This is an experience that happened to me last summer.

My friends and I were at a bar, sitting on their patio. We had a delightful meal and drinks and were having a good time. At some point, most of our table got up and went off and my good friend and I were left by ourselves when the desserts we ordered came out. There was a table sitting directly behind us that had four douchey looking dudes and a couple very thin women. Just for the record, my friend and I both weigh about 200 lbs.

As we began to eat our desserts, the table behind us somehow magically found themselves talking loudly about weight. Several of the men were spouting off comments like, “There really is just no reason for women to weigh, what, over 140 lbs?” (Seriously.) And, “I can’t imagine being with a chick that weighed more then me; I mean, how does that work?” One of the women said very seriously, “I would probably kill myself if I weighed over 150.” It was very, very uncomfortably clear that they were staring at us like a couple fatties in the zoo who couldn’t understand what they were saying. The other lady began making aggressively mean, repetitive comments like, “Seriously, how can you just let yourself go like that? Like, have some fucking self-respect and take care of yourself. It’s not that fucking hard to work out. I don’t get how people just let themselves get fat like that. It’s fucking gross.”

My friend and I had both fallen silent. I watched her turn pale, look sick, and set down her spoon. The fury bubbled up in me like a geyser. I wish I could say I threw my dessert in their fucking faces. Instead, I began to eat it with vigor and started saying shit like, “OH MY GOD this is SOOOO goood!” I made a big show of licking the spoon and scraping the bowl and moaning. My friend smiled weakly but did not eat anymore.

Thin privilege is never being openly harassed for eating the food you like or being told that other people would kill themselves if they were in your position.