A Status Symbol
I’m sick of being treated like a bully
For acknowledging one of the most obvious
Triple standards
In our shit society—
Anorexia
Is not only the only eating disorder people
Know about, besides
Binging and purging
(A variation)— it’s also
The only one
That garners any sympathy.
It’s totally reasonable
To most people
To understand why you’d want to
Starve yourself into a
More valuable state
Than it is to eat yourself
To a less valuable one.
It never matters
What the cause—
It doesn’t matter if a morbidly obese person
Fasts for two weeks
Or throws up everything they try to eat
If it “worked” or not
Is the only thing anyone will notice, and
For most anorexics
What they’re doing is
“Working” as expected
No one wants to believe or understand
That not all obese people are diabetic
That fat people can have healthy bodies
And that unhealthy people
Can be thin and desirable
Nobody gives a shit
When your body is just
A status symbol