I don't even know where to start

For the most part I have tried to keep this blog out of politics, with the exception of my views on mental health. Though I wouldn't really state that those posts have been political, so much as opinionated about how much stigma there is surrounding mental health. Stigma is a word that is used often lately, and is placed against so very many things. One such things, or thing, or people really: is fat people.

I have no problem saying the word. I am fat. I have been since I was put on antidepressants and that was about twelve years ago. Short of doing more exercise than I really ever want to, and eating less of the foods that I really love, (I mean things like pasta, rice, steak, and chicken with super yummy skin on it, not "junk food"), I don't think I will ever really get down to my "ideal" weight. I should start by saying my "ideal" weight is already higher than what society says because otherwise I would fall over from being so top heavy. NO, my breasts DO NOT shrink when I loose weight, before you people even suggest such a thing. I've done it before. I've been a G cup since I was 18, I will likely be a G cup until I cut the fuckers off. But that right there even proves a point. Why are we talking about weight?

I follow a lot more blogs than I used to, one of which is my friend Jen's Fat and Not Afraid where she discusses fat acceptance, and the politics involved in such. Jen and I have discussed these things before, and we often disagree while agreeing at the same time. What we do agree on, is that we really need to stop talking about weight. Weight has never, and will never be a number that we should be using to decide if someone is healthy. Even still, the number should never be used to decide a person's worth.

In this society we have told people that there is a way that they need to look. We forgot to mention that less than 2% of the entire world's population looks that way, but that is obviously not something that's important for the teenage girl to know when she's purging, or the teen boy to know when he's at the gym pumping steroids into his veins to get the "six pack" that all men need to have. I do remember a time when it was important to tell people to love themselves, but apparently I missed the memo that said that you can only love yourself if you're a size 2, or if you have rippling muscles covered in oil.

Now, I have no problems with people being happy with the way they look, and weigh, and everything else that makes a person. What I do think is very important is the fact that we also make sure that these people are healthy. When I say that I don't mean weight, I am not focusing on a particular group, and I am not going to sit here and spout numbers. What I do mean is a holistic view of a person. I want people to be healthy mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Call it the nurse in me. I do think someone can be overweight or "obese" (which frankly is an uglier word than fat in my opinion), can be healthy. I do believe they can be fit. I also believe that someone that is underweight can be very unhealthy. The opposite is also true. Both sides of this issue needs to throw away numbers, look at the people.

I think that we are being short sighted looking at number when it comes to weight. I also think that we are being short sighted when it comes to looking at someone's body and not their person.