Future Starts Slow

"I’m so sick of weight-loss shows. I’m sick of people coming out and revealing new bodies and then belittling the old bodies they once had, bodies that some of us possess. Contrary to popular belief, being fat doesn’t mean you hate yourself, it doesn’t mean you lack self-respect, it doesn’t mean you deserve to be humiliated, degraded, ignored, and dehumanized; it doesn’t mean you’re ugly or stupid or worthless, but that’s how society wants us to feel and I’m just sick of it. If I’m not dieting, if I’m not spending every moment of my life counting calories and apologizing for the size of my body; if I’m not taking the abuse and the punishment and the cruel looks and the hateful words, if I actually dare to accept myself, then I’m crucified. I’m sick of living in a world that tells me on a constant basis that I am not good enough, that if I just lose weight I will be worthy of the conditional love it has to offer. I don’t want any part of a world like that. I will fight that world and, in it’s place, I will create a new world, one that is my own, one that is made of art and poetry and feminism and compassion and intelligence and pleasure and love, love for myself and love for others, love that has no conditions and no limits, love that too many of us are denied."