I just want to start this submission by saying that I have quite a bit of thin privilege as a small fat.

I recently had surgery that will allow me to begin being physically active again after years of being unable to do so. I am really excited for that! So, in my excitement, I decided to start looking into athletic wear for when I am able to begin playing sports again. I opened up the magazine and saw just dozens of pictures of women with all the same body type. Tall and slender with some visible muscle mass. Now, I absolutely think there should be pictures like these included, but does it have to be all of them? How am I supposed to know how those will look on me? (As I said I have quite a bit of privilege in that they did have my size, but I have no idea what it will look like).

I was feeling quite happy before opening up the magazine, however I suffer from depression and body issues. All I could think about is how of course there are no bodies like mine, people who aren’t thin aren’t meant to wear nice exercise clothes or even exercise at all. I just felt like if I don’t look like the ladies in the catalog, I am not “fit” and therefore shouldn’t exercise or wear nice clothes, which of course is a huge contradiction society puts in our heads because you need exercise in order to get “fit” (I put fit in quotations because society’s view on what that even means is so skewed).



I opened the magazine looking for inspiration and nice clothes (which I realize is also class privilege), and closed it feeling drained, depressed, and completely unmotivated.



Thin privilege is being represented pretty much anywhere in the media.