For those of you who know me, I’ve struggled with my weight pretty much all of my life. When I’m stressed, tired, lazy, emotional, whatever, food is my drug of choice. Unfortunately, as I’ve gotten older, the weight has crept up even higher. So if 50 really is the new 30, I’d like to be back at the weight I was then.
What I find most curious, though, is the way we view fat people in this country. Our national obsession with a person’s measurements borders on the batty.
It’s especially true if you’re in the public eye. Take Keely Shaye Smith, wife of former Bond actor, Pierce Brosnan. When the couple met, she was beautiful and slender, but in the years since their marriage in 2001, she’s packed on the pounds. Her voluptuousness doesn’t seem to have diminished Brosnan’s love for her, as many photos on the Internet will attest.
But when you google Smith’s name and look at the image results, one-third of all the photos are about her weight gain, with words like “fat Keely Shaye Smith,” “fat in a bikini,” etc. Now, one could argue that at her present weight, a bikini might not be the most flattering choice, but it’s her life and her body to dress as she wants.
I find it depressing that despite the fact that she and her husband are tireless champions for the environment and other worthwhile causes, the only thing people seem to care about is her full figure.
It seems to me that in this age of political correctness, being fat is the last safe zone for mockery. It’s ok to make fun of fat people, because apparently we deserve everything we get for being lazy, having no willpower, not taking better care of ourselves and causing a burden on our national health. And since fat people are “jolly,” they won’t mind if you make fun of them.
I had a co-worker years ago who every time she saw me, gave me the “once up and down” to see if my weight had changed. I wonder, if my weight had gone up, did that affect her perception of me as a colleague? Or was the reverse true? If I lost weight, and became more size appropriate in her estimation, did that make me more socially appropriate?And what about her rudeness in being so obvious in her judgment? I guess that’s more acceptable for most people.
It also doesn’t seem to matter how much attention we draw to the problem. In recent years, a number of celebrity reporters have donned fat suits and gone out on the “mean streets” to see how the public treats them. The find out quickly how they are either at best, invisible, or at worst, the subject of countless taunts and tactlessness.
Do the skinny b***hes, as Mo’Nique calls them, really learn to be kind? Or do they just learn to be silent. They won’t make fun of a fat person to their face or even behind their back, but I doubt seriously that their BFF weighs more than dehydrated lettuce leaves she eats for lunch every day.
Though not enough, we have made strides in becoming a color-blind society in the past four decades since the start of the civil rights movement. While I’m not sure I believe it will happen in my lifetime, I long for the day when size really doesn’t matter – at least not outside the bedroom.
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