I've wondered many times about this. I've seen child victims of sexual abuse stop bathing/grooming, wearing sloppy clothes etc, so I get the "get ugly so they won't want to touch me" reaction part. But I hear fats using this as their excuse a lot. And while I can sympathize with a victim of rape, I just don't buy this from them. They use it to deflect. "You're fat" "BUT I WAS RAPED AS A CHILD IT'S NOT MY FAULT" who is going to want to be the person to tackle that? It's an effective tool, for sure. No one wants to belittle a RAPE VICTIM. It's just like what they do with race. They attach their obesity to something that is universally seen as deserving empathy.