Try and imagine this: you're at some kind of social gathering: a picnic, a
barbecue, a party, any place where people gather. An overweight man comes in and
he's immediately surrounded by other men laughing and talking, "Hey, guy, you
must have played some ball in high school and college.
Yep, yep, a big guy like
you. What were you? A receiver? Linebacker? Do you still play ball?" Then an
overweight woman steps into the room, and what happens? "Just look at that," the
crowd starts to whisper. "Why would she let herself get that way? What a shame."When men are overweight, people think it's because he was once an
athlete, usually a football player. He is looked on with respect and even
thought of to be prosperous.
When a woman is overweight she is considered
sloppy, not in control of herself, with a sad lack of will power. Why is that?
I'm not sure. But I think it's because women are expected to be close to
perfection all of the time. Our society is constantly telling women what size
they should be, and that they should look younger than they really are. And the
hardest lesson that women are taught is that they should be ashamed of
themselves if they have not achieved all points of physical perfection. Magazine
articles and pictures of "super models" keep these ideas around as if it was
normal and easy for women to look like that. And somehow we all, including
women, believe it.
Now, I think it's wonderful that overweight men are
given respect. I think it is fine, in fact. I would just like society to give
overweight women the same respect. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that women
themselves don't give other women who are overweight any respect at all. How
can women expect equal consideration in the work place and in mixed social
gatherings from men and society on the whole, when they don't show any respect
towards each other? You would think that women would know better; that the only
outcome of putting easy nasty labels on other women is that one day it will
backfire, and those nasty labels might be put back on themselves.
The
lack of respect and the teasing that women show towards each other starts early
in life. All children, as young as five or six, start teasing each other if one
of them looks different from the rest. This is especially true in young girls.
They look at the same magazines and the same television programs that their
mothers do, and they see how society puts beautiful, thin people up on a
pedestal. They understand that this is how they are expected to look. If parents
don't teach their children otherwise, how can we ever expect this problem to be
solved?
The best thing for all people to do is to try to have a good
self image about themselves. I know, it is easier said than done, but it is
true. If you walk into to a room with a good feeling and with an attitude of
respect towards yourself, it shows, and you are regarded more highly by others.
This is a fact, no matter what you may look like.
