We've all seen the YouTube video "Dear Fat People," and we have all found it angering and disturbing. I am a 5'4" 132 lb college woman who has something important to say to my "fat" friends.
Dear "fat" friends,
You are more than what your body looks like.
Your talents are not limited by what the scale says. If people think you are not a great singer, dancer, writer, or photographer just because of your weight, I need you to go prove them wrong and show them how shallow their opinion of you is. The numbers on the scale are not a prediction of what your life will be like but only numbers that people will use to hold you back. Do not believe them when they say you cannot reach your dreams, because you can, and you will. Neither your weight nor your body shape hold you back from using your talents, so use them and be proud of them and rub it in the faces of those who said you couldn't (sorry, not sorry).
Everyone has health problems.
"Fat" people are not the only ones with health problems. I am what is considered a healthy weight, and I am always sick. "Healthy" people can have blood sugar problems; "healthy" people can have diabetes; "healthy" people can have joint pains. Just because our society labels you as "fat" does not mean that you are alone in health problems.
You do not "smell like sausages."
Despite what Nicole Arbour thinks, you do not smell like sausage. As a matter of fact, you smell just like the new perfume you're wearing. Imagine that! I guess when society labels you fat, your deodorant stops working. That is utterly ridiculous.
You are helping break the thin ideal.
Thank you for standing against what our society says we should look like. Who cares if you have a little or a lot of meat on your bones? Just our thin-obsessed society. The people who think thin is the only pretty need to meet you, because you are beautiful and special without a thigh gap and without your collar bone poking out.
To the girls who do have a thigh gap and pronounced collar bone, you are beautiful and special, too. Do not give up your spark to be what society wants to see. Be you, because you are amazing.
No matter your shape or size, we should all be fighting against the thin ideal and the beauty myth, because women and men are developing eating disorders and unhealthy body images to fit the mold society has laid before us. "Fat" friends, thank you for moving us one step closer to loving our bodies as they are and not as what they "should" be.
Your value is not inversely related to your pant size.
Wearing a size 22 does not make you any less valuable than a size 2. Both sizes are beautiful, and both can rock a pair of skinny jeans. The value of your life does not revolve around your pant size; it revolves around your heart. When you pass away, no one at your funeral is going to be talking about what size clothes you were. They are going to be talking about your character. You are more than the number on your tag, but society will tell you differently. Ignore it. Ignore the people who devalue you because of the way you look. You do not need them, but they need you. They need you to open their eyes to a world where people are judged on their hearts and not on their weight. Open their eyes to a world where people are valued for their character and not their size.
Dear "fat" friends,
You are not fat, and you are worth more than words.
