Shameless hussy 2/4/5

I have never been ashamed of my size. Okay, that's a lie; I haven't been ashamed of my size for many, many, many years. I haven't let it stop me from doing anything, not skiing, not belly dancing, not wearing a tankini bathing suit, not changing in the women's locker room. Of course, lately my weight and size have stopped me from breathing, but that is a different thread entirely.

I have been very lucky to live in a place like Seattle, where people are accepted pretty much for who they are and not what they look like. Gay or strait? No problem. Pierced and tattooed? No problem. From a foreign country? No problem. Fat? Very little problem, unless you are as large as my husband was, and then it was mostly an accommodation issue. There is a level of acceptance there for who you are, unless you are cruel or rude or racist, well you get my point. We are pathologically polite.

And then I moved to SE Idaho. For the first time in my adult life, I am looked down upon. I've been treated as if I have personally offended people simply by breathing the same air they do. I am treated sometimes with downright hostility. I mostly look like everyone else here, except for being fatter than most. No tattoos (yet. I'm going to get one for my birthday in 20 years.), no outrageous piercing, and I'm pathologically polite. Okay, I do love to dye my hair fabulous colors... Yet I am treated with hostility here because I am fat. It took me months to figure that out.

My new temporary home is a very "churchy" place. There is a lot of "you don't go to my church, so you are not one of the chosen" attitude. I have classmates who won't even acknowledge me in the quad because I don't go to their church. (My buddy who is teaches Anthropology has been very helpful in figuring things out here...)

I've been reading several articles on the new Christian Diet phenomenon. Many are screaming that "fat people don't go to heaven" and other such drivel. Who are they to say who does and does not get into heaven? What happened to "judge not lest you be judged?"

We make an easy target, we are so damn big it's hard to miss us. I think it is soooo much easier to point the finger at someone else rather than look at our own shortcomings.

Those of us who are MO are seen as weak, and to an extent, wicked. Gluttony being one of the seven deadly sins and all.

As long as we are viewed as being morally weak I fear that we will continue to get little or no respect. The few bulimics that I know are "normal" size, and anorexics are certainly thin... Because they are thin and "normal" they are seen as being deserving of respect, sympathy, dignity and treatment.

“Faith based weight loss”

If you google "Christian weight loss" you get approximately 18,800 different entries, while "bible based weight loss" only nets your 31 google pages... Yeah, this is a big phenomenon.

I believe the folks who are screaming that fat people don't go to heaven are the same types of people who either think that only people who go to heaven believe exactly the same way they do, or they are simply marketing weenies that use religion to play on people's fears and insecurities.

And gluttony is only my second favorite of the SDS, the Seven Deadly Sins... (While skin is the largest sex organ, the brain is the most important...) I do try to work on the other 5, but I have trouble with striking a balance with pride. Resumes built on humility don't get you the job you want...

Character is who you are in the dark. My point was that I think what travesty that this new faith based diet fad is. It plays to people's worst fears. As an argument for not letting fat people in heaven, they often point to verses that site the body as a temple, and let no man defile that temple. Since we are fat, we've obviously defiled the temple...

How dare they suggest that the MO are less worthy than someone with a high metabolic rate or who barfs everything they eat??? How dare they judge, how dare they condemn! They dare because they view us as less than worthy in this life; we are the new pariahs, the new lepers. It isn't illegal to discriminate against us (except for one state, I believe) and we make a convenient target.

Also, I think they dare because diet hawkers make tons of money off the misery and failed hopes of people like us.