A mother who provoked controversy by saying she didn’t want her daughter to go to a nursery with overweight staff, has defended her comments saying it’s ‘beautiful to be healthy’.
Hilary Freeman from London appeared on this morning’s Lorraine show with plus-size blogger Becky Barnes to discuss the issue, and insisted that she wasn’t passing judgement on the appearance of anyone who is overweight.
‘I think it’s touched a nerve. I think people are incredibly sensitive about weight. Maybe it’s the way I phrased it. I think the debate has got mixed up with appearance. I don’t mind, I think big women can look fantastic. Becky looks amazing,’ she said.
‘A lot of the fat positivity movement is all about, we’re big we’re beautiful. All I’m trying to say is it’s more beautiful to be healthy. I just want people to be healthy and not celebrate obesity because it’s making people ill.’
However, Becky insisted that you can’t make judgments about people’s health just by looking at them, adding that you don’t know what struggles someone is going through.
And viewers agreed, saying that it’s never acceptable to pass judgment on someone for their weight.
Hilary Freeman from London appeared on this morning’s Lorraine show with plus-size blogger Becky Barnes to discuss her previous comments about not wanting her daughter to be taught by an overweight teacher
Viewers were
Explaining again why she’d been concerned, Hilary recalled that one of the assistants at a potential nursery for her daughter was ‘very obese’.
‘Morbidly obese I would say. She moved very slowly. She couldn’t breathe very well.
‘I was concerned she wouldn’t have the reactions necessary to look after a todller who darts all over the place.
‘Also it wasn’t just that. At the nursery, the food choices weren’t the sort of things I would give my daughter. They were having jam sandwiches.
Becky insisted that it’s unfair to judge anyone who is overweight without knowing the full facts of their situation
‘This wasn’t a good lesson to teach her, I thought. I wanted her to go somewhere where there were better food choices.’
Responding to Hilary, who admitted she’d been ‘villified’ for her views, Becky said: ‘Myself I come from a health at every size viewpoint. I think you can’t make snap judgements on people’s health just by looking at them.
‘Obviously if you’re a qualified doctor and you’ve done a lot of tests then you can understand someone’s health better.
‘Of course it touched a nerve. Fat people are constantly villified every single day because of their appearance.
‘You don’t know the story behind it. You don’t know why they’re like that. I don’t know that person’s personal struggles.
‘If you’re doing that job and you’re doing it well you deserve to do it regardless of your side.
The mother-of-one said she was concerned to see children being given jam sandwiches at the nursery she went to view
Hilary first opened up about her views in the Daily Mail admitting she was worried what influence having a fat teacher could have on her daughter.
‘I couldn’t help worrying about the message this was sending to the children in their care: that being very fat is normal and — when children adopt role models so readily — even desirable,’ she explained.
My anxiety about this was the main reason I chose not to send my daughter to that nursery, despite its Ofsted rating of ‘Good’. Instead, she goes to another, where the staff are all a healthy weight.