So one of my all time favorite places to shop is Fashion Bug. They have a decent selection of fat girl clothes at really reasonable prices -- and amazing sales. Now, for anyone who isn't fat you may not have noticed but fat girl shopping is different than skinny girl shopping. Typically if there are fat girl clothes (and there aren't in MOST stores -- and a lot of time even if they have it the selection is geared toward the Mu mus and granny clothes) they are in the back of the clothing section, unmarked, and hidden so that, unless you are fat, you don't even know that special sizes for the big girls exist. What kind of message does this send to the fatties of the world? The same message that the media and your parents have been sending since we are small children... "Don't acknowledge the fatties, it will embarrass them if you stare or notice that they are fat."
Trust me, we are very aware that we are fat. You noticing or looking at us isn't going to make it worse.. in fact most fat people already assume that everyone is staring and making fun of them anyway so whether you actually are or not doesn't really matter. (I like the word Fat and Fat Girl more than Big girl, bigger, plus size, etc.. plus while it may make people initially uncomfortable they tend to open up to me once they realize that I have a sense of humor about who I am and am OK with what I look like)
But the message that we are embarrassing and must be hidden is damaging. If a fat girl wears clothes that actually fit and don't hang off her, she is made fun of (now if they are too tight and you can see the outline of each of her rolls she needs some fashion help). But we are constantly bombarded with images of perfect beauty that even size 8's are damaged by and the fashion industry is made for them. How do you think those images affect people who are a size 18 or 28? And on top of that you have well meaning friends and family saying things like "You'd be beautiful if you'd lose weight" or "I don't care if you're fat, I love you anyway." Like I'm not good enough as I am or that they have to go against society to be my friend...
They mean well... but comments like those can slowly kill a person -- so keep them to yourselves... The other one that kills me is when other fat people, who just happen to be less fat than me.. try to tell me how to or that I need to lose weight... PLEASE...
I'm not going to lie and say that I'm HAPPY with my looks, but nor would I say I'm unhappy... Life would sure be a lot easier if I were skinny -- but I've never been one to take the easy road, nor have I ever been one to conform to what other people want from me either... Either take all of me as I am or get the hell out of my way... that's pretty much my motto.. I don't sit and obsess about my weight - hell last time I went to the doctor the nurse almost fell out of her chair when she took my blood pressure... it was on the higher end of normal, but it was perfectly normal and could have been high because the doctor had just pissed me off... when I say normal - it was perfectly normal for a skinny person.. she almost fell out of her chair because based on my weight she was expecting it to be much higher -- same with my glucose test... HA! Take that health and diet industry!! Apparently I didn't need to lose weight to lower my blood pressure.. just needed to change jobs.. LOL
Anyway, back to Fashion Bug (I'd apologize for the fat rant, but I'm not sorry at all). So, I love Fashion Bug because the fat girl clothes weren't in the back they were just half of the store and the skinny girl clothes were the other half and they have clothes geared toward my age and younger -- as well as mu mus and granny clothes. I've been shopping there for years and typically when you go in to a Fashion Bug -- no matter which one-- the fat girl clothes (or "Plus Sizes" if you will) were on the right side of the store and the skinny girl (Or "Misses" if you will) were on the left. Now I like Fashion bug because their clothes are cheap, and I spill so I'm not ruining a $100 shirt. Well my friend Jess is down for the weekend and we went shopping. Fashion Bug was a good place to go because she isn't fat and I am... So we walk in and I head to the right, which is typically my section and I direct her to the left. But I'm looking and I see plus sizes on one rack and Misses sizes on the rack next to it. There was a sales clerk standing there so I said, "Am I stupid or are these sizes mixed up?" She said that their corporate offices reorganized their stores and instead of the fat and skinny sides (My words not her's) they now have the casual clothes on one side and the dress/work clothes on the other. Clothes are sized by rack and not by the side of the store. She said eventually all of the clothes will be intermingled and they will no longer have "Plus" sizes separate from the rest of the sizes. My response was "Oh, so they desegregated the fat kids huh?" she gave me something of a shocked look but it startled a laugh out of her.
So, friends, Fashion Bug is taking a large step into normalizing fat people. We now get to intermingle with skinny people when shopping for clothes...
Oh no, what if we convert them and everyone starts thinking that it's ok to be fat and just be who you are as long as you are happy? What if fat people stop thinking they are freaks of nature and that they are just as good as everyone else? What would the world come to?
Probably a much happier place... desegregation is a good thing
No comments:
Post a Comment