The Big Deal

The Three Graces -- Peter Paul Rubens

It is amazing to me how divided people can be and how negative. As I have discussed here before, I am not a woman that can be classified as petite.  It has taken me a few years, but I have accepted the fact I will never be 5 foot tall or a size 2.

This morning I read an article about Plus Size fashions and noticed the massive amounts of comments that followed the layout. Most were positive, but many were negative. There was one that went so far as to say if you ate right and exercised then you wouldn’t be considered plus size. What a bunch of whooie.  I wanted to write back and say if he got his Neanderthal head out of his butt he might not be so small minded, but I digress.

At my lowest weight, I was still a size 14 and could count every rib I had. It is only in the past century that looking like a walking skeleton has become the mark of beauty. If you look at artwork of the Renaissance and Classical era, most all the women had curves and the men were all muscular. They wanted women that had curves because it meant wealth and (supposedly) fertility. I would have been a perfect model for Titian or Rubens.

But here’s the thing. Does the number on the label of my dress correlate directly to the size of my intelligence or the size of my heart? Of course not. So why does society make such a fuss over it? And please don’t tell me it is for my health, because quite frankly, there are very few strangers who actually care if I am healthy or not which, in case any of you are wondering, I am.  I always told my doctor I was his worst nightmare—a healthy fat chick. To which he would roll his eyes and chuckle.

So, what’s the big deal? There are thin people who are unhealthy and fat people who are healthy. I have seen devoted, hardworking athletes taken from this world by heart attack and cancer. And I have seen people who, by conventional medical and/or social guidelines, should have died years ago, but lived well into their nineties.  

I am not saying we should all go out and over indulge in everything.  What I am saying is it should be our goal and our job to be healthiest we can regardless of what the little tag inside our pants says. Am I trying to lose weight? Yes I am. But not because of what society thinks of me. It’s so I can stay around for a bit longer and that is a big deal.

Love and blessings to all!