Weight is a hard subject to discuss. A lot like racism it is hard to hear people’s opinion if one belongs to one group of the other. I have been overweight most of my life. I’ve had some periods of time when I was a little lighter, but as I joke about my metabolism checking out with the Y2K, there is a lot of truth to my battle to staying fit.
I have always strived to be in shape and have a nice looking body, not just to be skinny or follow societies standard for beauty. I do not find overweight people repulsive like so many others do. The sad part is that a lot of people that feel that way might be right next to you and you would never know.
Does being fat make me invisible? that is something that I have wondered at times. I have encountered a lot of people that are overweight and are almost shocked when I say hello or smile if we pass by at a mall or sidewalk. I get a look of surprise mixed with disbelief. I then started to understand that sometimes being overweight makes you invisible to others… or in some cases the cause of ridicule or gawking.
While there is a certain level of personal responsibility that goes along with being overweight, there are many factors that contribute to the problem. Some emotional, some hormonal, some cultural, and sometimes all of them at once. I don’t blame Mc Donald’s for making America fat, but I do to some level blame our lifestyle. Food becomes everything but what it is supposed to be… believe me, in other countries they don’t use the term “comfort food” like we do here.
So for whatever reason you are fat… does that make you less of a person? does that make you undesirable to society? Should you then just be sent to a camp with all the other overweight people so that the “pretty, skinny people” can just look at each other?
Our society is very superficial and almost incapable of accepting anything other than the norm. The scary part is that the norm in our society is dictated by pop culture, and more recently celebrity culture. I get to talk to a lot of young people via the motorcycle message board, and I constantly hear put down towards overweight people. It is sad to know that unless you are someone that looks like Barbie or Ken, most young people today will not even look at you.
I strive to lose weight for myself, to feel better physically and mentally. I don’t deny it, I would love to have a six pack instead of a keg for a belly… but it is more vanity than wanting to comply with societies standards which are unrealistic and idiotic. Other cultures look at being overweight as a sign of health, and while that is not what I promote I believe that we need to start looking at people in other ways instead of the groups that their appearance puts them on.
fat, overweight, invisible, race, weight, society, celebrity, culture, pop, young.