If you happened to read my article, Confessions of a Former Fat Girl, you'll know used to be fat. If you didn't read that article, you'll know from the previous sentence. I don't believe that anyone human being is more attractive than another. However, when I lost the weight, I involuntarily conformed to society's standards of attractiveness.
I mainly noticed this through the way other people began to treat me, especially the male gender. Boys who had previously never given me a second glance now attempted to strike up flirtatious conversations. I rarely had to reach for a door myself, and I've been offered more free drinks than I can count.
A very attractive friend of mine and I once had a conversation where she spoke about the privileges woman have over men, solely because of our female bodies. She told me how when she goes to the gym men move off the machines for her, and rush over to help her if it seems like she needs some assistance. Before I spoke to this I recalled the years that I was fat and considered unattractive to society. I respond to her explaining that the chivalrous manners she spoke of only happened to hot girls. This was the first time I truly had an understanding of the pretty privileged.
Yes, there are numerous ways that women have been wronged throughout history. But chances are if you encounter a beautiful woman, she uses her pretty privilege to her benefit every once in a while.
About a year ago I had a brief conversation with a guy friend of mine about a beautiful girl he had once encountered. He told me that she could have been as mean as she wanted to him and he would still be grateful to just be in her presence. This is one of the more extreme examples of the pretty privilege in use, but nonetheless, it happens.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm exempt from using my own personal pretty privilege during times when I know it'll benefit me. I've flirted with guys to get my way, and flashed an extra smile to customers at work in hopes of increasing my server tips.
Pretty privilege comes in handy, but it's disastrous in dating. No matter how nice the guy is, in the back of my mind I'm always thinking that he wouldn't like me if I was still fat. He wouldn't waste his time or energy initiating that first contact to a girl who didn't line up our world's normalized version of pretty.
There is a chance that this is all in my head, but I doubt it. There are too many women I know who have a had similar experiences to mine for it not to be at least somewhat true. Pretty privilege is real, and if you are comfortable using it to your advantage, more power to you. For me at least, I'm never going to be satisfied questioning the idea that if I didn't look a certain way, no one would look twice.
