What's something that all clothing stores carry?
Well, clothes, duh.
But what's something else?
You got it — "sizes." I put that word in quotes because the range of sizes offered at many stores isn't really a range at all. In fact, it's simply horrendous and not inclusive whatsoever. If you walk over to the pants section, you'll see all different types of jeans lining the wall — boot cup, skinny, jeggings, high-waisted, you name it. However, all of these different styles do have one thing in common — they're most prevalently displayed in sizes 0-7. Occasionally, you'll see a random double digit size thrown in, but typically not. To make matters worse, these double digit sizes are typically thrown to another part of the store labeled "Plus Sized," dividing the shopping experience into shopping for normal clothes and shopping for plus sized.
Currently, the average woman in the US is a size 14. However, size 14 isn't the most bought size — it's smaller sizes. This is because society has morphed the minds of individuals into thinking that being thin and slender is the only acceptable body type. They have made us think that anything about a size 7 is just disgusting.
When did the word "fat" go from being simply an adjective to being an insult? Why has it become the dreaded F word?
Fat is simply a word to define your weight or your body type. Being fat doesn't affect who you are — creative, intelligent, inspirational, rebellious, intuitive, dedicated, loving, honest, thoughtful, etc. It doesn't stop you from being a good child, sibling, lover, friend, student, or worker.
We have no problem going around telling people that they're skinny by observation or as a compliment; we should have no problem telling people that they're fat in the same manner. Additionally, if you see someone walking down the street and think that they're beautiful, that doesn't mean that you're not. Beauty comes in so many shapes, sizes, colors, etc.
Fat is beautiful. Fat is so, so beautiful.
If I were to be asked to describe my physical appearance, I would say that I am 5'8'', have dirty blonde hair, green eyes, am slender and muscular, and have a bright smile. These are all just ways of describing myself. In the same way, people should be able to freely describe their physical appearance by their weight, the color of their skin, and any unique qualities that they wish to include. However, just because I'm blonde and someone else has black hair doesn't make me better. Just because someone else has bigger boobs while mine are smaller doesn't make them better. All of these things are simply physical attributes. No attribute is better than the other; they simply are. They give absolutely no insight into our goals, dreams, passions, fetishes, etc.
If we as a society stops having such a stigma against the word "fat," perhaps we can finally start to love and accept ourselves for who we truly are. If we stop using "fat" as an insult, perhaps we can get past focusing on our outer qualities and focus on what really matters — who we are as individuals.
Fat and unhealthy are not synonyms for each other. You can be fat and fit. You can also be skinny and unhealthy. We should not associate our body's relationship with gravity with anything; there is no correlation.
We need to stop using 'fat' as an insult.