When Not-At-All-Ample is friends with Not-At-All-Skinny, the world
seems like a funny place; albeit only through the rear view mirror. How so? Let
me take you through it.
To the one who is Not-At-All-Ample they say:
“Have some more. Don’t be shy. You’re
thin. You can afford to eat as much as you please.”
And to the one who is Not-At-All-Skinny they say:
“See. Look at her! She’d asked for just one roti
but I gave her two. And she ate just one. But you? You’d have eaten both....”
Do you see something wrong with those statements?
If you see nothing wrong with either of those statements or you see
something wrong with just one of the above statements, then you my friend are someone
this post in particular (and this blog in general) are dedicated to.
If you see something wrong with both those statements, then you’re the
kind we need more of.
Somehow it became acceptable to call someone fat or thin.
Until, very recently, when the ‘real-girls/women-have-curves’ movement
took over and it became fashionable to single out the not so curvy ones! It was (and still is) considered downright rude and insensitive to make fat-girl jokes.
What
happened to the curvy boys and men no one knows. No wait, it’s a beer belly hence
it’s fashionable to have one, I guess.
So then it was deemed (presumably) that you, Skinny girl, shall be the
focal point of all things size. And focal point literally translates into:
Sympathy (Oh! You poor thing. Mustn’t
you put on some weight?),
Condescension (You’re such a
weakling),
Envy (I wish I could be as thin
as you),
Mockery (Do you pick your stuff
from the kids’ section?)
“Hey skinny” you say and
quickly cover up saying you meant that in good jest. Yeah. The world is a funny
place. Funny, only if you’ve resolved to not let all things this provoke you.
What baffles me is how it doesn’t matter what role genetics or
sometimes just good old metabolism had to play.
And as ironic as it may seem, in
the grand scheme of things it matters little who says it. Between you and me,
we’ve heard and seen equal number of people along the ‘Ample to Not So Ample’
continuum who’d come to mind right now for having made such remarks.
Is there a threshold, then, or a safe spot where how much (or little)
you weigh is accepted?
