So I read this article today and it really struck something in me.


"Senior year in high school, I was the heaviest I’ve ever been, over 300 pounds. A year or two earlier, I’d attempted suicide (which my parents just swept under the rug). Negative self-image? Hell, yeah. I was also only one of a handful of truly fat kids in school, and certainly the most outcast (I totally understand how it is that girls who aren’t the only obese ones in school would have an easier time with their self-images). Moving to town freshman year as a painfully-shy, already-obese kid with a horrendous family life didn’t help much, either. I really didn’t have any friends, though a couple of kids tried, and spent most of my time locked up in my room. I didn’t drink or do drugs at that point, in part because I was terrified of winding up like my father, a drunk. Plus, no friends.

Incidentally, I have a really hard time watching Heathers, as brilliant as that movie is. You see, I was Martha Dumptruck. They had that character down, except for the bit where she thought the guy really had written the note sincerely. No fat girl would ever fall for that."



I was that girl. I am that girl. I've been overweight my entire life, easily the biggest student all through grammar, middle, and high school. And like most overweight students, I was torn to shreds because of it. I have to wonder why though. I mean, what do people hope to accomplish by calling someone a pig, or making fun of them? I can almost guarantee that someone who is overweight already knows it, so you're not telling them something they don't know. Are you trying to, in some warped way, inspire them to lose weight? It may work for some people, but others, it just destroys. I'm one of the people that it hurts. I don't find it helpful, and it doesn't inspire me to work harder to prove something to you. I will lose weight in spite of what you say to me, not because of it. Oh, and let me share something with you. If you are overweight, really overweight, you will probably not notice that they are losing weight right away. Shocker, isn't it? So the person you heckle about their weight? They might be on a diet already! And I'm an emotional eater, so when something hurts me, I lunge for food like a hyena. It's something I struggle with, and having rude comments thrown at me doesn't help. So please, shut the hell up.

I don't understand why it's okay for anyone to belittle someone else. If you hurl a racial slur at someone, chances are someone will speak up in their defense. If you hurl an insult at a fat person, chances are someone else will laugh. Why? What is funny about it?