Fat Acceptance and Views on Beauty.

I will start this with little to no introduction. Ready? I hope so.

Yesterday, my boyfrend, Keith, and I spoke for a healthy portion of the day (while I also obsessively played Harvest Moon on my DS). Near the time my mom was scheduled to come home, I let him know that I would be leaving every day around the same time to go for a walk with my mom before dinner.

"Soon be skinny Lexie," he said.

"I don't want to be skinny Lexie," I replied.

Of course, I figured that this would be confusing as he's not really into the whole Fat Acceptance thing except by association (that association being me). He asked why, and here's my response, as I'm quite proud of it.

"I'm just not skinny. There's really no way I could ever be skinny without starving myself. And being thin doesn't make me any more or less beautiful. Society values one more than the other but that doesn't mean one actually is better than the other."

This is about as clear as I can make it. This is (perhaps not the whole, but the majority of) the FA movement to me: I'm fat. I can't not be fat without mental, emotional and physical harm coming to me. Being fat is no worse or better than being thin.

Now, don't get me wrong, if I were just naturally thin, then I'd be fine being thin/skinny Lexie. There's nothing wrong with being thin or skinny, or average, or a little fat, or pretty fat, or really fat. We're all people and deserve to be treated as people.

On another relationship + fat related note, I would like to say (shout, scream, can someone loan me a bullhorn?) thinness is not the end all, be all of attractiveness. People are different. For example... Whenever I see Tim Curry, I get the distinct chill down my spine that tells me "that is an extremely attractive person." Alternately, when I see Jude Law, all I can muster is a shrug of my shoulders an a half-hearted "meh."

Vincent Price? Shiver. Toby Maguire? Meh.

Jack Nicholson? Shiver. Jake Gyllenhaal? Meh.

So, I'm assuming, by now, that people think I'm crazy. "She's fat and thinks it's okay, AND she finds these people un/attractive?!" I'm not crazy. I'm just not you. I don't think you're crazy if you think Toby Maguire is the God of Sex, I just don't agree.

So when someone finds a fat person attractive, do not say that she or he is sick, has a mental illness, or is blind. Don't devalue his or her idea of beauty just because it doesn't match the social idea of beauty or your idea of beauty. Don't say I'm crazy for being attracted to fat men, and I won't tell the world that you spontaneously orgasm every time you watch Spiderman. Deal?
Deal.

Big Smiles!
-LexieDi