The "Fat Line"

You have probably heard of the “color line”.   I think there is a “fat line”, too.  There’s a big difference in the way overweight women are treated versus how normal weight women are treated.  I’ve been on both sides of that line.

In my adult life, I've been pretty darned overweight, and I've been normal weight (at the top of my normal range).  As an overweight woman, not only do you get ignored at times, you get made fun of.  Most of what I experienced was that lovely type of gossip that is done behind your back, but closely behind your back, meaning I could catch a few words and hear the laughing.  For me, it’s my backside that seems to have inspired derision.  I’ve gotten mooing, comments about having a horse’s behind, and gestures that I can see once I turn around.  Most of that treatment came from young guys.  I know it shouldn’t have bothered me, but it usually did, for days.    

Oh, and here’s one that absolutely slays me:  Fat men who make fun of fat women!!!  It makes me want to pull an Elaine (from Seinfeld).  You know, when George, who’s bald, didn’t want to go out with a bald woman, Elaine cupped her hands around her mouth and shouts, “You’re bald!!”  Apparently, it’s a way bigger sin for a woman to be overweight than a man.

When I’m thinner, I get treated better by everyone.  THIS BLOWS MY MIND!!!  I am the same person.  I own all of the past me’s—the fat me and the normal weight me and the just-a-little-chubby me.  Really, I reduce the fat on my body and I’m treated well but if I increase it I’m treated like dirt????   Maybe it’s human nature, to treat people based on their attractiveness, but it still blows me away.

There’s this discomfort between women, the overweight and the not-overweight.  Ever notice that overweight women tend to be friends with other overweight women, and ditto for thinner women? When I’m closer to normal weight, I’ve seen bigger women refuse to look at me, turn away with a big toss of their hair, or even sensed anger.  To be honest, I just don't know how to handle this.  I used to be where they are.  But when I was large, smaller women didn’t intimidate me because I just told myself I looked fine, and believed it.

No matter what side of the "Fat Line" a woman may be standing on, maybe we should all remember that she may have had a long hard road to get to where she is.