I know the fat shamers on the anti-fat Reddit threads and the "concern trolls" all over the world will disagree heartily, but I am allowed to take up as much space as I want to take up. And, you know what else? I do not OWE IT TO ANYONE to be fat and healthy, either.
Contrary to popular opinion, I can be fat and healthy if I want to be. I can also be fat and unhealthy. Fat people have existed as long as humans have existed, so get used to us. We're not going to go and hide just because a bunch of people who have a lot of time to waste on a computer are creating hate sights dedicated to making fun of our fat body. I've been fat for over 30 years. My fat skin is extra thick and used to your vile and mean comments. They roll right off my back. (And right over my fat ass, too.) And, the mean threads that are started by the fat haters actually fuel my fire and serve as a reminder as to how much there is still to do in the Body Acceptance movement.
To me, it's plain and simple: You get to exist any way you want to exist. As Pink so eloquently put it recently when being attacked about her body: "I'm not worried about me. And I'm not worried about you, either. I am perfectly fine, perfectly happy, and my healthy, voluptuous and crazy strong body is having some much deserved time off."
Pink is saying what a lot of us "fatties" in the Body Acceptance movement repeat over and over. "My body, my business. Your body, your business." I have had my run-ins with people (total strangers) trying to police my body and the customers of my lingerie boutique. I even was on CNN talking about the right to be fat and wear lingerie. My boutique and I got embroiled in a fierce media debate about whether or not my plus size lingerie boutique glorifies obesity.
I think it's happiness that really infuriates and confuses some fat haters. People are often baffled when they see happy fat people. And when you add in the idea that we are not addicted to dieting or working out or obsessed with the notion that we should become some thin version of ourselves, well, that really throws the shamers and haters for a loop. I literally had to defend, on national TV, our right to exist as fat women who want to wear sexy and very revealing lingerie. All bodies are good bodies. All bodies deserve to be celebrated. No one body is better than another body.
So, yes, you can EXIST and take up more space than your neighbor. You do not have to qualify that existence with a "but, I am fat and healthy." You don't have to justify anything to anyone about your body and what it looks like on the outside or the inside. The people who want to police your body are just sad, unhappy people with way too much time on their hands. They have nothing better to do. Me, on the other hand, I have shit to do. And, the first item on my TO-DO list is to help fat, thick, curvy women to find some sexy lingerie and help them celebrate their fat, luscious bodies.
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