Living in Hell
A Thin Person's World
You know, a lot of the problems for the fat ain't caused by us being 'overweight' (over what weight?) but by a world that refuses to accept us.
Clothes Sizes
Please excuse me while I get onto everyone's favourite hobby horse.Supply is just failing utterly to meet demand. Clothes are made for the thin, for society's ideal, and we have to accept what we are given. And that isn't much. If we can find anything that remotely fits we are to consider ourselves lucky.
Well, I don't. I do not consider myself lucky to wear a famine victim's resized cast-offs. Nor have I any intention of spending my life wearing tents because I do not fit some ridiculous preconception of womanhood.
I am not going to consider myself lucky, let alone happy, until I can find good looking clothes, designed for the larger size (not scaled up - oh, don't get me started on that) at a sensible price.
And if I have to fit wings to a herd of pigs to do it, it'll happen.
Leisure Activities
Nobody caters for the larger people, either women or men. In America it may be changing, but I live in the UK and here there is nothing.When I was twelve I was forced to give up horse riding, which I loved, because my riding instructor said I was too heavy for the horses. For weeks she would hide in the outhouse with the scales on which to measure my secret shame. For weeks I dieted, but the weight still somehow went on, and that was that.
Too heavy for the horses. But as a twelve year old child how could that have been? I wonder now, hearing about riding schools for the fat in America, remembering the solid ponies who carried the plump men who went trekking.
I was too heavy for your horses, perhaps. Why didn't you tell me that there were horses that were stronger?
I still dream about cantering along those woodland tracks. I still cry, remembering that humiliation, the worst of all of them. And that was ten years ago.
So I can't ride, even if I had a hope in hell of finding jodhpurs in my size anymore. Or any exercise clothing in my size. Everybody knows, you see, that fat people don't exercise. How else could they get that way? And, you hypocrites, did you ever think about how we could change that when you won't let us? Gyms and swimming pools are the havens of the thin, and they laugh at us when we seek to invade. So we quietly withdraw, humiliation in hand, to sob away another failed resolution.
So come Saturday, I'm off swimming. And the first comment I hear won't send me fleeing in tears this time. I'm strong now, and I'm angry. And it's past time for people to learn.
Aeroplane Seats
'Normal' sized people complain about those daft things. Is it any wonder that we find them uncomfortable? Pack us in like sardines and make it our fault when we don't fit between the chair arms. I can still squeeze in, but I have suffer the humiliation of asking for the extender belt. How short do they make the normal ones? Maybe only thin people should fly? Maybe we come under the heading of 'flying pigs'.Well, this pig flies. And she expects a little more care for her bacon.
Cars
This isn't so bad. Some are OK. The Renault Clio is marvellous - the seat is nice and low, so there's lots of space for thighs and stomach below the wheel.Unfortunately, I just bought a Ford Fiesta.
It's a very nice little car, let there be no doubt about that. But the seat's high and won't go down, and the steering wheel can't be adjusted up. So we have the agony of trying to squeeze a large thigh through a small space when getting in or out. At least the seatbelt fits around me fine, with a bit of slack, which is more than I could say for the Mini I sat in as a passenger a few times. There's nothing quite like the seatbelt straitjacket (I couldn't move more than about two inches!) for a comfortable journey...
When will car manufacturers learn? A little more space, a little longer seatbelt, does no harm to the skinny - but the reverse is continually annoying for the fat.
More bitching will be added as I think of it.
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