ba
ck

One of the main complaints plus size people get is that we ‘don’t get enough exercise’, we ‘sit at home on the sofa all day and do nothing’, or that we ‘look unhealthy’. All of these assumptions are based on how people view our bodies. Because our bodies are different to others, it somehow gives people the right to police and abuse how we look and frankly, I’m tired of it.

I’m tired of being told to ‘go to the gym’ when I already do that. I’m tired of being stared at, harassed and laughed at when I’m actually AT the gym, doing the very thing you want me to do. How can we win? How can we win when plus size people have had years of wearing unflattering and ill-fitting sportswear? Why is it that it’s only within the last year and a half that major brands such as Nike and Puma have decided to make gym clothes in our sizes?

It’s weird, innit?

What frustrates me more than anything is when people use health to disguise their abhorrent fatphobia. I’m not going to delve into the complexities of it within this post as there are so many articles who can talk about it much more eloquently than I can, however, what I can say is that my size isn’t indicative of my health, my strength or most importantly, my worth. A couple of months ago, a man slid into my DMs with unsolicited advice about me going to the gym:

Random knobhead: You really should go to the gym. It’s not good for your health you know.

Me: I do go to the gym. Thanks.

Random KH: What? It doesn’t look like you do.

Me: Why is that? I take classes and everything, and I feel much better and a lot healthier for doing so. (I MEAN LOOK AT ME DOING THE NEAR SPLITS IN THAT PHOTO FOR CRYING OUT LOUD)

Random KH: But you don’t look-

*blocks*

See what I mean?. The man above clearly had an issue with the way I looked, yet used the guise of health to mask what he REALLY meant. Leave plus size people alone. You do not care about us. You do not care if we live or die. All you care about is the way we look not fitting in with your standards of what beauty should ‘look’ like. There could be a fat person who eats healthily and walks everyday standing next to a slim cokehead who lives on nothing but beer and junk food, but guess who’ll end up being abused and laughed at? Guess which one will be told to lose weight?

The policing of bodies needs to stop. Learn how to keep your opinions to yourselves and only give advice if asked for it. Respect us, and treat us with dignity. Gosh.

Anyway, isn’t this outfit dope?

Denim Jacket – Monki (Similar here) // Crop Top – Primark // Sports Stripe Trouser – Boohoo*