Fat and happy
Big Beautiful Women show us that being large isn’t the end of the world
But evolution for fat people is actually more like adaptation to a world that doesn’t understand or accept them. Social groups like the one found at Club Catalina exist in cities across the country because the thin-obsessed contemporary United States culture isn’t so kind to bigger folks. People like Kathy have found that it’s better, or at least easier, to separate from the mainstream and form a subculture where size acceptance is the raison d’être. As things stand, fat people are still metaphorically sitting in the back of the bus.
“Would it be acceptable for me to go over to a guy in a wheelchair and start berating him because he’s in a wheelchair?” asks Kathy. “That wouldn’t be socially acceptable. But three guys over there walking by and going, ‘Look at that fat cow.’ Is that socially acceptable? Right now it is. And I’ve watched mothers with children, they go, ‘Mommy, she’s fat.’ Do the moms say anything to that kid? Usually not. They go, ‘Hmm, yeah, she’s fat.’ But it doesn’t bother me. It can’t. If I let it, it’d eat me up inside. If I had to worry about these three guys coming in and looking at me with disgust and saying, “Eew, would you do her?’ I’ve actually heard that. What am I supposed to say? Should I call them assholes? I’ve done that before, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t do it every time.”
As if the social ostracizing wasn’t enough—grocery aisles are still too narrow, seatbelts too short, bathroom stalls too small, clothing too limited, airplane seats nearly impossible, medical equipment like MRI machines not accommodating—according to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), if you’re fat, it’s harder to get or keep a good job. Peggy Howell, spokesperson for NAAFA, says a majority of letters the group gets come from people who believe they’ve been victims of size discrimination.
“Before I was part of this whole size-acceptance movement,” Howell says, “my own boss told me to lose 20 pounds or lose my job.
“Discrimination against people of size is still rampant,” she continues. “It’s still a very serious matter, and, yes, it is a civil-rights matter. Size crosses all other boundaries. People of size are both genders, all nationalities, all races and all income levels, so singling people out because of our size is not only a civil-rights issue, it’s absurd.”
Even more absurd to Howell are things like Mississippi House Bill 282, a bill introduced last year that would’ve prohibited restaurants with more than five seats from serving people determined to be obese by the state’s Department of Health. The authors of the bill, which was killed shortly after it was introduced, later admitted that it had all been a silly publicity stunt meant to draw attention to Mississippi’s obesity problem. Not funny to those who would’ve been categorized as obese.
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Published: 03/18/2008
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I am a bbw girl on pluscupid.com and feel happy with my size. Size is only a number. I like the motto" Fat and Happy".