Fatty McFaterson

I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff about Jennifer Livingston’s response to someone commenting about her weight. In addition to the letter she’s responded to, I’ve also seen a bunch of comments about not blaming her weight on other issues, like thyroid issues, which she apparently has, or any assortment of things, and I’m disgusted by it.

I’m fat. I know I’m fat. I look in the mirror and think ‘yup, I’m fat’. I’m reminded of my fattiness when I get dress, or shower, or do just about anything. I also can’t walk half the time, and that isn’t due to my fatness, but due to a list of things medically wrong with me. Would I like to be able to walk more, or exercise, or do a number of other things to lose the weight? Hell yes. Can I? No. Because the minute I walk for too long, I pay for it for the next few days with pain. Not to mention, the walking is painful in ways you will never understand unless you happen to be in my body. So yes, I’m fat. You have no idea how hard it is to lose weight when all you can do is alter your eating habits. Eating habits which, for the record, are harder to control when you can’t actually stand up and do the cooking because most of the time that’s too painful to do anyway.

So to anyone out there that wants to yell at fat people and tell them that they just need to get off their fat asses, shut up. You don’t know what that person deals with daily, what that person has gone though, or what they do to deal with their condition. They may be dealing with soul-crushing depression, a thyroid issue, or have pain issues like I do. They might be poor and unable to afford a personal trainer or dietitian to help them figure out the best way to help them curb their cravings or bad eating habits. Also, when you’re poor, it’s easier to eat crap food than healthy food. Healthy food is expensive. A box of Ramen is cheap. You can get six of those for a buck. That’s six meals. How many meals does a dollar get you when you’re shopping at Whole Foods?

In closing, I guess I just have to say, stop judging people by what they look like. Wait until you know them better, then judge them. You’d probably have more ammunition by then. Instead of judging someone because they’re overweight, you could be judging them because they like The Lake House or something. If you ask me, that’s a better reason to judge someone. That movie was horrible.