Let ME eat Cake!

Off Our Backs, Nov/Dec 2004 by Guiste, La Nell

...when insurance companies will partner with affordable, fun fitness programs as readily as they do with drug companies and bariatric surgeons,

...when health clubs regard positive body image and health as equally as their own pocketbooks,

...when doctors stop considering a high Body Mass Index the cause of all health issues,

...when children will be taught in school that ill-intentioned jokes are wrong, for any reason-yes, even ones about fat people,

...when Mattel finally confesses to the fact that "Working Woman" Barbie called in sick, because she was too fucking thin to menstruate,

...when the fat women in Hollywood are having great sex on screen, instead being portrayed as single maternal gossiping secretaries!

...when the majority of the American public will realize that many factors determine a person's weight, not the consumption of one helping of dessert. So next time you reach for that loaf of Atkins brand bread, think twice. And if you can't bite your tongue while I'm enjoying dessert in your company, consider walking away. I may not be as silently polite to you as I was that young woman in the dressing room. You just may get a slice of humble pie, and a complimentary piece of my mind.

I haven't shared my personal childhood experiences for the purpose of publishing my own pity party. I'm sharing it for the women who are still uncomfortably living in their own skin. Their pain, humiliation, and anger are very tangible. I believe an insane percentage of diets fail because people have not first accepted themselves as they are. Most of the diet and exercise plans marketed these days feed on the self-hatred of our own bodies. It's not for anyone else but my doctor and me to decide what is healthy for me. Any unsolicited comments that speak otherwise, well intentioned or not, are simply discrimination.