Comment on Karim Diané on playing Star Trek’s first gay Klingon

• Grail@multiverse.soulism.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  We can all see she’s overweight

  I can’t. My perceptions have been altered by the high prevalence of obesity in our society. I now have higher standards. She looks a little thicker than most people, but not in a way I’d been conscious of before today.

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  • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It’s true that general obesity can make it hard to identify overweight people today. I’m lucky to live in Europe, and it’s not as bad here yet. Wiseman is somewhere around 35-40%, which is where the official diagnosis of “obesity” begins.

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    • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      This is a good example of soulism. Something as basic about our perception of people as whether they’re fat changes based on our home culture. Ultimately, the quality of being fat is a social construct. Science can’t give us a hard cutoff, only culture can do that. Science can only give us degrees.

      A naive realist would respond to this ambiguity by denying its existence and saying whatever they think is fat, is fat. A scientific realist would try to find an objective answer in science, perhaps using appealing to the authority of BMI, or looking for a more reliable measurement. A social constructivist would accept that there’s no answer. But a soulist would begin asking what definition of “fat” helps society the most, so we can make a conscious choice of what to believe. The soulist is the only one displaying true agency in how our perceptual world is created.

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      • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        I like how that focuses on the desired outcomes. Research shows that health risks increase (on average) after a BMI of 25 (slightly more for women). So I would propose a soulism approach in which anyone over a BMI of 25 be considered overweight. That’s generally how medical guidelines categorise weight now.

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