Changing The Word ‘Fat’

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I am a fat woman. You can call me curvy, plus-sized, chubby, big-boned, use any word you want, because I don’t care. All of these words are just euphemisms for the word fat. I’m not ashamed to call myself fat, because that is what I am. Most people have a negative connotation with the word fat. And that is because of the insulting definition that our society has given the word.

When we call someone fat, it is usually in a demeaning manner. It implies that someone is disgusting, or seen as a subordinate human being. In reality, the word fat is no more than a factual adjective. If it’s okay to call someone skinny, then it should be okay to call someone fat. It’s as simple as that. Yet, in our world today, somehow something that seems so uncomplicated is anything but.

The way that overweight women and men are treated is insulting. Only recently have some major retailers began to offer plus-sized clothing. Still, it is difficult for me to understand is why these retailers cannot just extend the sizes of their normal clothes, rather than have to create a whole different clothing line for larger sizes. It is just a way to further ostracize bigger individuals; by telling them that they are unsuitable to wear the same clothes that the normal sized people do.

What even is normal sized? The average American woman wears a size 14. If this is true, than there is no justifiable reason as to why the media portrays most women to be no more than a size 4. In fact, nowadays plus-sized models are considered to be sizes 6 and up. Young women feel as if they need to conform to the perceived ideal body type, even if it is impossible. Eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia nervosa continue to threaten girls as they struggle to achieve a thinner figure.

Even if I really tried, I could never be a size 0. And for the record, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with it. What I am saying though, is that not everyone is made to be a size 0. The world as we know it depends on variety; no two people are the same. We all cannot be the ideal weight. There are always going to be people who are skinny, people who are fat, and people who are somewhere in between. Our society needs to come to terms with this. No one should be mistreated because of his or her weight. Everyone needs to learn to love and embrace their body type, and to be accepting of others, no matter what they look like. In the end, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

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