My Body Is A Conversation

My body is a conversation.

No matter where I go or how covered up or naked I am, my body is a conversation for those who see me. Being fat in todays society is considered easier than it was in the past because body positivity wasn’t spoken about. Plus size people used to practice the art of not being seen. Now we are more seen than ever before and while many of us have found supportive and loving communities our existence still breeds hate in others.

People have never held doors open for me. They do not offer to help me carry things. They ignore me when I try to ask for directions. Most people on the street would sooner not see me at all than look at me and smile. That is, unless they are within a group and start cracking jokes. I’ve had men walk by me countless times teasing one another about fucking me. “No way! Gross! She has a belly.” Even when I was helping my drunk brother home men would walk by yelling to him warning him that he would regret me in the morning. “Whale!” they exclaimed. Not to mention the times I’ve been stopped while shopping, while out at restaurants or at work events by strangers and told that I would be so pretty if I lost weight. “'You’d have a husband in no time!”

Online, things can be worse. Many plus size models, influencers, public speakers, fashion designers and the like are trolled constantly and there have been groups started and maintained surrounding “Fat Hate”. You can reference a group called “Fat People Hate” on Reddit where members create memes of plus size bodies, post plus size dating profiles which they tear to shreds and refer to plus size people as “hams” and many nicknames. They mostly discuss how disgusting plus size or FAT bodies are and how they hate living in a world that we also inhabit.

Everyone seems to have an opinion about the fat body whether its on display or not and they want you to hear it.

So why not give them something to talk about?