Larger women pretty much have two options to choose from, if they want to be in the spotlight:
1. Ashamed, constantly apologising for their weight and doing everything they can to change (think crying on Dr. Phil or being yelled at on The Biggest Loser).
Or
2. Ashamed, constantly mentioning their weight, but funny and always cracking jokes at their own expense (think Rebel Wilson in ‘Fat Amy’ or Melissa McCarthy in ‘Mike and Molly’).
That’s it.
If a fat woman has the audacity to live her life out of the shadows without first changing her body, it always seems to be under the guise of hating herself or making fun of herself.
This system has become so familiar, that when large women are portrayed without any shred of shame or humour at their own expense, it causes international shockwaves.
Case in Point: The Full Beauty Project, a collection of photos by photographer Yossi Loloi. The collection features various women posing nude in a series of beautifully shot photographs. But nude photos are hardly a revelation, so why are the pictures making international headlines?
Because the women posing in them are fat.
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So wait, if I display a nude photograph of a person who happens to have cancer or diabetes, am I promoting that health condition? If I post a nude photo of a person eating a candy bar or drinking a beer, am I promoting tooth decay or alcoholism? If I post pictures of beautiful old people or showing someone with a sunburn or with their arm in a sling or missing teeth or recovering from a stroke, will everyone fall all over themselves expressing CONCERN and HORROR and WORRY about the subject's HEALTH and how they shouldn't be made ROLE MODELS? Or will you just look at all those photos as photos and go on with your life?
But post a picture of a woman whose appearance doesn't conform to insanely unrealistically narrow conventions for beauty, and here come all the guardians of our morals and well-being to show their profound interest in her health.
Ok, being over weight increases your risk of other lifestyle related conditions -wow that's ground breaking guys, never heard of that before huh? The truth of it is, we've had that message shoved down our throats for decades and it hasn't made a shred of difference. If anything its just made us more unhealthy because society makes us feel so crap about ourselves. Being over weight myself in the past, I can tell you that for anyone who's overweight and has health issues, that journey to a healthier life MUST start with loving yourself. If you don't love who you are RIGHT NOW, you never will and will end up making choices for the wrong reasons i.e. losing weight so society will stop judging you, instead of toning up and eating well to make you FEEL better. Not the way to go people! Let's get over ourselves and just accept people for who they are. It's only then, in a supportive, accepting society that we can be well -not just physically well, but emotionally and mentally well also! -society tends to forget this a lot.