Seriously y'all, if you have never anything close to fat, you cannot compare the two. If you have never been fat, you have no idea what it's like. I've been called fat as a joke, I've been called too skinny in all seriousness, and being called fat hurts five hundred times more even when I know it's a joke. Already we've had one girl admitting to this thread making her cry because it made her feel self-conscious about how much she weighed . . . how many of you complaining about being too skinny can say the same?
Here's why the two can't be compared:
People associate anorexia with extreme self-control and willpower. Many, many teenage girls ADMIRE those who are anorexic. (How many of us have heard someone say, "I wish I could be anorexic just for a couple weeks, just so I could lose like ten or fifteen pounds"? Or "I wish I had the willpower to be anorexic"? And even if you haven't . . . I have, from many many girls.) If you don't believe me, just put the term "pro-anorexia" into the google search box and see what you come up with. And most people are willing to accept the fact that anorexia is a disease, not a habit that people do because they WANT to.
Overweight people, on the other hand, are regarded as lazy slobs -- regardless of the the fact that they may exercise more and eat better than many slim people. Plus, the majority of people out there believe that fat people are fat because they are too lazy to do anything but sit around watching TV and eating fried chicken -- that if they were really trying, they could lose the weight. This is definitely not true for a lot of people. And almost nobody, except those who are very familiar with eating disorders, considers compulsive overeating a disease, despite the fact that most compulsive eaters have about as much control over their disease as anorexics do.
So, for those of you that are offended by it when people call you anorexic, why? It's not an attack on your character, the way calling somebody a "fat a**" is, because the connotations with each word are completely different.
And if being skinny is such a terrible thing, why are SO many women going to such drastic lengths (anorexia, bulimia, diet pills, compulsive overexercise, you name it) to be thin, despite knowing the risks to their health? Why are almost NO women, aside from a small subsection of the population (bodybuilders and fat fetishists), trying to get significantly bigger despite risks to their health?
And I don't think any of you skinny girls mentioned that you had ever actively tried to gain weight. Sure, you might have tried overeating for a couple days, or even weeks. But you would have to overeat your usual amount of calories by at least 500 calories a day for three months straight just to gain twelve pounds. Have any of you bothered to do that, or to follow any sort of significant weight training program to gain weight -- I'm not talking about occasional bicep curls with the ten pound weights in the gym, I'm talking about real weight training? Until then, I don't think y'all have much space to be complaining. No more right to complain, in fact, than those who legitimately DO fulfill the "fat" stereotype, sitting around eating all day eating, and then complaining about how people treat them differently because they're fat and how they hate being fat.
Not to mention the fact that someone conveniently made you guys your own thread, so you can discuss the trials of being thin in there.
