always over 200 pounds, myself, often over 225.  However, I do not sit around and think that I have no need to exercise because I happen to be "healthy".  That was the whole point.  Fatso in the commercial wasn't just "overweight", he had the whole Fatso attitude--"I'm 'healthy', so I don't have to take care of myself."  His entire attitude was that, since he was "healthy", he had no need at all to exercise or eat in a rational manner.

The problem here seems to be with the use of the F word, it's a general insulting word.

Dogface, he's a portrayal of a media stereotype. You shouldn't fallow in with their childish mindset, by perpetuating their negative and incorrect attitudes about the overweight.

It's a bit like this guy who was in the Australian "Life Be In It" ads of the 1970's and 1980's. His name was Norm, he had a big beer gut and used to sit in an armchair most of the time watching the telly and getting nagged by his sister Norma to get up and exercise.

The Life Be In It ads were notable for their deformed cartoon characters with only 3 fingers and arms without elbows.

But I agree with Dogface's observations that we are often expected to put on an act so as to be more acceptable to other people who do not want to make the same kind of effort to try and understand us.

Wrong.  I'm not doing that at all.  This particular individual was obese and uncaring about his own health.  I do not presume that all obese are automatically stupid/uncaring and/or lazy.  Or have you telepathic powers that exceed my own ability to know my own thoughts?

He could have been described as portly or stout or of ample proportions.