Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The Double Standard: Volume I

I only say "Volume I" because I'd be utterly shocked if I didn't have a post in the future titled Double Standard again, so I'm preparing! Anyways, a trend I've been noticing from stores such as Abercrombie and Fitch, H&M, Hollister, Express, and pretty much any store that's considered popular nowadays is that sizes have been downgraded to XS-L. Where stores used to keep things even, with a nice S-L or XS-XL, we now have sizes that are considered quite small as opposed to quite big. This furthers to show what my actual point is: In society, it's more acceptable to be anorexic than overweight. If you find out someone is anorexic, you immediately feel terrible for them and try to help them. If someone is overweight, however, all you can do is yell "PUT DOWN THE FORK FATTY!!" thinking that it's as simple as that. As far as you know, this overweight person could have a binge eating disorder, which is, like anorexia, considered an eating disorder. Some people are fat by design, others by poor eating habits, others still by eating disorders. If you found out someone had a binge eating disorder, you would probably tell them to just stop eating, and perhaps even bring out the aforementioned cry to "PUT DOWN THE FORK FATTY." In all honesty, though, would anyone ever tell an anorexic to "PICK UP THE FORK, SKINNY!" Unless you're Maddox or a mean Hollywood critic, the answer is more than likely NO. Why has it become so acceptable to embrace some for their illnesses, yet shun others for theirs? Now don't get me wrong, not all fat people are fat because of an eating disorder, but by the same token not all skinny people are skinny because of anorexia. We all have different body types, but the skinnier you are the more people wish to look out for you. The bigger you are, though, the more people wish to push you away. This I believe has a lot to do with the stories and movies you see as a child, but that's a post for another day!

I guess I mean to say that the moral of the story is, if someone is ill, be supportive. If someone is not ill but has a body type that society doesn't particularly agree with, accept the fact that we are all different.

NOTE: This post has been written in a slightly discombobulated fashion due to miss XXLA listening to Shiny Toy Guns and being unable to focus completely on the post. That is all.

x

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, my name is Robyn and I'm just a little older than you - a soon to be college sophomore at a Western Massachusetts liberal arts school. I, too, have a "Fat Blog" and I'm going to add you to my blogroll. Here's my URL if you're interested:

www.curvature.wordpress.com

Maya's Granny said...

Hi, I'm, as my blog title says, a granny. I'm 65 and I wish that when I was your age I had known as much about body image as you do. Welcome to blogging. I'm very impressed with your writing and your wisdom.

Anonymous said...

Good post.

 
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