It's OK to be Thin

Jun. 26, 2012 at 6:57pm with 1,782 notes

Reblogged from madgastronomer

itsoktobethin:

thisisthinprivilege:

“Thin people are upheld as beautiful and sexy. Fat people are told, over and over, that we should aspire to be thin. Fat people are actively discriminated against daily in real life, in ways that do not happen to thin people. That doesn’t make it ok to make fun of thin people, but it does mean that it’s an entirely different kettle of fish to do so. Making fun of thin people does not have the weight of the entire goddamn culture behind it. Making fun of thin people is not part of a systematic oppression. That makes it different.”

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We Mustn’t Make Fun Of the Straight People, Dear « Fat Carries Flavor

True. But what most “fat” people complain about is that people are constantly telling them to lose weight. Guess what I have people constantly telling me to gain weight. You have people calling you obese? I have people calling me anorexic. You have people taking the food out of your mouth. I have people shoving it in my mouth.

What you don’t have, though, and what you would hear fat people talking about happening to us if you actually bothered to fucking listen, is doctors refusing to treat your entire-unrelated-to-weight health problems (like strep throat or cancer) because you’re too thin, and telling you to gain weight instead. What you don’t have is insurance companies refusing to cover you because you weigh too little. What you don’t have is airlines charging you more money because you’re too skinny.

Seriously, you have no fucking clue what kinds of real discrimination fat people face. It’s not just about people making a few rude remarks.

I’m not oblivious to the fact that fat people face discrimination. But saying making fun of thin people doesn’t have the weight of culture behind it is nonsense in my opinion. Sure, overall society values thin people, but it values, more specifically, thin people with curves. There are a lot of people out there who do not have such curves and they are labeled as anorexic when this simply isn’t true.

Now getting back to the “I don’t have a clue” part. I personally don’t know what it’s like and never will, but my mother is overweight. And I had the very unpleasant experience of shopping with her. It wasn’t unpleasant because she was overweight. I would actually love nothing more to sit outside a changing room and watch her put on different outfits for me to ooh and aah at. But what happened is she was ashamed, depressed, frustrated, ect. that nothing she liked would fit her. She wears nearly the same clothes type every day because she doesn’t want to be bothered to go out shopping and being judged. So please, it’s not that I don’t have a clue. It’s that I am speaking up for people like me, who are naturally skinny. Because apparently you don’t have a clue what it can be like.