Why Fat shaming is Hurtful and unacceptable.

What is going on with all the fat shaming of people in the media lately? Do people think it’s clever? Does it make people feel superior to belittle others or do they believe they are simply telling it or calling it as it is?
Katie Hopkins criticised the singer Kelly Clarkson for still carrying some of her baby weight a year later. A larger man was criticised on social media by a group of despicable men (in my opinion) for possessing the sheer audacity of wanting to dance and enjoy himself and then suffered the indignity of having his photos paraded on social media in an attempt to shame him for being heavier than they felt was socially acceptable.
The man’s dejection was captured in one of those pictures when he realised people were pointing and laughing at him and it is an image that will stay with me and touch my heartstrings for a long time.
You see I’ve been that man (not literally obviously) but I’ve been a fat person and am still overweight or maybe under tall! At my smallest I was a size 10, at my biggest a size 22. Let me tell you, speaking from personal experience, we don’t need to be shamed. The majority of us already despise ourselves for being unable to manage our weight without other people commenting on it.

For those women who say they are big and happy I salute you and your confidence although I don’t know anyone personally who feels that way.

For those who say if you don’t like being overweight do something about it, eat less, move more, the vast majority of us are trying to. The problem with this approach is it is only a partial solution and doesn’t examine the nitty gritty of why we over eat.

I have been a member of our local gym for the last year and gone quite regularly apart from gaps for sickness etc but I probably only weigh a little less than when I began. In my situation I still eat too much.

Each day, as larger women we are bombarded on all sides with society’s ideals of what a woman should look like and in a world where a size 12 is now considered plus size you can understand how we feel irked sometimes and unattractive.

Every day an emotional eater or a larger person faces a battlefield of obstacles to be overcome. We may be trying to diet and eat healthily, we may succeed at breakfast time and lunch time and then come home and completely undo all the good work we have done by bingeing or snacking. Why? Perhaps boredom or  a sly dig about our appearance or life that someone has seen fit to throw our way. The thing is over eating doesn’t make sense to us either but we don’t know how to over come it. It is a vicious circle because we then despise ourselves for being weak and blowing our healthy eating and because of that we eat some more.
There are no easy answers just some good and not so good days. Isn’t it time we showed ourselves and others a little kindness? Given the fact we are all fighting our own unseen battles and with all the real important events going on in the world wouldn’t it just be good to accept people as they are?
And I’ll leave you with this quote from Pinterest.