"Young, Fat and Fabulous"

So Monday on my self prescribed Mental Health Day, I saw a story on Good Morning America titled "Young, Fat and Fabulous." It was basically about what they considered a growing trend of young women "shunning yo-yo dieting" and accepting themselves as they are, some merely plus-size, some nearing obesity.

Rather interesting stuff to me, although the concept isn’t really new for me. All my life, even though I’ve been exposed to the same propaganda that says “To be attractive you have to be thin” and was told by “concerned” relatives and family friends that I wouldn’t get anyone being my size, I’ve never had the desire to be skinny. True, I’ve wanted to be smaller, for various reasons. But even my ideal weight would be teetering the line of obesity according to the BMI charts I’ve seen. (“They” say I should be somewhere between 120-160. I think I’d look like a skeleton if I lost 100+ lbs. I’d be straight losing about 35lbs; ideally, 60.)

Maybe my attitude comes from the fact that many black women, and especially black women in the south, have been subscribing to this school of thought for many many years. Having some extra meat isn’t really much of a problem here. I mean, of course you have those who are going to make the fat girl jokes here too, but I’ve never felt odd about my size because the women around me looked more like me than the models in magazines. And while I was told “no man is gonna want you if you’re fat,” I also got hip to “Only a dog wants a bone.” Contradictory? Of course! But in addition to—and in spite of—all that, I learned that my beauty & self-worth was predicated on more than whether I could squeeze into a single digit size or how men saw me. So, as I said, the idea of embracing who you are and rejecting the widely accepted idea of what you should look like is nothing new to me.

So kudos to these women for accepting themselves as they are. As long as they are healthy (which they say their doctors have verified) and they are happy, I say, “Do you!”

Link to the article:
'Young, Fat and Fabulous' Shun Yo-Yo Diets - ABC News

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Bonus Link: Plus Sizes disappearing even though Americans are still fat... Why?