Have I Got News For You last night showed a clip of a large and distressed lady being confronted with a pile of yellow lumps of what clearly represented the excess fat content of her body.
It made me wonder when, and how, our society stopped addressing the reasons for problems such as overeating — including depression, shyness, low self-esteem, overwork, worry and stress — in favour of public castigation and humiliation, surely more likely to exacerbate underlying causes.
I didn't sign up to live in a shame culture and I can't see that it has (m)any merits. Perhaps a decade ago we were a little too compassionate, too concerned with root causes, too fluffy-touchy-feely-it's-not-your-fault; but this is too much compensation. Has social compassion withered entirely?
It made me wonder when, and how, our society stopped addressing the reasons for problems such as overeating — including depression, shyness, low self-esteem, overwork, worry and stress — in favour of public castigation and humiliation, surely more likely to exacerbate underlying causes.
I didn't sign up to live in a shame culture and I can't see that it has (m)any merits. Perhaps a decade ago we were a little too compassionate, too concerned with root causes, too fluffy-touchy-feely-it's-not-your-fault; but this is too much compensation. Has social compassion withered entirely?
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