This is more of a story…

Today, I was in the kitchen talking to my roommate who is quite thin about fat discrimination and things I’ve been subjected to because I’m fat. She was totally agreeing and being supportive. I was telling her about the terrible things that have been said to me by my whole family my whole life, even when I was a child and not fat but just slightly chubby. And she said “that’s terrible. You should never make someone feel like less than for being overweight. I understand being concerned about their health, but you shouldn’t shame them or put them down.” I tried to explain to her by not directly confronting but rather just talking about how fat doesn’t equal unhealthy… and I really hope she got it. I think I did straight up say “it’s pretty hard not to shame someone on their weight when you make assumptions without knowing anything else about them or their health that they are unhealthy because of their weight.” I hope she got it. Later in the talk she said it was important for her to hear people talk about pain and issues they’ve experienced because of their weight because it’s a kind of pain she’s not exposed to on a day to day basis (because she’s thin). So that’s accepting and admitting privilege… I just really hope she got it. It made me feel really bad to feel like she looks at me and automatically judges my health. I did explain to her my health situation (I’m healthy aside from high blood pressure which is more linked to my untreated anxiety disorder rather than weight), and I really hope she believed me.

Wow there it is… thin privilege is not having to just *hope* your friends believe you when talking about your health… or worrying if they’ll just think they know more than you and continue believing you’re unhealthy. Thin privilege is not having to disclose any specific information about your health to reassure people you are healthy. Thin privilege is not feeling like your health is anybody’s business but your own. And the ironic part here is that she straight up said it wasn’t anybody else’s business… after she said “I get being concerned about their health.”