Two weeks ago, a health specialist came to our class for a four-hour lecture on the signs of ill health and how to prevent/mitigate them. I knew it would be something special when she spent about fifteen minutes on BMI and how it’s the one solitary test on whether a person is healthy or not. I had to sit in the front of the class and kept my eyes fixed on the board, knowing that everyone was looking at me during those fifteen minutes. After the lecture, we had to get our ‘health’ checked. Said check consisted of checking blood pressure, checking height and weight (to calculate BMI, of course) and a basic stress test.

People were shocked - actual, mouth-opened shock from my classmates, the health specialist and members of her team - that my blood pressure and stress level readings came back normal and low, respectively. Then the health specialist took me aside and started going on about low portions and exercise, as though I haven’t heard the same lecture over and over again.

There was another girl in my class whose BMI reading came back as 32. She’s short and thin, so of course she could dismiss her results because it was 'just about height and weight, anyway.' And everyone listened to her. When I went to agree with her, I was nearly laughed out of the classroom.

Thin privilege is being able to dismiss BMI as the be-all and end-all indicate of your overall health, and not finding it laughable when a fat person wants to do the same thing.