Fatbashing

Maybe it's been around a long time, but it's making its presence known more strongly today. Being judged by how you look instead of your character seems to be more the norm these days. If you're considered too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too ethnic, too old ... whatever, you can be denied opportunities that you would normally have a right to. Bosses have been known to hire and/or promote employees with better looks over more qualified but homelier looking people. Clubs and organizations have been known to invite members based solely on their looks and not on their potential for contribution to the club. Even public nightspots have been known to turn potential patrons away simply because they weren't pretty or handsome enough for the nightspot's "image."

People who base their relationships on looks more than personality or character may find themselves alone, betrayed, and/or disappointed when life throws them a curveball. This is not to say that all good-looking people are shallow ... far from it. But there are people who know that they are good-looking and use their looks to their advantage, even to the point of taking advantage of and/or hurting other people in order to get what they want. This is why it is so important to have relationships based on mutual interests and respect for each other and not solely on looks.

I have personally witnessed another disturbing perception that people are believe in ... that fat people are offensive. Why are they considered offensive? How are they considered offensive? If someone sees a scantilly clad fat person, it is considered offensive. If a fat person is eating in a restaurant or is out in public, it is considered offensive. If a fat person experiences sexual feelings, it is considered offensive. The only thing that I find offensive is the shallowness of people who actually believe that.

Yes, there are health considerations in being fat. There are also heath considerations in smoking tobacco products, drinking alcoholic beverages, working in a dangerous work environment, etc. However, most of the social discrimination in comparison to everything else in the name of "health factors" is against the fat person.

And for the record ... I am a fat person, although I prefer to call myself a BBW (big beautiful woman). I may not be slim and trim, but I'm certainly not ugly, and I'm not a freak show either. I love myself and who I am ... I am a sensitive, caring, responsible person. I have wants and desires, just like every other woman in her 30's. I have friends who love me, and I love them just as much. I consider myself blessed for having the friends I do.

Because I've been fat all of my life, I have also been targeted for ridicule, cruel humiliating pranks, vicious gossip, and outright hatred, all because of what I look like. I resent the reputation that fat people don't bathe themselves well, are sloppy, are pigs when they eat, are lazy, are lonely losers starved for affection ... None of that applies to me nor to several other fat people I know!! To quote a character out of the movie Witchhunt with Dennis Hopper and Penelope Ann Miller, "Put any ten people into a room. They may not pick a leader, but I guarantee you they'll pick someone to hate." In my case, "Let's pick on the fat chick!" And just when it seems that there might be an effort to try to gain acceptance for fat people, there is an equal if not more overt effort to trash, bash, and demean us. Well, I am a firm believer that what goes around comes around ... how you treat me (and others) will eventually reverberate back to you. I refuse to allow these kind of people make me feel ashamed of myself. They are the ones who need to be ashamed, not me.