A few days ago I had lunch with a female friend of mine. Our waitress was a thin woman – not anorexic looking or anything, just thin.
After we left we chatted on the sidewalk for a while, and she said:
Oh my God! Did you see how skinny that bitch was!?!, in a critical and judgmental tone.
My friend isn’t normally insensitive – and I’m pretty sure if the waitress had been missing all of her hair and looked physically debilitated she wouldn’t have been like:
Did you see how cancerous that bitch looked?!
She wouldn’t have. She isn’t a terrible person.
So, if my friend did in fact feel that our waitress looked inordinately thin (I thought she might just be into Cross Fit) I don’t understand why she would state her opinion in such an aggressive or accusatory manner – after all there are many genetic issues which could lead a person to be underweight – such as a thyroid problem.
Even in Los Angeles, the amount of fat people you encounter is overwhelming. In America, more people are overweight or obese than not. This disproportion led me to believe that my friend has possibly been conditioned to think that people on the thin side of the spectrum are in fact freaks of nature, where as your typical fat-ass is just the normal standard.
We all see morbidly obese people walking around all the time – breathing horribly, buying Dorritos and 20-ounce sodas – actively contributing to their weight problem – regularly eating things that even a healthy person would rarely indulge in – and it doesn’t really seem weird anymore.
Here’s something that my friend has never said to me:
Oh my God, did you see how fat that bitch was?!
Why not? Doesn’t it go both ways?
We have plus-sized models for women who want masturbatory validation. Why not just tell yourself that you’re sexy? It is way easier than working out (which, again, I suspect our waitress may have done.)
Tell yourself whatever you want. Models are thin because thin women evoke sexuality. And that makes people buy clothes.
If you want to argue that there’s nothing wrong with being fat, and ignore the deleterious health effects, that’s fine. But why does that mean that there’s everything wrong with being thin?
I once had an overweight friend tell me that I drank too much one night.
Really, guy? You’re fat.
Do you want to race?
Why is you being fat okay? You can ruin your heart, but you’re keeping tabs on my liver?
Let’s go get physicals right now and compare the results. I’ll get drunk first just to give you a running start. I will win.
Thin people are often thin purely for genetic reasons. Fat people are often fat because they’re lazy and don’t take care of themselves. It can’t be purely genetic – because there aren’t as many fat people in countries with similar genetic demographics – just less leisure time, money, processed food, and double-standard ridden cultural acceptance.
It is much easier to eat than do Cross Fit.
So lay off.