A heart that hurts ... is a heart that works

[hiddenmuse]

It seems that fat has become the last "acceptable" bastion for discrimination.

There's no way that anyone would insult another person to their face over race, age, gender, sexuality, disability, religion or background - but the size of their dress or pants is apparently open for criticism.


A couple of weeks back, Kellie was in her Spin class (which she does 3 times a week - and has done for almost 6 months now) - nearby was another regular, whom I'll call J., and J.'s friend, R., who was there on a Guest Pass. R. had never done a Spin class before - but was in decent shape, and admitted that she hadn't worked out in a while.

Halfway through class, R. was starting to wind down some. The instructor went to see how she was doing, to make sure that she was okay. R. apparently looked over at Kellie and basically said, in the hopes that only the instructor would hear it, "I don't get it - I can't do this, but that fat girl can!"

Well, it turns out that Kellie did hear the comment. The instructor was upset that she'd overheard it, and told Kellie that she kicked R.'s ass - and to keep coming to class. I thought it was quite helpful that the instructor was so encouraging to her, despite some jackass newbie's whining.


And I do have an example of my own - when I was going towards work, someone coming up from the BART station walked past me and called me a "cow". Of course, because said person was a coward for not saying it to my face - I couldn't respond. If I could've responded, I probably would've told him to fuck off (immediate response).

I think it just irritates me that people can insult others like that - without knowing what's really going on inside. They don't know that we're doing something about being fat. They just see it as something to insult, something to react to - because they're dealing with their own wounded egos or low self-opinion. They don't give a damn about us as people. We're just walking/moving targets to them. It's the schoolyard bully, only on a more grand scale.

I'm not saying that I'm going to join FAT?SO! or NAAFA or some other pro-fat organization anytime soon. I know that my size isn't exactly doing my health favors (i.e. - blood pressure and joint problems), so I'm trying to do something about it. In the meantime, I just need to figure out a way to accept my body as it is, right now. :-)

Comments

[writer-lilies.livejournal.com]

I don't really hear anyone insulting me much, but then again, I'm bigger than a lot of people and they probably think I'll hurt them. :P I wouldn't hurt them at all. I'd tell them off.

[yokie.livejournal.com]

*dead*

and ditto 100%!!! :)

[writer-lilies.livejournal.com]

Lol.

[yokie.livejournal.com]

Poor Kellie. She's worked FAR too hard to have ppl like that talk trash to her. I hope J feels like an ass for bringing R to the class. Give the beautiful and wonder-full Miss K. a big hug for me.

[hiddenmuse.livejournal.com]

I will do that!

And I think Kellie gave her (R.) The Evil Death Glare, to let her know that the comment was heard *loud and clear* ... without being obvious about it. ;)

[mr-samster.livejournal.com]

If either of you need some pointers with that Evil Death Glare, I can help. I can send out hate vibes from under a bed or inside a closet!

[azraelsdaisy.livejournal.com]

That pisses me off more than I can even put into words.

[hiddenmuse.livejournal.com]

No kidding! When Kellie told me that story, I was pretty livid on her behalf. That woman had *no idea* of the fact that Kellie had lost 80 lbs. already, and had been in the classes for almost 6 months - she just saw someone bigger than her, and assumed that she could use her (Kellie) as a way to soothe her wounded ego, by putting her down.

People like that suck. And apparently, R. hasn't shown her face in the class since that episode. :-) Guess she didn't like being out-done by a "fat girl". *smirk*

[azraelsdaisy.livejournal.com]

Hooray for fat girls! Without fat girls, there would be no fag hags, there would be no goddesses, and there would be nothing exciting about Mama's home cookin'.

[full4zaccordion.livejournal.com]

Give Kellie a big hug and lots of kisses! Some people just don't think before they speak :P In our society, I think the reason it's become acceptable to insult fat people is because most people believe it's their(fat people's) fault they're fat, and therefore it's somehow okay to insult and belittle them. They don't understand that a lot of people are just naturally big, whether it's because of their metabolism or their genetics. The majority of people will never look like supermodels because we just weren't born with that body type.