This makes me wonder
We live in America where people still put on fat suits on tv for laughs (i.e. Martin Short), where it's okay to laugh at fat people and if they don't laugh along, they're "bitter" but if they make fun of themselves they have a "good attitude" and are "jolly" or "cool".
I used to make fun of myself for being fat because it disarmed others so that if they made fun of me i could pretend to just laugh and they wouldn't think they were hurting me. pure b.s., total defense mechanism born out of feelings of hopelessness. Thankfully WLS gave me another option and changed my life.