I can still remember sitting in my Feminist Theory class when my professor started talking about body shaming. We were discussing an assigned reading from FAT!SO? (buy a copy here) and at first I was skeptical. I was looking at this thin, petite woman talk about accepting your body and not apologizing for your size, and it was tough to not roll my eyes. What could this woman teach me about being fat? Turns out, she introduced me to a world of body positivity that has had the biggest impact on how I see myself.
It was the first time I ever heard anyone talk about being fat in academia. Up until that point, it had just been short conversations commiserating with my fellow fat ladies about living the fat girl life. I've also had plenty of talks filled with subtext from coworkers about how some guys like "curvier" women. Even as a Sociology major at a Liberal Arts school, talking about weight in the classroom was almost always avoided. Race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, all of that was on the table, as long as we avoided talking about the struggles of fat people.
And I get why fat is avoided in the classroom. This past year in Law School I had a professor pull me aside after class to apologize for talking about how a jury could view a fat plaintiff. He didn't want to come out and say why he felt the need to apologize to me in particular, so instead he talked vaguely about weight issues in his family, which just lead me to be more uncomfortable. It was one of the most awkward conversations of my life.
The funny part was, I wasn't upset by his comment, because he was stating unfortunately, true facts. In our society, a fat plaintiff is less sympathetic. If a fat plaintiff is trying to recover money due to medical malpractice, most likely someone on that jury will think it wasn't the doctor at fault, but the patient's fault for being fat. It's a part of the sad reality I'm confronted with daily. Fat people are viewed differently by many members of society, and as a soon-to-be-lawyer, I can't be blind to what my clients may be up against.
Bringing it back to my undergrad class, here I was 20 years old, half paying attention to a lecture when my professor started going off on a personal tangent. She told us that she refuses to be weighed at the doctors. I immediately looked up to hear what she was saying. Being weighed at the doctors has been one of the most anxiety producing experiences for me. Will my weight be written down and glossed over? Will I end up being shamed for gaining weight by the nurse, then the doctor, then maybe even the receptionist? And why are they weighing me when I'm hear for a raging ear infection?
She told the class how she refuses to be weighed at the doctor's office and how BMI (Body Mass Index) is an arbitrary and ill-informed method of measuring health. I couldn't believe a thin woman had an issue with getting weighed. I thought if I was her size, I would hop on that scale with pleasure. Hearing her say that made me think about why weight was such an important number in my life. Why does weight influence how my health is perceived? What does size really have to do with my happiness or my success? That one class discussion opened up the door to fat acceptance and body positivity. My entire view on fatness and weight slowly shifted. I sought out more information and was amazed that there were others out there who were also saying that it's OK to be fat.
Now, 6 years later, I can't imagine what my life was before this body-positive enlightenment. I follow some great body positive men and women on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. I've been exposed to Fatshion bloggers, beautiful poems about fat experiences, and TV shows with amazing fat characters (check out My Mad Fat Dairy on Hulu, its amazing). Now I can say I've had wonderful conversations with friends about body positivity, I'm able to critique when others post fat-shaming articles, and I'm able to identify and fight the injustices fat people like myself face.
So to that skinny professor, I want to say thanks. Thanks for telling me it's OK to be fat.
