Thanks Firespirit and Aine.

Two more good contributions.

When you start reading about these reactions of skinny people towards us, it makes you cringe with shock and embarrassment. Gradually, you become angry with a slow-burning, seething kind of anger at the condescending arrogance of these people, whose careless remarks and nasty natures make our lives so lastingly unpleasant.

One thing has come out of this. If ever I have a lot of money, and employ people, I will only employ overweight ones. It will be a safe haven for an abused majority. The people on this forum are good evidence that the nicest people are those others consider overweight, and the nasty remarks all come from those that I consider unnaturally thin!

Perhaps the answer came out of a discussion I had with Kezza. She was talking about people being of two metabolic types: those who retain their fat (like us) and those who readily part with it. I conjectured that those who readily part with theirs would not have fared so well in the days when man had to hunt for his food. There were times when the hunter failed, and man had no food for 2 or 3 days at a time. Our sort of metabolism was better fitted to survive those times, which continued for millions of years, and ended only a couple of generations ago, when food started to become contantly plentiful. In that situation, the skinny person must have envied our greater reserves to cope, and this I reckon is part of their in-built resentment and superciliousness now! They are getting their own back after thousands of years of feeling less adequate themselves!

Just surmising, of course...

Andy