MermaidShells

Let me be perfectly clear.

You don’t have constant barrages of people telling you how ‘you should loose a few’ when you count every calorie, you’re vegetarian or vegan and you could kick-box them into the next weekend. You don’t have a body that is predisposed to retain and store fat the way women do. You don’t give birth only to be expected that you must loose all that baby-making weight IMMEDIATELY. You don’t get bullshit where you’re a mother who has just given birth and have guys joke that ‘you really let yourself go over the pregnancy, huh?’ because of course you did making babies is only about eating everything in sight after all.

You don’t have fat guys going around getting the same amount of body shaming that ANY woman ever gets for simply gaining 10 pounds. You don’t have famous male authors getting congratulated on losing weight but not on the fact they’ve had 6 books published and #1 on the best sellers list for months running. You don’t have it coming from all sides in that you can’t be too skinny, but you can’t be too fat and you have to look like this way and you can’t be a prude but you can’t be a slut and every other goddamn no-win bullshit expectation heaped on you at the same time.

You don’t know what it’s like to go to stores and find out your size isn’t your size anymore because the company has ‘relabeled’ the sizing and they don’t carry for you anymore. You don’t have people coming up to you on your wedding day and saying how beautiful your dress is - but overhearing people say that the bride could stand to loose a few pounds. You don’t know what it’s like to have every single goddamn good thing you do be marred by “…but she’s so fat.” You don’t know what it’s like for your worth as a person to be pulled down into only what you look like, because you as a male or even a fat male don’t have those societal expectations.

And don’t give me some bullshit about how ‘fat guys are always made fun of!’ because you really aren’t. Fat guys get to be protagonists of films, TV shows, comic books, their opinions matter and people listen to them. They are looked up to for their talents, skills and abilities. Fat guys don’t get ANY shit for being a public figure and setting bad examples because they’re fat. Fat girls do not have that privilege and if they ever appear just about any form of media they are almost always a sad and pathetic shade of a person and serve as an example of how gross and awkward fat women are (example: Bridesmaids).

Fat girls get shamed for being bad examples as public figures. Fat girls have their abilities and worth questioned not only as parents, but as daughters and sisters and nieces. So no, you don’t know what it’s like. Fat guys don’t regularly get cars full of men AND women slowing down to brutally verbally attack them when walking down the street or going for a jog. Fat girls deal with that crap all the time. Fat guys are more likely to get the job and they get paid more for it. Fat guys have no problem getting a sponsorship for the Olympics. Fat guys are adorable, cuddly and their obesity is excused as such. None of this applies to fat girls. 

While you may have some vague inkling, or small personal experience that you think gives you insight into what all these things are like - you will never fully understand until you actually have ALL that shit put on you too.

So when you ask if I have body and weight issues I will answer: I SURE AS HELL DO AND MOST OF THEM HAVE TO DO WITH MISOGYNISTIC ASSHOLES LIKE YOU.