[Content Note: Fat hatred.]
"After I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable. Worthy of conversation. A person one could look at. A person one could compliment. A person one could admire. You heard me. I discovered that NOW people saw me as a PERSON. What the hell did they see me as before? How invisible was I to them then? How hard did they work to avoid me? What words did they use to describe me? What value did they put on my presence at a party, a lunch, a discussion? When I was fat, I wasn;t a PERSON to these people. Like I had been an Invisible Woman who suddenly materialized in front of them. Poof! There I am. Thin and ready for a chat."—Shonda Rhimes, writing very frankly about the difference in how she was treated (that is, way better) after she lost around 150 pounds.
This is definitely something I've heard from friends who have lost a lot of weight.
It's also akin to something I experienced when I used to work in a corporate job: When people (especially men) talked to me over the phone, they (generally) spoke to me exactly as the competent, prepared, smart, and talented person I am. Then they met me in person, and suddenly they spoke to me like I was a child, and not a very bright child at that.
I was the same person with the same brain and the same abilities, but their stereotypes invoked by my fat body overwhelmed their actual experience of me as a human being.
Fat hatred is really something.
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