Thin Privilege - Tumblr Posts

I. HATE. This. Mentality.

NOT EVERYONE HATES THEIR BODY AS IS.

NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO LOSE WEIGHT.

Can we denormalize congratulating people for loss of weight without even ASKING if the weight loss was intentional? Can we denormalize commenting on others' bodies in general? IM SO SICK OF IT.

Crazy I saw this post... my teacher and I were chatting after class today. She asked mid conversation if she could make a comment about my appearance. I told her that was fine and she proceeded to say "I've noticed this year you've gotten leaner" and then waited for my reaction. I responded "Yeah! I was trying to lose about 30 pounds, I achieved it." THEN my teacher gave her thoughts about it.

If you're going to talk about others' bodies, this is how it should be done. First, be sure they're comfortable hearing the comment or having the conversation in general. Then make a NEUTRAL observation on the loss of weight and see their reaction. Determine whether it's a positive or negative development in their life first. Always.

You never know when you could be fueling the fires of an eating disorder when you were just trying to give a compliment.

I once lost about ten pounds from sickness. When I went to tell my aunt the bad news, I didn't get past the first sentence before she congratulated me. I had to inform her that I lost the weight because I couldn't stop throwing up.

Thin privilege is assuming weight loss is a universally good thing.

^^^

Why. Are. These. People. Doctors????

Background: for the past 2 years or so I’ve been dealing with some health issues, that have progressively been getting worse. I’ve been tired all the time, sleeping for 12 hours isn’t enough, weak, had pain in all my joints and muscles (top to bottom), when I get home from work I lay on the couch until I get the strength to get ready for bed, and my most noticeable symptom is weight gain. Over the last 2 years I’ve gain almost 100 lbs in bursts, meaning I’ll gain 50 lbs in 3 months, 2 months later I’ll gain 70 lbs in 4 months, etc. obviously this isn’t normal and I needed medical attention.

Experience with doctors: over the past 2 years I’ve gone to about 5 doctors for these issues. They’ve refused me blood tests because these are all “symptoms” of weight gain, completely ignoring that my weight gain is a symptom. I even had a doctor refuse to treat me until I lost 75 lbs, he literally said he would even give me antibiotics for an infection if I didn’t lose weight! The same guy also told me “of course your joints hurt, you’re getting fat.”

Then, about 6 months ago I started getting horrible, can’t get out of bed, crying all the time depression and decided to seak mental health services. My psychologist is wonderful (we’ve talked about fat phobia and she told me she knows sometimes bigger people are worried about talking over these issues with her because she’s tiny, but she always tries her best to reassure us she is not a bigot and wants to help no matter what - she’s the best). My psychologist thought I could use some meds, so she referred me to a psychiatrist, who is also amazing and probably the best doctor I’ve ever been to. We started talking about mental and physical symptoms and he asked me why I hadn’t been to a doctor about the symptoms I was having, I told him the story, he became visibly angry, and said those people shouldn’t be doctors if they don’t want to help people! The psychiatrist tested my blood for everything, I had to give 5 tubes. Last week, after 2 years, I got the results. It turns out I have a significant vitamin D deficency, which cause all of these symptoms, both physical and psychological. All I needed were supliments that you can buy anywhere. I’ve only been taking them a week and I already feel amazing, including less hungry, no sugar cravings, and way more energy.

There are good doctors who will treat you, unfortunately some of us have to live with horrible pain for years before we can find them. I can’t help thinking that if I had started at 100 lbs instead of 180, I wouldn’t have had these problems getting treatment.

A lot of well meaning thin people just don't see it because they're not looking for it. So it's our job to point it out.

Literally being skinny and becoming more educated in fat liberation is like opening your third eye and you cant go back. Like you start noticing shit you never did before.

Go into the character design tag and look at how many characters are skinny and compare them to how many characters are fat. Go watch several movies see if the fat character is rich or is food obsessed or if theyre the tank or dumb or the comic relief etc. Im not even looking for these it just became blatantly obvious at some point and theyre everywhere

A thin co worker of mine struggling with an eating disorder scoffed at me, a plus sized person, when I told him I have trouble eating enough as well. I admitted this to him in an attempt to reach out, relate, be kind and offer a safe space for him. Yet that's the reaction I received because I'm fat.

I'm so done with fatphobic stereotypes.

Can we take a moment to address the fact that fat people aren't allowed to have a type or taste unless it's other fat people?

If a person with an "acceptable" body type (thin, midsized or muscular) is typically most attracted to another one of these "acceptable" varieties of body that isn't their own... for example a thin person having a type for muscular people... it's normal.

It's just a preference, right?

If anyone with one of those "acceptable" body types listed above is attracted to fat people, it can either be seen as odd or cute. Toxic attitudes towards it range from:

"Aw, I love that you look for personality!" to "Seriously? Look at you! You could do so much better, don't settle for less!" to "Good for you, giving them a chance anyway!"

Even if some of that sounds positive, it's all horribly fatphobic. Not healthy. Not equal. Yet, for the most part, being attracted to fat people when you aren't fat yourself isn't seen as a huge issue or really discussed at all. People might just tell you that you're selling yourself short or have bad taste.

BUT.

If you're fat, all those rules change.

Into muscular builds? Skinny bodies? Midsized frames?

"That's not fair, how do you expect him to stay in shape and be sexy for you when you don't even try to take care of yourself? You would swallow him. He deserves someone who keeps themselves as trim as he is. You should be with someone more your size."

Just because I'm fat, that doesn't mean I suddenly lose all capacity for taste as to what I'd prefer my partner to look like. I'm not less worthy of having a partner I'm attracted to. I don't deserve less say or lose rights to my opinions because of my body type.

I'm attracted to skinny men. That's my type.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't go out with a fat guy or a muscular guy or a midsized guy. Doesn't mean I think fat guys are ugly or muscular men are gross. I'm generally not particularly inclined to other builds rather than thin ones, but if he was sweet to me and checked all my boxes, I would totally go out with him! Without hesitation! Despite his body type.

No one is ugly for their appearance. "Ugly" is something inside you. I don't think that shallow. Fatphobes? They're who's truly ugly.

And racists, sexists, punkphobes, etc.

But still... generally... I have a preference.

It was okay for you.

Why not for me?

I hate the world we live in.

Thin privilege is better pay, particularly if you're a woman.

Thin women are paid more than fat women -- tens of thousands more by some estimates. This means thin women are valued as if they had more years of education and experience than fat women. To be at parity wages with thin women, fat women need to be much more educated (almost two years more education than thin women) and experienced (about three years more experience than thin women).

Researchers trying to determine why, have discovered that fat women are more likely to work in physical jobs and less likely to work in public-facing jobs than thin women. Public-facing jobs are generally better paid. Discrimination against fat women in public-facing jobs, like upper management and performance and waitressing and modeling and sales, could be the reason fat women on average make so much less than thinner women.

The most pay on average nets to relatively thinner women--about a 22 on the outmoded BMI scale.

Finally, take a gander at this absolutely devastating graph that shows a significant negative relationship between BMI/body fat and income for women from the St Louis Fed (2011):

This is thin privilege---massive, obvious, thin privilege.

-ATL

Thin privilege is saving money, or even being able to access air travel at all, by being able to relatively comfortably book middle seats and tight-pitch seats on budget airlines.

Thin privilege is that last-minute $100 round trip.

Thin privilege is being able to afford to visit a dying relative, or being able to afford to be there for a milestone family occasion, or being able to interview outside of the local job market.

I work at a daycare with infants.

One of our baby girls is fat, in the 99th percentile for her age. She is super cute and sweet. Lately, she has been sick with various breathing issues, so she has been reluctant to take her bottles. Normally, she’ll take 4 ounces of formula at lunch and 8 ounces in the afternoon. Today, I was lucky to get to her take 5 all day.

There was a substitute covering a lunch break in my classroom today. We emphasized to her that we need to keep trying to get the baby to drink her bottle until she finished it. She said, “Why are you guys so worried about taking her bottle?”

My coworker replied, “That’s where all her nutrients are. She needs the nutrients and the water.”

To which the substitute replied, “But she’s so fat. She doesn’t need it.”

Thin privilege is a small, pretty baby getting better childcare because the caretaker doesn’t think she’s too fat to be allowed to eat.