Anonymous asked: What is by definition a small fat? I have always thought of self as one, but then the other day, I was told I still had thin privilege, even though I have experienced a lot of fatphobia in my life.

Thin privilege isn’t a binary, meaning it isn’t something you have or don’t have but about understanding how different forms of fat discrimination or thin privilege apply to your own experiences. I don’t have a good definition of what a small fat is because it really depends on someone understanding fat discrimination and how it applies to them.

To use my own experiences to give you a better context, I am a smaller fat. I’m around a size 16/18 when it comes to clothes. That means while it is significantly harder for me to find clothes that fit my body compared to a thin person, I am still able to find clothes in stores far easier than someone who is larger than me.

It is also unlikely that I will ever have to pay for 2 tickets on an airplane or not fit into most public spaces at all, though those spaces are still smaller than my body I am able to “get away” with being slightly larger than them whereas someone who is larger than me might not be able to.

I still face significant forms of discrimination. I have been denied promotions, jobs and face educational barriers, shaming, harassment regularly. That said, in a hypothetical situation when I am interviewing for a job where a similar candidate who was larger than me was also applying for the same job there is a chance that I would be hired before them merely because I am not as fat as them. That is reality. It doesn’t negate my other experiences but instead means that there are certain forms of fat discrimination that do not apply to me. Similarly, my experiences are also drastically different than someone who doesn’t have cis, white, straight and able bodied privilege like I do.