This morning, I read this post on Thought Catalog that made my blood boil. (Thought Catalog and Buzzfeed, despite their many faults, are and probably always will be guilty pleasures of mine. Deal with it.) Though I hate to give the page more clicks than it deserves, take a moment to read the article -- it isn't very long -- before continuing on here, otherwise the rest of what I say won't make much sense.
The writer contends that fat people are incapable of being happy because their bodies are too big. If they claim to be happy, she assumes they're either stupid or lying to themselves.
Whoa whoa whoa. First and foremost, I'm 60% sure that whoever is behind this is either terrible at writing satire or is intentionally trying to troll the internet. But if she is serious, I find it incredibly sad that she bases happiness solely on weight and body image. She must not have a whole lot of good things going on in her life if she thinks being a size 8 (which IS thin, despite what she says) will magically make her life better. And for her to assume that everyone does think or should think like she does is woefully ignorant. I am unhappy with my body, but that doesn't make me an unhappy person. Where did her wires get crossed, and what makes her think she has the right to tell others how to feel just because she successfully lost some weight? (That she'll most likely gain back, and then some, in the not so distant future.)
She says remaining fat is a choice. Okay, for some people, sure. What she doesn't take into consideration is the idea that losing weight isn't always easy to change due to medical, genetic, emotional, and cultural reasons. If someone is suffering from a disease that requires medication known for causing rapid weight gain, for instance, telling them to suck it up, get off the couch, and eat a salad isn't going to help. Neither is berating them for feeling any sort of happiness not related to their size or appearance. It's just wrong. And her saying she sympathizes with overweight people because she is a "former fat girl" is laughable. Most people I know who have lost a significant amount of weight are nothing but positive and encouraging to others.
It's a little comforting to see that most respondents in the article's comment section scorn her for her hateful words. But for as many people who express disgust at the article, just as many agree wholeheartedly with the message, further perpetuating fat-shaming stereotypes and driving vulnerable overweight girls closer and closer to the brink, giving them the idea that they are worthless because their bodies are bigger than those of their peers unless they do something about it.
Whew. Okay, I'm done being angry. Time to move on.
The only thing she does get right is that clothing companies don't make clothes for fat people. I'm intimately aware of how mainstream stores fail overweight people time and time again with their limited, ill-fitting plus size options. It IS uncomfortable to be fat. Dressing every day is a struggle for me. I constantly tug at my waistband so that it won't cut into me while I'm trapped in a desk chair 8 hours a day. Some types of clothing cause sores or chafing; gross, but true. Don't even get me started about finding a bra that fits right and doesn't poke me with wires or give me quadra-boob without costing a fortune.
It's especially bad right now because I tore two different pairs of work appropriate pants in a span of 24 hours. For one of them, a hole wore through in the inner thigh -- the fate of all my jeans, eventually. For the other, my seam caught on part of the garage door frame literally right as I was walking out the door for work. (Yeah, it was that kind of Monday.) Now my winter work clothes options are limited to one pair of jeans (that fit), a long dress, a long skirt, a plethora of tops and sweaters, and a couple pairs of terrible khaki cargo pants that I only pull out in emergencies. I need to go shopping for new clothes but I'm broke and I hate trying things on. When will it get any easier?
Well, it will get easier once I start losing some weight, of course. But I hope I don't become one of those people that instantly feels happier and more positive just because of a shrinking waistline or the shrinking number on the scale. I truly try to be a good-natured person every day and I want to positively influence everyone I meet if I can. The heartless, cruel thinking of the Thought Catalog writer will not deter me from this goal. If anything, it gives me even more of a reason to encourage others who are on the same journey I am.
0 comments:
Post a Comment