Crap, I can't figure out how to edit posts in the new format, but what I meant was, why does it have to be instead of, not why doesn't it.

Instead of patting her on the back for something that may or may not be a positive thing, we should be talking about how cruelly she was treated and what to do about that.

Then if we see solid evidence that she has a mental illness or is psychologically unhealthy, we can deal with that then (or, you know, her parents can). But I strongly object to the assumption that just because a person lost a lot of weight because people called her fat, she must now have an eating disorder.

I was never saying it's a good method, simply that it's one which is nominally out of our control, so if a situation arises where it ends up working out in a way that appears positive, we should celebrate the small victory instead of looking for reasons to write off as still being a bad thing. Looking at the silver…

The person hasn't ended up happy because they were bullied, but in spite of it.

I'm not saying it had nothing to do with that, but I still think it's possible for something like that to be a catalyst that motivates someone to do something for ultimately different reasons, without having lasting trauma from it. To analogize, if someone was mercilessly teased in school for having a lisp, and it…

This is more of an anime forum, so I'm not sure if everyone will be familiar with Pete Holmes' Batman parody videos on collegehumor.com, but he started out as a pretty chubby Batman, and gradually got thinner. He stated at least once on his podcast that one of the main motivating factors for him dieting and losing…

"To be perfectly honest," Belle told the Chronicle, "I felt more degraded in a minimum wage, blue-collar, low paying, service job than I ever did doing porn."

So, if a five-year-old girl walked into a costume store, pointed at this costume, and said, "I want that one," does that make her "a limited asshole with narrow views on gender identity?" Overgeneralize much?