You are reading a single comment by @Oliver Schick and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Oliver Schick
Hehe. That's why I made the distinction above between discrimination and political correctness. I like silly jokes far too much to ever be politically correct, but I try my hardest not to discriminate against people.
The first post I could find that implied that hippy is fat is this one:
I don't know how the joke developed afterwards, but part of it was always that while hippy is quite heavy, he's certainly not fat. And it doesn't carry the slightest whiff of discrimination, but it is certainly not politically correct. It would be discrimination if hippy walked into a bike shop full of skinny mountain goats and they said: 'We don't want your kind here, and you're so fat you can't even ride a bike.'
A lot of good posts in this thread, and Louis is absolutely right that you can hurt someone who is close to you much more with a thoughtless remark than someone whom you don't know:
But again, that need not be discrimination. What I originally objected to was merely the suggestion that just because the policewoman in question was quite big, she might not be able to do her job/ride a bike. Such superficial attributes just don't have much of a bearing on whether she can do her job or ride a bike. Maybe she can, maybe she can't. You can't tell from just looking at her. The problem is looking at people superficially, jumping to conclusions (or applying a foregone conclusion), and then trying to use that against her, e.g. someone I know who's a wheelchair user was refused entry to a restaurant with the words: 'We don't want your kind here.' Obviously a more serious case, but of the same origin. Anyway, a lot could be said about discrimination, serious or less serious.