Comments on: raging, intolerant, judgmental assholes

By: barb

barb — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 04:12:34 +0000

Thanks for posting. I came here from Metafilter and I was mortified at the nastiness being thrown around. I like you spent my entire childhood being told that I was fat. I’m not tall tho (5’3″) so I pretty much looked like a beachball. You are right that being fat (or short or gay or disabled or anything that society says is different from the “norm”) makes you have to develop a personality. You can’t just skate by on your looks like the beautiful people. I consider this a plus. I’ve known lots of “beautiful people” and IMO they are not very interesting. Kind of a blank page just dying for a smudge. People who have not suffered some sort of adversity in life don’t seem to have much to offer.

I lost the weight. About 76lbs. after many years of depression and drug abuse and not knowing what was wrong. I had a very low opinion of myself and I surounded myself with people who agreed with my opinion. I got clean (9yrs. now) and happy (lots of therapy) and stopped trying to please everyone but me. Food stopped being the only thing that “really understood” me and just became fuel for life. I eat anything I want, I just eat a little bit of it. I had to start moving, but with the back problems I had the only thing I could do was Yoga. It worked. I felt better and more relaxed. It didn’t happen overnight, it took about 1 1/2yrs. But I wasn’t doing it for someone else or on their time table.

The key is to make yourself happy first. If the weight makes you unhappy tackle one pound at a time. If it doesn’t then just realize that what other people think about you is really none of your business and kick the assholes to the curb!!

By: aden

aden — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 03:17:36 +0000

Wow, as if I didn’t need more of a reason to hate Metafilter and a large majority of the monkey’s that inhabit it. (and I didn’t even bother reading the post)

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 20 Jun 2002 00:35:28 +0000

I’ve had major weight flucuations since I was 18 and know how it feels to be openly, sometimes viciously ridiculed because of it. Whatever. I go to the gym. I try to eat right. I have a wife. No amount of derogatory language (especially from anonymous online posters) can make me feel bad about myself. Don’t let them get to you, either.

By: sarah

sarah — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 23:36:54 +0000

thanks for posting that article you wrote.

By: alan

alan — Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:00:00 +0000

darn tootin, people who are too afraid to put their name next to their comment should just shut-up. as for fat people, people shouldn’t care what a persons weight is. As long as a person has a great personality, they can be my friend.