Thin privilege is being able to choose whatever career you want, based upon your interests. I’m overweight- I put on a shit ton of weight during and after a prolonged family tragedy in which I saw my father bleed to death- and I’ve always wanted to be a physiotherapist. I told my Mum, hoping she’d be happy that I’d finally decided what “to do” with my life. Instead she told me there would be no point, because “no one would want to go see a fat physio. Why would we trust someone to look after our body if they can’t look after theirs?”

It floored me. I mean, how can whether or not someone is able to help you based upon their looks and not their knowledge or expertise? I understand some professions do have weight/size requirements (and I do understand a very select few do have good reason for it, i.e. you need to be able to be supported by equipment/fit into equipment), but how does my body fat % directly correspond to how capable I am to help fix physical injuries?



Thankfully I’ve spoken to a friend who is also a physio (and thin) and she’s convinced me to go for it. But my own mother practically telling me my brain is worthless because my body is larger than average… that’s not ok.

Though having said that, this is the same woman who told me as a 5-year-old that I wasn’t allowed to do ballet (only tap, jazz and acrobatics) because (and I quote): “Fairy elephants aren’t allowed to do ballet. Only fairy ballerinas”. Funny, because I wasn’t overweight then (I was taller and matured earlier than most, sure, but was still within the “healthy” BMI range), and I was (and still am) the most flexible of all the girls I danced with, who gets the highest in her leaps and the furtherest past flat in her splits.

Fat doesn’t equal unhealthy OR incapable.