I Really Don't Know What To Say To You People

I was getting sandwiches with Susan this afternoon and we stopped to chat with Sandwich Lady. Sandwich Lady was feeling uneasy about her upcoming 30th birthday and let the uneasiness spill over into a rant about a recent clothes-shopping experience she'd had. Attracted by a window display of cool coats on sale, she went into a store that sold clothes sewn on the Barbie scale of women's sizing and she had been unable to fit even into a large. Sandwich Lady is not very big. She thought that the salesgirls all looked like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie and "wanted to throw hamburgers at them." I restrained myself during all of this because no matter how tired I get of hearing people complain about the bodies of others, Sandwich Lady provides me with tasty food on a regular basis and I am therefore willing to give her leeway. But it doesn't mean I'm not going to bitch about it later to random people on the internet.

Sandwich Lady also told us that she is too bootylicious to fit into skinny pants, took a look at my legs and said, "I guess you can't relate." Um, thanks? She couldn't actually see my ass because I was facing her and wearing a long coat.

I never know how to respond when people shine the spotlight on me during conversations about how skinny women suck and/or need to eat more. I want to tell them to fuck off, but when they're my friends and acquaintances and the person who prepares my sandwiches on a regular basis, I search for kinder and gentler phrasing.

People seem to think that saying, "You're so thin!" is a compliment, but in reality, it just makes me feel uneasy to hear it. I have skinny genes, I guess, but I also exercise a lot. I don't exercise to be skinny, I exercise to be strong and healthy. When people tell me that I look strong and/or healthy, it makes my day. But when people tell me how skinny I am, I really do just want to tell them to shut the fuck up, because they're missing the point. It's like saying, "Your hair is soooo brown!" Yeah, it's brown. But I don't hear much about it.

People who tell me I'm skinny and expect me to feel complimented have no business complaining about "society's" fixation with bodily appearance! They've bought in and are perpetuating it!

I really hate it when people take in my general skinnyness and then extrapolate, as Sandwich Lady did today, that I'm flat-assed, flat chested, or both. Not only does that suck, it is untrue.

Everyone wants to be found attractive, I get that. We all have things that we like and dislike about our bodies and appearances, and I guess that's normal. But the one thing that I always love is, for the most part, the stuff inside my body works well and doesn't give me much trouble.

I got lucky: I have a great body. But not because it's skinny. I feel sad that so many people don't get that.

Also, to address the other aspects of Sandwich Lady's rant that pissed me off: all skinny people are not anorexic (some are bulimic!), and no one wants hamburgers thrown at them. Finally, rather than making me feel antipathy toward the Parislike salesgirls at the Size 0 Emporium (or wherever she was shopping... she didn't say), Sandwich Lady only caused me to feel bad for her, because she sounded so fixated on something meaningless.

Now that I've succeeded in sounding fixated on the same meaningless subject, it is time to go buy dinner ingredients!