By Valerie X Armstrong
I recently wrote a book that had a fat girl as the main character. She is a healthy, pleasant, well adjusted, active girl who eats well and gets plenty of exercise. She has no problems with being fat, except the way she is treated by others.
The world has been conditioned, somehow, to think
being fat is a bad thing and that anyone can control it if they want to badly
enough.
I am here to tell you that is patently untrue and
I'm just speaking from my own experience, although I know many others who will
heartily concur.
When I wrote the book, I was inundated with hate
mail saying I was "promoting obesity". How ridiculous! It seems that more and
more I'm seeing situations where anytime a fat person does anything except try
to lose weight, they are promoting obesity.
If a fat person loves their body, that is
considered a bad thing. Fat people are supposed to hate their bodies and do
everything they possibly can to change them.
I saw a video on TV the other day with a very
energetic and happy fat girl dancing. The news channel it was on (HLN) posted it on
the internet. People were allowed to make comments. Some of them were
horrible. The girl was accused of "promoting obesity" for just dancing and
loving her body.
Anytime a fat person is seen doing anything
positive, there is always a slew of negative comments from people trying to put them down in some way.
No one ever says anything about a thin person
dancing or a tall person or a short person...Why all the negativity about the
fat person? Just being fat in public tends to bring out the nasty comments. Sometimes they are under the guise of being helpful, from people who supposedly
are concerned about the fat person's health.
Fat people have every right to dance, exercise,
swim eat, walk, run, or just BE, without comments or stares, or being
photographed or videotaped by strangers. They are not promoting obesity. They
are just enjoying their God given bodies.
Expecting furniture or medical equipment or seats
on airplanes or theaters to accommodate large bodies is not promoting obesity, nor is expecting jobs, insurance or simple respect from others.
It is appalling that one whole segment of society has been denied these things
for so long. That is oppression! That has got to change, and with a
quickness!!!
Most fat people are not what the popular
stereotype would have us believe. They are not unhealthy over eaters, food
addicts, couch dwelling lazy sloths with no will power and
questionable intelligence. They are just regular people who happen to be fat.
They have every right in the world to enjoy being themselves without anyone's
approval or disapproval. That is NOT promoting obesity...That is
living!
So back off , critics, and tend to your own
business. If you really had a life, you wouldn't be so jealous of fat people
enjoying theirs.
©VXA 2014