Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Fatolitics: the Politics of being Fat

So I was reading one of these "Urban Entertainment" blogs and there was a post about Mo'Nique being okay with her husband having sex outside their marriage. Firstly I do believe that marriage is a covenant, it is sacred, and a commitment. I can't say I think that's a good idea but that's her...And to each his own. Well after I read the post, I scrolled through the comments and couldn't help but notice almost each of them mentioned her being fat. The overwhelming issue that people had with her is her weight citing her low self esteem is the reason she would agree to something like that. People got really foul, I mean fat this, fat that, if she would put down the food this...And i'm like daaaaamn what is the real issue here??? I know it's a far stretch for me to take it there but should "fat" be a protected class in America? Now this has less to do w Mo'Nique post as it does with the trending concerns on the rise in the news concerning obesity. The statistics are alarming, we are a fat country. Children are having medical issues that don't usually arise in most people until their 40's and it's a legitimate concern that our weight directly affects healthcare. People who are overweight develop diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and other medical issues as an effect. I've read the statistics and understand the implications but what does all this do to overweight people socially? How do people react to overweight people? Is it fair? Are they discriminated against by employers? Is it fair for airlines to charge an overweight person double? Can that be justified? Should there be a fat tax? Should fat people be happy? Before I go any further on that, let me clarify with a few examples about what I mean by that. Mo'Nique started a big is beautiful movement meant to empower fat women. She wrote a book that both satirized and humanized the struggles of being overweight. The message in it all was for women, especially overweight women to love themselves. Some people took issue with that. To some people, there's nothing worse than being fat and happy. If you're fat you should be either doing something about it or somewhere in seclusion hiding yourself from the world. There's little sensitivity when it comes to weight and the effects thereof. My friend's husband treats her like a drug addict when it comes to her weight, he said it's the same as any person addicted to crack. I'm a big girl and I've dealt with depression, low self esteem, ridicule (as a child), seclusion, and many other vices. On one hand you hear to love yourself first, make people respect you, you can do anything, don't settle for less, but on the other hand society tells you you shouldn't love yourself, thin is beautiful, your peers ridicule you, men tend to use you or don't want to touch you with a long handled spoon, you get excluded from cliques, family pressures you to be different, the people you see on tv and the magazines don't look like you so it becomes difficult to see through all the shut doors. You have to acquire thick skin because your adversities are great and the biggest struggle of all eventually becomes the internal struggle to Love yourself, to pick your head up and come out of your shell of depression and loneliness. It's difficult not to feel like a victim, you're not but you feel like it. It's also important to say that not all fat people go through this dark spiral. Right now approaching 30 I don't have the issues I did growing up, but still do have some of the residual effects. I'm finally accepting that some men like a well kept beautiful woman even if she has a few extra pounds and I have something to offer, lots to offer. That are the politics of being fat? Why shouldn't weight be considered a protected class? Now i'm not saying that it should, only posing the question...

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