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“Do You Have A Stomach Tumor, Or Are You Just Fat?”: Karen Attacks Pregnant Woman In Store
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“Do You Have A Stomach Tumor, Or Are You Just Fat?”: Karen Attacks Pregnant Woman In Store

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As much as we humans are good at brightening each other’s day, we’re equally capable of ruining it. This was exemplified in a recent Reddit post by a woman named Consequence-Prize.

Four months pregnant, she had a distressing experience at Walmart when a rude and intrusive elderly lady took issue with her belly.

The lady followed her from aisle to aisle and felt entitled to make insensitive comments even though she should have kept them to herself.

From morning sickness to backache and beyond, pregnant women face a number of everyday challenges

Image credits: seventyfourimages/Envato elements (not the actual photo)

But this woman also had to endure an additional one

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Image credits: lucigerma/Envato elements (not the actual photo)

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Image credits: Consequence-Prize

Body-shaming is never the answer

We got in touch with the Redditor and she said she has never experienced anything like this before.

“It was a very strange interaction,” the woman told Bored Panda. “A few people noticed, but I didn’t raise my voice, so those who did went about their business.”

According to her, it’s quite common in the city she lives in to be ignored when you end up in such a situation.

“I couldn’t tell you why the lady asked such a rude question other than maybe trying to belittle me,” the Redditor said, adding that she has noticed a lot of local older women seem to love drama, gossip, and being rude to those they have deemed “bad.”

“People around here can be quite invasive and entitled,” she said.

Indeed, it’s very difficult to understand what the lady was hoping to achieve. Fat-shaming isn’t just rude; it can make a person feel ashamed, inferior, anxious, or guilty about their body. Some experts even argue that it can contribute to obesity by creating unhealthy relationships with food.

The sad part is this form of bullying isn’t exclusive to random encounters at the mall. Angela Alberga, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Applied Physiology at Concordia University, believes anti-fat bias is rampant in all parts of society, including medicine.

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Image credits: AllGo – An App For Plus Size People/Pexels (not the actual photo)

According to Alberga, studies show that exposure to weight bias triggers physiological and behavioral changes linked to poor metabolic health and increased weight gain. “You actually experience a form of stress,” she said. Cortisol spikes, self-control drops, and the risk of binge eating increases.

In fact, the more people are exposed to weight bias and discrimination, the more likely they are to gain additional pounds and become obese, even if they are thin to begin with.

Alberga explained that fat-shaming is also linked to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and exercise avoidance. Emerging research suggests that the severity of harm increases when people internalize weight bias and turn it on themselves.

More Americans than ever are dealing with the health consequences of obesity as rates of the disease in the United States (and other parts of the world) reach an all-time high.

Over half (52 percent) of Americans believe people with obesity are “fat-shamed” all or most of the time, and 34 percent say that they themselves or someone they know have experienced it firsthand. Among those with obesity, that number rises to 43 percent.

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Even if you have good intentions, pointing fingers and playing the blame game doesn’t help anyone. It just makes matters worse.

“The only thing I can add since a lot of people [who read my story] were trying to accuse me of being mean to [someone] with dementia is that she had no signs of mental illness,” the Redditor said. “She was dressed in a lovely outfit and had a very clean, newer car. (She was putting her groceries into her vehicle before she began to follow me.)”

Consequence-Prize asked around and said, “A few people I’m familiar with know her through their church and confirmed she has always been like that; she believes she has a right to people’s private life so she can tell them how to fix it. She is just one of those people.”

People have been very supportive of the pregnant woman

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

Read more »

I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

Read less »

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

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Pittsburgh rare
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For the second time this week, another personal anecdote as an excuse to drag a whole generation. No, l'm not a boomer, but l'm done with these generalisations.

just me
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep. We go from "I've never once had a situation like that" to "boomers suck." All of them, because of one situation with one person.

Load More Replies...
Mammie
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Has anyone even stopped to consider that this could have been an early sign of dementia or Alzheimer's instead of just immediately assuming all boomers are rude a******s? Early signs of these diseases are often examples just like this.

MarshmallowTheCat
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mother always had her "comments" on everyone, but usually kept it to herself, only 'reporting it' once home. As she began suffering from dementia, her 'filters' went away and she was saying out loud, in public, that this person was fat, or ugly, or she didn't like the hairstyle/color, telling [race] to go back to his/her country, etc. My brother, who had the 'pleasure' to go to doctor's appointment with her, kept shushing her, but she would answer "why should I keep it down? If I'm thinking that, then it's true!". She even tapped the shoulders of strangers to tell them that she liked/disliked something about them. About 3 years of dementia before she passed away at 98-11/12 y/o.

Load More Replies...
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just after high school, I worked at a nursing home. I was fat, but nothing like I am now. One of the clients, who had dementia, liked to sit on the porch. I'd usually see her there as I came to work in the afternoon. Every time I came in, she'd pat my belly and ask when I was due. I usually had an extra five or ten minutes, so I'd sit down and tell her all about the baby I wasn't having. Shed even ask questions that showed she understood what I was saying. The next day, when I'd come in, same thing. She was, at that point, as innocent as a child, and it was nice having her engage in a conversation.

OneWithRatsAndKefir
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That’s a sweet story! My mother used to work in a nursing home, but the only story she ever told me was, when she was taking this old lady to have a bath and the old lady wasn’t apparently too keen, this old man thought my mom was ‘bothering his wife’ (the old man and old woman weren’t married), so he punched my mother… and he apparently used to do some boxing. He stopped after one punch when my mother called for help because he became scared he’d get into trouble; poor bloke was just a bit confused.

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Pittsburgh rare
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For the second time this week, another personal anecdote as an excuse to drag a whole generation. No, l'm not a boomer, but l'm done with these generalisations.

just me
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yep. We go from "I've never once had a situation like that" to "boomers suck." All of them, because of one situation with one person.

Load More Replies...
Mammie
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Has anyone even stopped to consider that this could have been an early sign of dementia or Alzheimer's instead of just immediately assuming all boomers are rude a******s? Early signs of these diseases are often examples just like this.

MarshmallowTheCat
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mother always had her "comments" on everyone, but usually kept it to herself, only 'reporting it' once home. As she began suffering from dementia, her 'filters' went away and she was saying out loud, in public, that this person was fat, or ugly, or she didn't like the hairstyle/color, telling [race] to go back to his/her country, etc. My brother, who had the 'pleasure' to go to doctor's appointment with her, kept shushing her, but she would answer "why should I keep it down? If I'm thinking that, then it's true!". She even tapped the shoulders of strangers to tell them that she liked/disliked something about them. About 3 years of dementia before she passed away at 98-11/12 y/o.

Load More Replies...
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My!
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just after high school, I worked at a nursing home. I was fat, but nothing like I am now. One of the clients, who had dementia, liked to sit on the porch. I'd usually see her there as I came to work in the afternoon. Every time I came in, she'd pat my belly and ask when I was due. I usually had an extra five or ten minutes, so I'd sit down and tell her all about the baby I wasn't having. Shed even ask questions that showed she understood what I was saying. The next day, when I'd come in, same thing. She was, at that point, as innocent as a child, and it was nice having her engage in a conversation.

OneWithRatsAndKefir
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That’s a sweet story! My mother used to work in a nursing home, but the only story she ever told me was, when she was taking this old lady to have a bath and the old lady wasn’t apparently too keen, this old man thought my mom was ‘bothering his wife’ (the old man and old woman weren’t married), so he punched my mother… and he apparently used to do some boxing. He stopped after one punch when my mother called for help because he became scared he’d get into trouble; poor bloke was just a bit confused.

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
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