gallavant

Well, it’s official - two pounds gained this week.  I know it’s hormonal and next week will tell a truer tale, still and all - pffftt.  I have decided to think about why “fat” and calling people fat is so ugly - even if it’s true.  Here is what I have come up with:  take a vice- any vice - maybe you like to fry kittens for breakfast on occasion, maybe you are opinionated, or envy your neighbor, or have a secret lust for David Hasselhoff - whatever inner flaw it is that you have - now paint a mental picture of what that vice looks like - it’s okay, it’s just you and your mind - no one has to know what your vice looks like - paint it “red of tooth and claw” so to speak.  Paint it ugly - paint it real - it’s on the inside, no one can see it - got it in your mind?  What does a lust to eat fried kittens look like, after all?  Not so pretty.

Now take that flaw and staple it to your forehead.  The cat is out of the bag.  Everyone knows that you like to eat fried kittens for breakfast - it’s right there for all the world to see.  Whenever you walk by a kitten, people watch to see if you are going to gobble it up.  Every time you look in the mirror, all you see is “kitten fryer” - not mom, not hard worker, not loving partner - just that damn kitten munching urge.  People feel free to comment on your kitten frying - it has become a matter of public debate -Talk show hosts have entire shows on the damage to society that your kitten fryin’ has created.   You are now defined by your flaw.

That is what being fat feels like.  My flaw is out there.  Everyone who sees me knows that I am overweight.  People watch to see what I will choose at the “All you can eat buffet”.  When I look in the mirror, I see the excess weight.  If it were any other flaw - like a secret lust for Daivd Hasselhoff - I could keep it to myself.  My boss’s opinion of me and my work does not change because of my secret love of excess chest hair.  I can look in the mirror and not see Lust for Weird Eighties Icon staring back at me. 

So, what is the point, why is the word “fat” so damn ugly?  O.k, it’s a flaw.  But let me name it something which does not define me.  There is a huge difference between “she is opinionated” and “she is a bitch” - “opinionated” is a character flaw - “bitch” is a definition of the whole person.  Words like “overweight” or “obese” are flaws a person has - “fat” is a definition.  I am overweight.  Fact.  I am also an awsome grandmother, a hard worker, a loyal friend.   I am Fat - when I go there, that’s all there is.  Fat.  Kitten Fryer.

That’s all, ya’ll.