A fattie's point of view...

Ok, so we all know by now that a ton (no pun intended) of drama has arisen due to the article by Maura Kelly that was done for Marie Claire about fat people. The outcry has been just stifling. This tells me a few things. One... non-overweight people who defend overweight people are awesome. Two... Overweight people are awesome. Three... there are far too many overweight people. I am one of them. So don't get me wrong. I'm not skinny minny Maura Kelly judging others. In fact that's not even what I want to talk about.

I more want to respond to this post by Aunt Becky about how fat people are treated. And yes, being fat, I know that we are treated differently by some people.  Those people?  They judge everyone for one thing or another.  I know the ideas that ARE out there about overweight people.   We are prejudged as being lazy, unclean and odoriferous. Yes. I know this. However, I truly believe that a lot of the prejudices that we feel are being unjustly levied... aren't really. Being levied, I mean. Not that they wouldn't be unjust if they WERE being levied, because they certainly would be.

I have always worried when going on a job interview about being fat and having that keep me from getting the job. It has never happened. I am always self-conscious about what I order in restaurants because I think people are looking. For the past year I've taken some time to look around and you know what? People aren't looking. Now before you start thinking that I'm only a little overweight and that's why I don't notice any backlash.. that is not the case. I am 100lbs overweight. I wear a size 20. I'm not a 14 or 16 that still looks fantastic even though I've got some chubba to spare. I am just fat.

I am completely self-conscious about my weight, don't get me wrong, but when I go out to stores... men do hold the door for me because 1. clearly they see me coming and 2. I'm looking at them as I walk up. There's no way for someone to look at you and then deliberately not hold the door. But if you're overweight and visibly self-conscious about it... like looking down when you walk... then it is easy to be ignored. Regardless of size. At store counters and registers... I LOOK at the clerk in their eyeballs and I've never had one deliberately NOT look back at me. When I smile, they smile back and I'm not all that attractive. I don't even have the "she's got such a pretty face" going for me... so that's not it either. It's confidence. Regardless of size, people have always been and always will be attracted to confidence.

Am I confident? No. But every time I'm out there and I act confident and in turn I'm not treated like "the fat girl" does it boost my confidence... absolutely.

I guess I'm saying all of this to say... don't act like the ashamed fat girl. Be proud of yourself even if you aren't happy with how you look and you want to change it... still be proud of yourself. Of the person you are inside. And it will shine through. You will be surprised how many of those slights that you see and feel everywhere now either fade away or were never there at all.

Trust me. We are not invisible. I think THAT much is obvious. :)

2 comments:

Nic said...

Great post. And great points!

Amy said...

Thank you!! :)

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