I've noticed something recently - something disturbing. It seems to be open season on the overweight. Everywhere (well not everywhere but you know what I mean) people seem to be taking pot shots at anyone who weighs more than 100 lbs. Men going on and on ad nauseum about "fatties" and "fat chicks" and women talking about how other women are just lazy and disgusting.
When did it become fashionable or acceptable to make fun of or humilate the overwieght? We are all so programmed by television and print media into believing that we should all look like skinny 16 year olds that NORMAL people with all bumps and lumps of living are looked down on and ridiculed.
I've thought I was fat all my life - I look back at the photos of me when I was a teenager and wonder how I ever thought I was fat. I wish I had that figure today but I KNOW that I have an unreasonable idea of what my body should look like. I know it's unreasonable because I can look at my family and see that none of my family is supermodel tall or thin. We are sturdy, round faced, kinda short with broad shoulders so why did I long to be 5'10, skinny and lithe? I've tried really hard to give my daughter a good body image so that she would like her body and not have unreasonable expectations of it. Jamie used to try to hurt Katie by telling her that she was fat and I'd be all over him for it. Potsie couldn't understand why I was so adamant that he never tell her something like that, he just couldn't get it that she be happy with her body as it's the first step to the kind of self confidence you want your children to have. *sigh* men.
I'm so unhappy with myself at the moment because of my weight. I've been putting on weight because of some of the meds I take and with the back problems I've had I haven't exercised in a while. I've been trying to lose weight and I haven't been successful and I feel like a failure. BT says he loves ME and that it's just more of me to love. So maybe I'm being too sensitive about the weight issues I've noticed on the net and on tv or maybe not. What do you think?
8 years ago
8 comments:
when Q first met me he thought i was too thin - admittedly, i was under 55kgs, but that was my normal weight and if i put on any more weight, i'd feel fat.
when i had my IUD put in last year i put on a lot of weight, something that i didn't know could be related to my IUD. so now i'm miserable with my weight too - but if i ate only a carrot a day, nothing would change.
so i'm going to have to live with it and carry on blaming the kids. thank god they've seen it all before on AbFab ;)
THey are all just ignorant bastards!! It has become common place lately to diss anyone about anything,. and I think it is rude, and disgusting. Especially youngish men.
Fat is the last socially acceptable prejudice and so people jump all over it. Ironically, according to all the research, us chubby folks outnumber the skinny ones by a pretty good margin. We're bigger than them... shouldn't they be scared?
I used to be seriously overweight (not just somewhat overweight like I am now) and I had serious emotional issues about it. I hated going out anywhere because I always felt like people were staring at me and laughing. Ironically, all the feeling bad about myself never motivated me to go on a diet. It was only when I found out that I might have to start taking blood pressure medication (at 27!) that I decided to lose some weight. (I HATE pills!).
So I dieted and exercised away 110 pounds and I am much healthier now and not in danger of having a major cardiac event.
After the diet people would always say "Boy, I'll bet your husband's happy" and that really offended me. My husband married me because he loved me, all of me (and there was a lot of me, to be fair) and losing weight didn't change his opinion. He still loves me for who I am now.
OK, this comment has kind of gotten carried away, but fat discriminaiton really touches a nerve with me. I may be fat, but I'm in great shape and I can beat my skinny sister (who doesn't exercise) up any hill you name if we go hiking together.
I just really wanted to agree with what Rachelle Loyear-Williams had to say. It's still PC to put down 2 types of people (that I can think of) Smokers and the Overweight. Being that I am both, I am understandably pissed about both issues. However, I really don't care how I look anymore, and I agree with Leslie that it comes from comfortability and age (at least in my case it does). I also, however, worry about what my daughter thinks of me as she's teased for having a big mom, and what my husband thinks as he's still a young and desirable man.
You are so right about so many things here. When I was a child and a little plump, the rare times I would see my father, he would barely let me eat and would say he didn't want me to end up fat like my mother. People should never say things like that to children. What the hell are they thinking? I've put on 20 lbs since I got married and I'd like to blame the depo shot and the paxil, but I know I haven't watched what i eat or exercised much, but even when I do watch what I eat and exercise, the weight is still there, it's frustrating to get older and not be able to loose weight very well. We have to love ourselves, trully love ourselves and know the body is just a vessell of our true essence. I have always struggled w/ my weight and it has always affected my self esteem. I say we all be like 'the real women' in that movie where they all have curves and take off their clothes in the hot sewing shop. We must celebrate ourselves and screw the others (not literally).
You're not imagining things - fat people are absolutely being picked on and what passes for being fat has gotten so thin it's amazing. It's also discouraging that formerly fat people are participating in the teasing.
I don't suppose the Rubenesque look is ever going to come back in style, is it?
I'd like to add to the list of still socially acceptable to pick on: people from the southern U.S. Making fun of ourselves is one thing, but if you're not from around these parts don't refer to me as a slack-jawed yokel, dammit. ;-)
Kat
PS - I hope I can say dammit in here.
Julie - I LOVE that movie!
I hear you. I weigh more now than I ever have and I feel terrible about myself. I do have medical conditions that contribute to the weight. Plus, I have back problems as well so it is difficult to excersize (sp?). It's hard...
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