Obese, Thick or Voluptuous: A Thin Line Between Acceptance and Hate

Model: Shaka G. Image by Blophoto.com

Greetings TVP Family!

During a discussion with friends a few days ago concerning the difference between women being considered obese, thick or voluptuous I was amazed by the level of disrespectful and downright hurtful remarks that were spoken. In fact, I don’t know what was more shocking: the fact that these were friends saying these things or that some women in the group were providing fuel for the fire (keep in mind most of the people in the room fit into one of the aforementioned categories).

I’m sure I’ve said it a million times but the media has done an outstanding job of brainwashing the masses into segmenting what beauty is and is not into convenient labels such as those in the title of this post. We have allowed fashion magazines, billboards and television to dictate what is an acceptable level of beauty as well as the specific sizes contained within that particular level of beauty. Everyone is beautiful, if by no other virtue than by being a child of God. Only our misguided and warped view of beauty (as perpetuated by the media) causes us to label people the way we do.

The truth is it doesn’t matter what size a person is. What is important is our ability to look beyond size and learn to 1. accept our selves and 2. learn to accept others as they are. That does not mean that we do not manage our weight, eat right and maintain as healthy an existence as possible. It does mean that we begin treating people with a little more dignity and respect without belittling them just to feed our own egos (or compensate for our own flaws).

I stumbled upon something online that really brings home the point that I’ve hopefully made: “Fat is not beautiful. Skinny is not beautiful. Beautiful is beautiful”.

Keeping it Real!

Michael

TVP