I'm back to being my #hardassthugtasticgangsta self.
It has been brought to my attention that sizism and fatphobic tendencies are more hegemonic than ever before.
It was bad enough that I could turn on my television and no matter what I was watching and no matter the network, I would see a commercial about some food claiming to help me lose weight, some exercise equipment that would help me lose weight, some new fad diet that would help me lose weight, some new program that would help me lose weight, some diet pill to help me lose weight...you see the picture.
What's even worse is that now, we have a group of shows telling us about how our fat asses aint worth literal shit!
We already had The Biggest Loser and all it's so-called "inspiration" and melodrama. Now, other networks are taking it on to show us that we all can be beautiful and love ourselves if we'd get our fat asses out the refrigerator and worked out just like these self-loathing individuals. A&E has Heavy and MTV has I Used To Be Fat. They think that by watching these stories, we'd aspire to put down the ice cream and seven-course meals to be on our way to slimmed-down beauty and society's acceptance.
In addition, Jennifer Hudson won't shut up. Every time my television is on, I get to hear her sing and talk every commercial break about her weight loss and how we can do it too!
This pervasive bullshit is sickening, and it contributes to number of women with eating disorders and body issues.
Everywhere we turn, someone is telling us to lose weight, lose the love handles, lose the arm fat, but no one is telling us to love ourselves.
Even worse, what's being inculcated into viewers is that we will love ourselves ONLY when we lose weight. We'll stop bullying and teasing ONLY when we lose weight. That all plus-sized, fat, big, what-have-you, people are sitting around stuffing and hating themselves because they're fat. It's wrong, and it's ridiculous.
There are lies being told. Losing 90 pounds in 90 days like one girl from I Used To Be Fat who was on The View yesterday is not healthy. And she claims she'll keep it off once in college, but she's not going to be working out the 3-7 hours a day like she was doing as a home-schooled seventeen-year-old. She clearly has issues that need to be addressed through counseling. And more, what's going to happen when she gains weight, oh and she will gain weight? She'll only have love and self-acceptance tied with being smaller. She'll go back to binge eating. Those psychological scars will not have healed. The problems will still be there. She's simply on a road to inevitable disappointment.
This society, this world has a sick obsession with being skinny, disguised as being "health-conscious." There are too many people, some of whom I know, who have troubling views about themselves, their bodies, and other people. I'm worried about the things they say about themselves and the value they associate with having a smaller body, as well as the idea that one will finally love oneself when smaller. You won't. Until you work through those issues, you'll just find something else to hate and obsess over. Until we deal with our insecurities, no matter our size, we'll never find happiness. Losing weight for others doesn't work. When you realize you're fabulous no matter size and you love yourself unconditionally, the weight doesn't matter.
This is a burden undeservingly and unnecessarily owned by women. We own our insecurity. We dress it up, deify it. We put it on a pedestal. We obsess over it. And we refuse to discard it. But how can we when everywhere we turn, we're told we're not good enough? That no one will ever love us if we don't fix our fat asses? That we'll always be alone and worthless?
This bothers me so much. And until we as women collectively decide that this is not right and we don't need to accept this, it will stay the same. And we all will be forever barraged by Jennifer Hudson's damn vocals.
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