The ‘heavy’ on heavy weight
(This is, of course, not meant to be a medicine, psychology, or even a culture journal.)
I just finished reading and rereading an article in the "OK! Magazine" about curvaceous Hollywood celebrities fighting off the gaunt/skinny trend. I must have read it so voraciously I actually became already so numb to the insensitive comment of a former classmate-now-7-11-cashier I ran into.
Without so much as of a justification for my weight issue, just think of it this way, you’re in the middle of having a bad day and just when you think you’re already close to getting out of it and finishing it off with a late but refreshing lunch, by the frozen microwaveable food counter you hear your old friend greeting you in a rather loud voice (for all to hear) how much weight you’ve gained. So though your main reason for having a quick stop at a store is purely for survival reason, hindi ba nakakawala ng gana kumain?
And just how many instances have I come across what I call as injustice to large-size individuals (well, per basis on the size-zero obsession)? My favorite infamous scene was the time I was crossing a street to choose where I should board for my trip to Manila. I was still on the other side of the road when the barker with a megaphone whose blaring voice could be heard two barangays away (I swear, his voice could be heard early in the morning at our subdivision which is two barangays away) called for my attention to encourage me to board the van for Cubao. "Mrs., mrs., sakay na po kayo sa van," was his cheerful call to which I remarked before boarding, quite obviously, the bus, not the van, "Ms. pa ako!"
I guess it really just boils down to one ish: people have to be extra careful at what they say. If they give such remarks or comments to extremely sensitive people even if they mean it in an innocent way may spell danger for them and for their targets. How many supermodels or wannabe-supermodels died of anorexia nervosa already due to their struggle to be "perfect" in the way society sees and accepts as "perfect"?
In my case, if one compares my "Rosas ng Santa Rosa" pic to how I look now, it’s pretty much sincerely understandable for me why people would react the way my old classmate did. Sweet friends say I still look good and not alarming. But what most of these people do not know is the struggle I have to go through everyday in proving or at least explaining that I did not overeat. My case was the aftereffect of a medicine overdose a few years back that resulted to hormonal imbalance.
It just goes to show how people do not really want to be in a "heavy" situation whether or not they’re guilty of overeating or they’re simply genetically large on the tape measure. If prevention is better than cure, then careful respect is truly better than a wild and heavy assumption.
