I happened to read a post this evening called "I Hate Fat People". The title was a reference to something another woman had said on another website that I won't link to because...I don't want to send her traffic or help her Google ranking one little iota.
Corrina Makis, despite indicating that she was stunned and outraged, made a very reasoned response. But the problem is bigger than she probably knows. Corrina said: To determine a person's entire worth according to their physical appearance is obscene.
Yup. No argument here. But my perspective is just a little bit different. You see, although it's been a good many years since I fit into a size 6, I have a sister who's never reached that size and probably never will. She's 5'5" and ranges between 96 and 98 pounds. When J. Crew introduced its size 2 in 1996, the measurements they listed in the catalog were hers exactly. When other women look at her (concave) stomach and say, "I hate you," they don't sound good-natured at all.
But far more disturbing to my mind are the total strangers who feel free to inquire as to whether she has an eating disorder, to tell her that she needs to eat something, or to point out that she "looks like a skeleton".
Sadly, I think it isn't really about fat or thin any more than it was about black or white or Christian or Muslim. It's about hate. That's what's wrong around us. There's just too damned much of it, and it's going to find somewhere to go, whether the target makes any sense or not.
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