The thousand humiliations

[miera_c]

Kate Harding weighs in on Kevin Smith and "too fat to fly":
I think of the thousand humiliations, small and large, most fat people have already endured in their lives -- the insults from family and "friends," the cow-calls on the street, the discrimination, the bullying, the news every day that their bodies constitute a horrifying crisis for the

Comments

[lilacsigil]

One thing that FA has taught me is that my body is not public property. I haven't really got rid any internalised shame most days, but I am much better at not putting up with bullshit. I went to a cinema and didn't fit in the seats (because they had huge metal drink holders installed on otherwise perfectly sensible arms), so I walked right out again and demanded a refund rather than follow my first instinct, which was to slink away. I got my refund (along with a whine of "I didn't make the seats!") and wrote them a letter of complaint, which got no response. I was delighted to read a slam on the cinema by a (male) movie critic a few weeks later describing how uncomfortable and narrow their seats were - the cinema said that no-one had ever complained before, but a whole lot of reader comments said otherwise!

Then again, I know I modify my behaviour to try to avoid these situations - I don't want to get on a plane, ever. Bah.

[stexgirl2000]

I :heart: Kate Harding.

[xandra_lj]

Wow. That's an amazing article. Thanks for posting the link.

[rosewildeirish]

Thought you might like this piece on weight gain being a good thing for an Olympic athlete - a figure skater (ice dance) at that.