Digest This...

Obesity is a disgusting word. The sounds roll out of your mouth like vomit. You say you feel sorry for them, the obese people. You pity them. You’re concerned about their health. But the second a 600 pound man rolls by on a motor scooter, you can help but snicker at the way his fat jiggles when he passes over a crack in the concrete. I secretly hope that he turns around and sits on you.
Not only is obesity unhealthy for your physical health, it is unhealthy mentally as well. Many psychological problems come from being obese. An obese woman is more self conscious than any other person in the world. All she can sit and think is, I make that elephant look small. And every time you poke fun at an oversized individual, I hope you gain five pounds.
America is obsessed with outward appearances. I honestly can’t blame them, they have just seen too many beautiful people. At least, they think they are looking at beautiful people. They don’t see the work– the sweat, blood, plastic, collagen, and makeup– that goes into these “beautiful people”. They only see the finished product, the retouched picture, the filtered movie. That “beauty” is pounded into us until we realize that we aren’t good enough. We aren’t perfectly gorgeous, so we must be hideous.
The bigger people, not even the obese, but the slightly overweight men and women of our nation, they tell themselves everyday that they aren’t good enough. They wake up and look in the mirror to say, I am apologizing in advance to any children I make cry today. If this is how the slightly overweight feel, imagine how the obese feel. They avoid mirrors. They avoid McDonald’s if there is anyone within a two block radius of the building. There is no one that wants to be beautiful more than they do.
Obese ladies and gentle men, to you I say, ‘Forget what America has to say. You are beautiful. You may not be pictured on the cover of a fashion magazine, but you shouldn’t be forced to hide.’ They shouldn’t be subjected to the cruel punishment and the malicious jokes of “the beautiful.” For every time you said a cruel thing about an overweight person, I hope you feel our pain.
My entire life, I’ve been overweight. I’ve been the “ugly” that walks by and knocks something off the table with their rear. I’ve been subject to cruel jokes. I’ve given myself an eating disorder, because you just couldn’t accept me– my beauty– for what I was. I wasn’t you, so that makes me disgusting. For every ounce I loose, I hope you gain two.
Next time you see a 600 pound man riding on a motor scooter, I hope you think twice about snickering. That disease he has, it’s not funny to him. He has to worry about his heart giving out, his sugar soaring, every minute of every day. Obesity is no joke, and you’re working your way up there with all the weight you’ve started gaining.
Would you like a dessert menu?
Jessica D. Hunt