stig·ma noun: a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
As human beings, some deep seeded mutation allows for judgment to flow as freely through our veins as our very blood and, in today’s society, we hand out stigmas like candy on Halloween. Blame it on the fall from The Garden, the manipulative media, hell, blame it on your racist Grandma Dolores.
After recently encountering a tweet by CNN (yes, I am back in the twitter world for the 40th time) that highlighted a young woman named Amanda Levitt and her crusade to stop the prejudice against fat people, I couldn’t help but think that her message will forever be lost in the ebb and flow of society’s unforgiving conformity.
While I strongly believe that everyone has the right to look how they want to look and feel confident in their own body, I also believe that part of that confidence entails being able to hold a strong image of yourself regardless of how the outside world perceives and interacts with you. Confidence is nothing without security. If you are building your life on the perceptions of others, you will just as easily be 90 lbs. with a vomit-scented toothbrush down your throat as you will be 300 lbs. hiding in your car amidst a sea of fast food wrappers. No amount of campaigning will convince the world to create and sustain your confidence and level of self-comfort.
Levitt says: “Specifically, fat people are more likely to live in poverty, we’re more likely to deal with stigma in every facet of our lives from, especially because it’s incredibly gendered and targets women specifically, fat women are less likely to be hired, less likely to be promoted. Fat people in general are more likely to deal with stigma when we go to the doctor’s office.”
You choose what you put into your body as willingly as you choose what you put on your body. You don’t see the community of avid tattooists joining together to fight the stigma of their body art. I guarantee they fight many of same problems in the job world as overweight individuals, but they confidently own up to the decisions they make and to put it bluntly, say “fuck the haters.”
No amount of Dove commercials featuring beautiful, curvaceous women is going to change America’s obsession with being thin. Plump, pale women were worshipped in Renaissance times because their weight signified they had the money and status to be able to eat well, while the skinny, tanned girls were seen as malnourished peasants. Our society glamorizes the unattainable and always will. In a country of excess and 3-for-1 party-size bags of potato chips, being fat is no longer a hard feat; developing self-discipline, avoiding the cornucopia of unhealthy food available everywhere at anytime, and pulling yourself off the couch has become an increasingly difficult and daunting task.
While it is as equally possible to be fat and healthy as it is to be thin and unhealthy, there is overwhelmingly abundant research to support that excess weight (and the poor diet sedentary lifestyle that accompanies it) contributes to health issues. The argument isn’t black and white, but as a country, losing weight and getting fit should be a more prominent goal than fighting “fat prejudice.”
In a world still so heavily plagued with anti-gay, anti-Semitic, racist and hate-filled bigotry, the plight of the overweight, as unfair as it may be, is not unique.
Until we learn to be accepting and truly tolerant of those that are different, there’s a fat chance stigmas will change and a slim to none chance they will become a thing of the past.
Photo courtesy of: FoodScienceofVermont
