Skinny-shaming
(Is this the right place for this topic? I apologize if it isn't!)
Skinny-shaming. I just learned this term today. Has anyone heard it?
I have always suspected something in other people's attitudes makes me lose my goal weight. It's like, I get there (like twice a year), to that magic number and physique which I love, and suddenly the comments come pouring in. Comments of how skinny I look, how envious they are, how I should stop dieting immediately, how I should not lose another pound, how what I am doing is dangerous, how they don't know how in the world I manage, etc. Comments that would normally make other people happy make me miserable. Like, really really miserable. I feel "less-than", I feel shunned, ostracized, I feel like I have done something wrong.
For the last decade or so, I knew the moment the "compliments" started to come that I would somehow lose my hard-earned rewards. I started to freeze at the word skinny. I thought something must be wrong with me, that either dark magic was at place (I kid you not) or that I sabotaged myself.
Turns out... I do sabotage myself. I hate the attention my "skinny-self" gets, it feels negative and it hurts. When I speak of this, nobody understands. How dare I complain when I have what others would kill for? How dare I complain that someone called me skinny when to them it would be the best thing you could tell them. They just don't get it. And today I learn there is an actual term for how I feel: SKINNY-SHAMING. And so today I feel validated and powerful. I am no longer "crazy". There are others out there like me!!! And this negative feeling, this shaming me for my body, it is an actual thing. It is REAL.
Has anyone felt this? Can anyone here relate?
Today I am happy. Maybe this realization and knowledge will help me hang on to my ideal weigh, will help me not lose it time and again.
Thanks for listening!
PS. to ask, if you have felt like I have, how did you overcome it?
Last edited by ggbsy; 02-11-2014 at 03:35 PM.
Reason: Add the PS question.
|