The “naturally thin” double standard.

Before I get into the meat of this post, a quick Torrid update. Joy from Torrid contacted me at the end of the day of my rant and basically apologized for my troubles, explaining why they had the policy they did, and assuring me that they will rewrite their system to make it easier for deafies in the future.

They also offered to send me my order with free express shipping. I declined and bought a Crockpot from Target instead. I currently have a chicken cooking at home as I work. I’m so excited about my first crockpot chicken!

Ahem.
So, today I was reading an actual printed newspaper (made on real wood pulp!) while on break, and came across an article entitled “Naturally Thin People have Life Challenges Too”
It was an…interesting bit of writing. I found an online copy here.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad article. A lot was said about how you can’t judge a person’s health by his or her size, that weight is more than what we do or eat, and that genes and metabolism have much to do with it, and that talking to people about their weight or appearance is rude, and probably damaging.

While genetics and ethnicity play major roles, there is no one-size-fits-all reason why some people are slim and remain so without really trying, says Kaiser Permanente registered dietitian Nora Norback.

Bottom line: Don’t judge a body by weight, because it’s not about numbers. “It’s about health,” Norback says. “Healthy people do come in different shapes and sizes, but at the extreme ends, we certainly see more health problems. We make a lot of our judgments on how a person looks. But you shouldn’t assume that someone is unhealthy if they’re really thin.”

To rule out eating disorders, Norback looks at a variety of factors beyond the scale, including body image, diet and malnutrition, hydration status and exercise frequency. Certainly, it’s important to remember that there are naturally thin people who make an effort and those who just are thin without trying a whole lot.

However, despite all this good news, I came away from it mildly miffed at the double standard that these things apply only to thin folks. For instance,

But the skinny life has its challenges. Clothes are difficult to find. And Brueheim has heard a lifetime of hurtful comments. “I’m healthy, I have a lot of energy, and yet people will say such things, like, ‘Gosh, you need to eat more.’ We’d never say such things to an overweight person,” she says.

“…never say such things to an overweight person.” The hell you say! Yeah, no one tells fatties they need to eat more, but they sure do feel free to tell fatties to lay off the chips and cookies all the time. And the actual truth of the matter is that a dieting person, fat or thin, does need to eat more.

When it come right down to it, I’m miffed at the double standard that what applies to thin folks doesn’t apply to fatties. I’m miffed that the eating habits of thin people–healthy or not– are judged morally superior to fat people’s. I’m miffed tht thin folks get the benefit of the doubt from the media, the health industry, from society. Why can’t us fatties get the same benefit?

Oh, yeah, cuz we are all greedy, overconsuming slobs hell-bent on destroying the earth with our evil fatty ways!