Skinny Girls--My Response

Exactly what kind of bitching are we talking about that fat people make about skinny people? There are some very valid "bitching" points to be made.

1. Hollywood and Supermodel Skinny
The image perpetuated by Hollywood and the presentation as the supermodel's figure as the perfect body is a very negative one. It is a valid bitching point. It causes many young girls to develop eating disorders in an attempt to attain this unrealistic and unhealthy goal weight.

2. Skinny or thin people who complain that they're fat to a fat person
Another VERY valid bitching point. It happens all the time and is completely rude and thoughtless. Often, the thin person is trying to attain the Hollywood/Supermodel image of beauty and ignoring the fact that their body shape and weight is already perfect. It's extremely sad that people, specifically women, are expected to be all the same shape and weight. Some people are healthier a few pounds over the ideal weight on some weight chart, and some people are healthier a few pounds under. (And for some, the difference is even more than just a few pounds.)

3. Skinny people who think they're better than fat people
This idea is completely ridiculous, and yet many skinny people think so. This can mean many things. Many thin women think they are more attractive than overweight women and are not shy about emphasizing their point quite loudly. This is erroneous, however, because many men are more attracted to a curvier woman than a thin one. Not all, of course. The idea that a wife needs to blame herself for her husband's attraction to other women, though, is totally stupid and insulting. There is a big difference between simple attraction and downright ogling, anyway. I don't care if you're a thin wife with a husband who drools over the voluptuous women or a voluptuous woman with a husband who drools over thin women. That doesn't mean you have to change your body or that you can be blamed for his drooling. If that were the case, then it would LOGICALLY follow (no matter what Brittney's fornication/adultery disclaimer said) that the wife is ultimately responsible for her husband's infidelity.

Also, many thin women might think they are better than an overweight woman in all areas of life. She might think she's more disciplined, stronger, a better worker, and have a better personality. These are not connected issues, however. Overweight women can be all of those things. Which brings me to my next bitching point...

4. Fat women may bitch about their weight if they feel like it
There are reasons for being overweight other than simple laziness and overeating. For instance, many young girls develop something called "Poly-cystic Ovary Syndrome." or PCOS. Because of a hormonal imbalance (although I'm sure it's a bit more complicated than that), weight gain is caused. This IS something that can be controlled in most girls, but if the girl doesn't know she has the syndrome, it is likely that traditional means just won't work, or at least not work well. In fact, if the syndrome is not diagnosed in puberty, an older woman with PCOS might have an even harder time losing the weight. This is a fairly new discovery, so we have a lot of women who are newly diagnosed and finally getting treatment. (This syndrome also can make a woman infertile--a little more serious than extra weight, in my opinion.)

While I will say that often overweight people are that way because of lifestyle habits and decisions, it is wrong of anybody else just to assume that is the case. And losing weight is a difficult endeavor, and anyone attempting it shouldn't have to listen to some skinny person "motivating" them.

5. Women who are classified as being "fat" but aren't have a right to bitch
I don't care if it's an extra 5 pounds or an extra 40. Some women are HEALTHY and beautiful over the "industry standard." Any healthy woman who is told that she is fat has a right to bitch about it. In fact, there have been scientific studies to show that women who've been labeled as "fat" are much healthier than thinner women.

6. CLOTHES
I don't care what size you are--nobody wants to wear a mumu. And nobody should have to. Overweight women, who, as Brittney pointed out, comprise something like 60% of the population, but are stuck with about 25% of the clothes sold. Usually, the "plus-size" sections are hidden away and contain the ugliest clothes EVER. While I agree that no one should wear clothes with "fat rolls" hanging out, as Brittney so sweetly pointed out, there are many stylish designs that look fabulous on overweight women. The problem comes when plus-size lines are merely enlargements of thin-people styles, or tents with big flowers on them. Neither looks good on most plus-sized bodies. Thankfully, there are more and more plus-size lines that look good. It's about time.

7. Overweight women have a right to bitch about thin bitches.
A disclaimer right off--not all thin women are bitches. Most of them are quite nice! I bring up this point because I highly doubt that the fat girls in Brittney's high school were bitching about the skinny girls getting all of the hot dates. More than likely, the skinny girls were insulting, deriding, and mocking the fat girls. Brittney makes it sound like the poor skinny girls were so abused by the fat girls. Oh, the cruelty, the humanity! If the fat girls were bitching about the skinny girls getting dates, it was probably because they just couldn't understand what the guys saw in such shallow girls. (You can tell they're shallow because of the use of the word "fat," and the assumption that the fat girls only bitch about skinny girls getting all of the hot guys.) Was Brittney in on these fat girl conversations? How did she know what they were talking about?

So you see, I simply don't see where fat women are bitching so much about skinny women. It is true that women with realistic bodies often deride the negative body image perpetrated by hollywood, but I think most women, fat or thin, would agree that some women are naturally skinny and are healthiest that way. The problem comes in when someone, NOT a doctor, tells a woman with a curvy body that she needs to change. And she has every right to bitch about that.

-Katarain, a happily married overweight woman (and *gasp* my husband thinks I'm sexy and beautiful. Imagine!)