I
feel anger rising within me as I write this. And I have a reason. No wait. I
don’t have just a reason, I have reasons. I haven’t really ranted on my blog
except for a few occasions here. But this rant is much stronger than all my
earlier rants because of the way this topic has been attached to me since ‘I
don’t know when’. So here we go.
I
have always been on the heavier side of the weighing scale all my life. You
read it right, all my life. Atleast from the time I remember. But that’s not
the point here.
The
point here is the general attitude of society towards people on the heavier
side of the scale. The attitude where they think it is their birth right to
make fun of overweight people. Just like the way, they think it is our moral
obligation to be made fun of. The attitude where they think that being on the
heavier side of the scale is a sin and hence we deserve to be made fun of. So
go ahead, make fun. Because we are like this out of choice and find sheer joy
in being overweight. Right? Wrong. I am sorry to break it to you that we hate
being your source of free entertainment. And that nobody, just nobody likes to
be on the heavier side of the scale, for being mocked for the way our bodies
are made differently than yours and for the way our bodies react differently to situations and circumstances. And
that when you pass a judgement or make fun of my body, it does not define me, it
defines YOU as nothing more than an insensitive buffoon. And
everytime I don’t react to your mockery, it is not because I do not have an equally
sarcastic and demeaning comment about you, but it is because I do not wish to
downgrade myself at your doltish levels.
Right
from acquaintances, relatives, friends to colleagues to total strangers, I have
been mocked for my body for the number of times I do not even remember with comments
as stupid as the fact that I carry huge bags because I need to carry a large lunch
box fitting my size. How lame. How stupidly lame. Or wait. There is something
even lamer. Like the time when I was running around in the office for getting
some work done. And pat comes the comment asking me stop running because the staircase
could fall. Right. Coz you see, I weigh equivalent to crane capable of
bulldozing an entire building. Wow. Just Wow. This is just the tip of an
iceberg of the nasty comments I have heard over the years.
And
then there is something equally irksome. The way everybody turns into so-called
experts on my body. The way they think they have the right to suggest me remedies
to reduce my weight. Because I have no clue how to do it and because I do not
know how to handle my body and because they are on the right side of the scale,
they obviously have more fitness gyaan than what I have and hence they
are obliged to throw their bizarre suggestions for weight loss in my face. As
if I am suffering from some terminal illness and they are doing their bit of
social service by providing their valuable suggestions.
The
more I think about such comments and instances, the more it angers me. Not just
because they were said about me but more because of the way our society behaves and
general perception of the people towards this topic. The way people have
no clue that fat shaming does not motivate anybody to lose weight and that it affects people at much deeper psychological levels than they could
ever imagine.
There
was a time when this mockery affected me for days. It affects me. Still.
Ofcource not to the extent it used to. Because today I accept myself and my
body much more heartily than I used to. And that does not mean I do not work
towards making myself more fit. This just means that I accept my curves and my stretch marks much more today than I did earlier.
But not everybody can cope with fat shaming. Even I haven’t learnt to
cope with it completely. But then why can't people understand that making fun of
people for their overweight body is somewhat equivalent making fun of a blind person?
Just like nobody likes to be blind, similarly no one likes being on the heavier
side.
I
have no clue why our society cannot take a heavier person just like everybody
else. Why is there always a need to look down upon me, to mock me or to advise me?
Why can't I be taken as just another person? Why can't I be seen more than
just a body? Why
does every other aspect of my personality hide under the fact that I am overweight?
Because I know that I am much more than JUST a number on the weighing scale.
 |
| Image Source : Google |
