*Content Warning: This piece contains a reference to an eating disorder, which may be triggering to some.*
I remember a conversation when I first started working at my job seven years that stuck with me. It was a conversation that I overheard when I was waiting to clock-in for my shirt that made me extremely angry. They were talking about two different women. One had just had a baby and bounced back to her previous figure rather quickly. The other one did not. “She must be lazy,” the one old man remarked. Then he prattled onward about how some women just let themselves go.
Just yesterday I was walking to work and some teenager was commenting on my “flat butt” and commenting about my legs.
I have always been insecure about my weight, and I was mocked and bullied relentlessly in school: elementary, middle, high, and even in college. It’s taken me a long time for me to love myself, and I still struggle with insecurities and self-loathing sometimes. Comments like those that I heard yesterday definitely don’t help.
I was stared at until I couldn’t eat in public at the lunch table in middle school, and I still suffer from the eating disorder known as closet eating to this day. I am not comfortable eating in front of others unless other people are eating too. Otherwise, it’s a very uncomfortable experience for me.
Can we just all agree to stop talking about other people’s bodies, and let people live their lives? The only person that should be worried about a body is the person within that body.
Would you like it if someone commented on all your physical flaws and compared you to other people? I’m assuming not.
I don’t know why women seem to be under constant scrutiny for their appearances. It is not our rent to pay the world to be pretty. We don’t owe anyone anything for being here, and we don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations except our own. We are not here for anyone’s entertainment.
Fat people can be healthy, skinny people can have health problems. Weight isn’t always an issue. Even if it is, that’s between the person that has the body and their healthcare provider. Providing your unsolicited advice is quite unhelpful and unnecessary not to mention rude.
You never know what health conditions or what demons a person is facing in their daily lives. It really costs nothing to be kind.
The beauty that truly matters is that of your heart and soul. So maybe focus on bettering your own body, your own heart, or your own soul rather than commenting on the body of some stranger you don’t know. Who cares if that celebrity is thin or that one is fat? Who cares if that guy is tall or short? Who cares if that stranger is wearing too much or too little make-up for your liking?
Honestly, life is short. Let people have more joy! Go back to the golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated. It really is that simple.
