I've spent much of my day in a Facebook debate that has left me feeling disheartened. It began when a status popped up on my feed. "Why are fat people Ok with the way they look? Most are happy...I just don't get it?" It continued with a back and forth exchange where several people provided comments including a few full out insults.
There were many things about the dialogue that disturbed me, but what bothered me most was the confidence with which people passed judgement about a stranger's character based on their appearance. "Heavy people have no will power. They aren't willing to work hard. They simply have no self-control. They settle for mediocrity."
I've spent most of my life eating all the wrong things and exercising on a very limited basis. I have certainly demonstrated a lack of self-control with my eating habits. While I was one of the luckier people whose figure suffered fairly little for those choices, my health did. The irony is I was never called out for my lack of will power. I even received kudos for my ability to maintain my figure as I aged. Yet friends who made healthier choices, exercised more and worked harder than I did faced criticism and judgement simply because their metabolism didn't work as well as mine.
Why are we so body obsessed? When did we make it Ok for a person's body to become a measurement of who they are? We all face challenges. Some are harder than others. We are successful at conquering some of those challenges, some remain a battle for our entire lives, and some we simply fail at. The only difference for the heavier person is that their challenge is visible to everyone around them and that leaves them a target for this last form of seemingly acceptable discrimination disguised in a cloak of concern.
In my quest to get healthy I may end up with a better body, but it won't be my body that ultimately defines my success. It will be my ability to live longer, do more and be a better me.
amen sister!
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