A few weeks ago I was transfixed on a Facebook friends wall post in which she was supporting a company that couldn't, for whatever reason, use "fit" models in their Facebook ad....as per Facebooks rules, regulations, and what not.
The original poster of the thread that inspired this blog post is a fit and otherwise healthy woman that is genuinely concerned with the obesity crisis our country is currently going through. I only state this because what you are about to see and read is not coming from her, it's commentary from other folks that read the same thread I did.
Now, let's go back to the reason she posted a Facebook comment: Like most of us, we share thoughts, links, photos, and what not, that are inspirational, thought provoking, strategic and used for business, or maybe we simply use it to vent. This time around, she used it to vent in support of a company that couldn't advertise with an "idealized body image" on Facebook.
She followed with "Trust me when I tell you that the 'idealized' image was simply a flat hard stomach of someone that worked hard at it. I think it's time for another rant about the fat culture."
I took a screen shot of her post, which is here:
"Fat culture?" Hm. Didn't know it existed, but OK.
"Idealized body image?" According to who? I ask myself.
What transpired was eye-opening and sickening at the same time. It also felt as a personal attack:
It's no secret that I have many health problems, including major Thyroid issues and a body that decides when I can loose weight or not. In this week alone, I can physically see how bloated my face was on one day, while two days later my clothes were falling off.
I am also well aware that many people do not live a healthy lifestyle and have created their own "obese" body by choice. Unfortunately, because I do not walk around with a sign around my neck that says "Fatness not Induced by Coke, please don't judge" people may wrongly assume when they look at me that "She's probably lazy and eats like a pig."
In the grand scheme of things, strangers judging my weight or body size doesn't really affect me..or I am simply to darn tired to fight with folks.
I have also come to realize that being comfortable in my skin is part of my survival mechanism. I have unfortunately, learned to live with "it," and look the other way when my size 14 jeans don't zip...."Yes, I'm fat." But sometimes I am also average-sized.
Whoever is not comfortable looking at my "fatness" can look the other way. Done. Easy, peasy.
But unlike the general consensus of Mr. #Merika, being fat doesn't, at least in my case, make my body ugly - nor does it make anyone else ugly or aesthetically unpleasing...it just makes me fat.
Let's start by reading my response to the first comment above:
Which, inspired (if you want to call it that), the #merika guy to respond and dig a deeper hole to crawl into by calling every fat person a "lazy fat ass" and "aesthetically unpleasing" if they "do not have a medical condition that causes them to be fat:"
(Upside: I am not a "lazy fat ass" according to Mr. #Merika (I am just going to refer to him as such, because he used this hashtag and I have no idea what it stands for).
Under all this shameful commentary, back and forth, and otherwise ugly display of human hate, Mr. #Merika was trying to fight his point that "Fat people wanted to see thin people in ads if they were healthy. If they were fat by choice, they didn't."
Although I can't take the baton and speak for every fat person that is walking on this green earth, I will do it for me:
Mr. #Merika: I love seeing thin bodies in ad's. But it might surprise you to learn that I also like seeing average-sized bodies, fat-bodies, and bodies missing limbs. I enjoy, unlike you, every body and would never assume that a fat person is a "lazy fat fuck" as you do by simply looking at a picture.
Sincerely, The Antithesis of a Lazy Fat Fuck.My point, if there was ever one, is that we don't know what is happening inside of each person by a simple glance. Fat, body weight, and size doesn't make someone ugly. Symmetry does.
Yep, there's the science of symmetry that determines whether or not someone is beautiful (by our own perception).
Now that I go that little nugget out of the way...
We also have to remember that we have no idea what caused someone to be large, obese, or fat (whatever you want to call us).
Just as much as we do not know what makes a person thin or fit (if you throw in here hard work I am going to fight you to the grave on this one: some folks are genetically thinner, regardless of how much garbage they consume).
Remember, (as I make a note to myself), looks are relative and not always connected to the size of someones girth.
Not all of us hit the genetic lottery, but all of us have a choice: we can judge others by who they are, or how they look.
What choice will you make?
