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Big girls DO cry! I was so happy yesterday to have stepped on the scales for the first time in goodness knows how long and be told that I weighed less than before; so perhaps that is why my experience later in the day was so painful.
I went to see an elderly relative living in a retirement home. I see her often, so small fluctuations in my weight shouldn't be particularly obvious. As I entered the lounge she shouted out "Oh my Julie* you ARE a big girl". Quite why she did this yesterday as opposed to any other day I have no idea, but the whole room turned to look. It was as if they were undressing me and staring at disgust at the 90-odd pounds of fat clinging to my body. I felt awful but of course I didn't let on; you don't do you?
This got me thinking about all the times that people, usually significantly older than me, have called me 'big' rather than fat/overweight or, as is technically correct, obese. Do they think they are doing me a favor? Sometimes they may have had a medical interest (for example I can recall separate times as a child when I was at the hospital about something non-weight related and I was unexpected asked to step on the scales - "My Julie* you are a BIG girl" - and at the school medical "Something has got to be done about how BIG she is getting"). But other times it has just been people who you happen to meet in the community - "Are your family as BIG as you?", "Have you always been a BIG girl?". Would they say "Are your family as FAT/OVERWEIGHT/OBESE as you?" or "Have you always been FAT/OVERWEIGHT/OBESE?". I think not...
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