Those “Fat Looks”…
If you’re super fat, you definitely know what I mean. The looks that you get from rude individuals who nudge, comment or make faces as you walk by. I mention “super fat” because while I do believe that fat people of all sizes have received “the look” at some point, only the super fat get to see it on a nearly daily basis. Let me give you an example of why I say that. If a person who is just on the cusp of being “fat”—say a size 14 or so— walks into a restaurant, of the other patrons there, only ~5% of them will even take note of your girth. If you’re a size 20, maybe 10%. At 300lbs, you’re probably garnering 50% attention, even if it’s just a passing glance. If someone comes in at 600lbs, you can be sure that 90% of the restaurant will look. It’s not something they see often, so even if the look is one of admiration, they will have their eyes caught by the girth of the individual coming in.
I probably get a good 60% of the patron’s attention at my size, so I feel pretty attune to those looks to the point where I can predict within a fairly good margin whether or not someone will do the negative “look/nudge/comment”. You have your basic young punks, insecure teenage girls and then…you have the old people. Those are the ones that really surprise me even after years of being this fat and getting ~the look~.
How can someone who has made it to a ripe age of 65+ be so shallow/bitter/rude? Did they learn nothing in all those years? Apparently, wisdom and grace is NOT an automatic token granted upon old age. I fear that all too often, idiots will be idiots to the day they die. I do wonder, too, if the old women who make comments didn’t diet their entire grace away. They’re bitter about denying every last chocolate chip cookie or other indulgence. I guess I’ll never know.
What came to mind this weekend while in Vegas…I think I should start carrying business cards that say something like, “You’re rude!”, “Buy a clue”, “Apparently Grace Doesn’t Come with Age”, etc, etc. I would simply drop off the card as I pass, or maybe stop and go back to drop it off if I hear something offensive after passing by the idiot. I was thinking I could include a website address for those to look for further information. The following URLs are available:
YouShouldBeEmbarassed.com
INeedtoLearnManners.com
NeedtoLearnManners.com
UNeedManners.com
IWasAnIdiotInPublic.com
PublicManners.com
HowToBehaveinPublic.com
HowToPlayNiceWithOthers.com and
PublicIdiocy.com.
What do you think?
(this is a repost from my blog at http://blog.catay.com. I was inspired to post it here after seeing some mention of the difference in treatment for supersize people vs the lower end of plus size. Of course, can I find the link to reference? Ugh, no.)
