Healthy at any size, a modern fairy tale
Marketing campaigns will have us believe that society is more accepting of different body types, as does the occasional plus size model on the cover of a glossy magazine. But in reality, are we still confined by our own body size?
Interview by Andreia Pedro / Photography by Roos Van de Kieft
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“ I do not sympathize with fat people”, said a close friend of mine at a dinner party. The declaration shocked me as much as it terrorized me. My friend is an intensive health care professional and, as much as I understand that she could be addressing obesity as an illness, there was so much under covered in her statement that I could not just let it go. We( amicably) argued for about an hour on ´ fat-shamming` and being healthy no matter what size you are, but even after the conversation was over I was not convinced. I probably took it a bit too personally, having a heavy frame as a common inheritance in my family, though it stunned me that anyone could be so repelled by a few extra pounds! We were not discussing severely obese people, we were talking about a heavy-curvy-insert-your-preferred- adjective-here type of body! More than often I’ ve come to realize that body sizes are part of a bigger discussion that goes beyond aesthetics or health, like a type of body politics with multiple parties. Everyone has a say about the other body, even if they never experience living in any other than their own. Furthermore, guising fat shaming with health is a common mistake. Either we admit it or not, fat people are seen in our society as lazy and hedonistic. The reason for this generalisation still confuses me and that is why I decided to dig a little deeper into the subject, to perhaps uncover some of the dirty secrets in body politics. Often, body sizes are seen as a black and white subject. No grey area. You are fat or you are skinny, no in between. That is why Amy Schumer was addressed as plus size on the cover of American Glamour’ s magazine back in March this year, even though she goes between the American size 6 to 8. Schumer wasn’ t happy and her response was prompt on Twitter stating,“ I think there’ s nothing wrong with being plus size. Beautiful healthy women. Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8. @ glamourmag put me in their plus size only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesn’ t feel right to me. Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size?”. On The Tonight Show, later that week, the actress stressed the fact that women don’ t need body labels at all. To add to this list of regular sized women constantly being called out on their size are the likes of Mindy