First Rant: "Obesity Enabling"

So, lots of people have been telling me I should start a blog, and they would totally read it if I did. So I did, here I am, and here it is. I know it needs some work, but for now, I'm just writing. Who knows what my update schedule will be? It will be primarily when something pisses me off, piques my interest, or just generally sets me into rant mode.


Without further ado, here is my first Peeve du Jour: "Obesity Enabling"

Now, for those that don't know me personally, I am a fat woman. I struggled with bulimia from age 12 to age 25. I am about to turn 27 (almost two years purge-free!). I am currently training for the Highland Games, and I could probably benchpress most of the people who like to complain about "fat, lazy slobs" while they rely on their fantastic metabolisms to burn off the potato chips they're eating. I have been the subject of some truly vicious fat-bullying, such as having things thrown at me out of car windows, having food snatched out of my hands, and being called names like "Whale", "Pig", "Cow", and "Lardass" in public by complete strangers. I have even been fat-bullied in the gym (not my current gym, which is awesome, but a previous gym I went to).

Confused by this epidemic of abuse, I went to my computer, and I found out from Pandora's box that all of this was 100% totally justified, because we don't want to "enable obesity". That just sent my eyebrows rocketing up into my hairline, because since when is absence of abuse "enabling"? But it gets better. Apparently heavy women should not be in catalogues modelling clothes, because letting us fat people know that we can buy clothes at your store in "enabling". Golly Gee, I thought I was going to have to cut a hole in a king-size bed sheet and buy some binder twine to fashion some sort of rudimentary chiton, but now I know I can just go to Kohls and buy from their plus-size department. But I can't! Because them advertising that they have a plus-size department is "enabling"!

I've asked, and they have said they don't want young people to get the idea that being overweight or obese is okay. I asked where they could get that idea. Apparently making clothes in large sizes for large people will give young people the idea that it's totally okay to be big, and showing fat people who are not sobbing in misery for being so shamefully unattractive will give them leave to get fat themselves. By that logic, every smiling parapelegic will give kids the idea that it's okay to dive into the shallow end of the swimming pool and those photos making the rounds of the triple amputee veteran and his lovely bride will inspire young people to whip out the old hacksaw in the quest to find true love.

Some of them take the tack that they are just concerned about health. I also assume that these people go around punching smokers right in the face and beating alcoholics with barstools. After all, they are health crusaders. HEALTH. DON'T PEOPLE KNOW THAT IT'S UNHEALTHY!!!! Well, yes, we can read. We are blared with the message 24/7, just like you are, except, unlike you, we do not have fantastic metabolisms. I bring up being bullied in the gym to these health people, to see if they'll get tongue-tied, but they have the gall to tell me it's for my own good. I suppose I am supposed to exercise in a burqa until my jiggle is 100% Gym-Rat Approved Booty Shake. Or maybe I'm allowed 5 lbs of fat to burn off. They're not too clear on what's Never Acceptable vs. what's Sometimes Acceptable.

Now, here's the other kicker. When I delve into my medical history, the HEALTH people all back off a bit. They say that they don't mean people like me, with legit medical conditions should be bullied and shamed and treated like victims in the Roman circus. Just everybody else. But then the question becomes, why should I have to divulge my medical history to every single human being I come across just to be treated like a fellow human being with thoughts and feelings? I don't have "Former Bulimic with Ovarian Cysts" tattooed on my forehead. I don't want to do that either, it sounds really tacky, and extremely hard to cover up. How about you Obesity Police just treat other people like human beings?



For an extra dash of irony, though, it's recently been proven that fat-shaming and bullying cause weight gain. So the Obesity Police are actually the ones "Enabling Obesity".