Thin privilege is people feeling sorry for you if you develop an eating disorder that changes your body size.

I saw a article on Nicole Ritchie about her becoming anorexic again. All of the comments empathized with her frail body showcasing her battle with food. Anorexia is no joke, and can also be tied to the shaming of larger bodies which causes people to psychologically internalize fat hatred and inflict it on themselves. And this is not saying all thin people have anorexia before some lurkers assume that from this submission. Nicole has had a past of battling anorexia, you can see that from pictures from years ago, most stand out one is of her running on the beach. But it was amazing to see so many people say “I’m so sad for her, I hope she gets better”. No one belittled her and told her to get her skinny ass on a high calorie diet and gain weight, because it’s no excuse. No one charged the article with thin body hate because she got so thin, people automatically assumed it was because she was going through something.

However, when it comes to people battling with any illness that makes them gain weight no one shows any type of empathy AT ALL. It’s always hate filled comments, drenched in anger and shaming tactics telling that person to get their fat ass in a gym and lose weight, because the assumption is that they just like to eat, and eat unhealthy food at that, and that’s why they’re so fat.

I’ve seen thinspo blogs glamorizing anorexia, I’ve yet to see anyone bombard their space with thin shaming talk, and offer them a legion of health tips on how to get their body thicker or bigger to become healthy, I’VE YET TO SEE THIS EVER! I’ve yet to see people bash them, belittle them and tell them to stop being a self loathing eff and just gain weight.

I only see this happen on blogs where larger bodies are the subject. No one feels bad for big people suffering through something. They just see a large body and automatically go into a million negative, biased, assumptions about how they believe that person is fat like they are.

Overeaters are seen as uncontrollable fatties (plenty of overeaters are thin, that’s another unfortunate stereotype tied to this particular eating disorder), whereas undereaters as seen as psychologically damaged individuals who we should feel sorry for because our immediate thought is that they have a problem and we shouldn’t judge or be mean to them (plenty of undereaters are people of size, who are misdiagnosed because of their size due to the stigma regarding weight and eating disorders).

No one sees a person who’s gained weight, and say “She must be going through something, I feel bad for her” unless she’s a male, like what I seen regarding Rob Kardashian. If you’re a woman and you’ve gained weight, no matter the reason it happened be prepared to be shamed, dehumanized, and ridiculed until the oppressors are blue in the face.

signed a life long bulimia sufferer.