Fat Spectrum
Gender has a spectrum
Sexuality has a spectrum
Autism has a spectrum
Fat– has a spectrum.
There are about
As many shades of fat
As there are gender, there are
About as many variations in
Weight distribution
As there are eye color
No two fat bodies are alike, just the same
As no two in-range bodies are the same–
Even twins~!
Anyway
There are three main categories
That you can brute force chunk
Fat bodies into–
There are small fats, fats, and super-fats.
Small fats can shop at regular stores, they
Have regular jobs, they have friends–
They are small enough
To fit in public spaces without
Breaking anything in themselves, or
Anyone else.
Fats, a looser category–
Someone who can’t shop at most stores, but
Can shop at some. Has
Some limitations, but not others
Some public places and spaces are not a problem, but
This type of person is fat enough
To experience discrimination at work, at the doctor
In the hospital and around town, in public,
On a regular basis.
Super fat is the third category.
Super fat people
Can only shop at one or two places, before the internet at least–
Nowadays things are much better.
For example–
Duluth Trading Company advertises
Plus sized clothing for all bodies, all sizes–
They stop making pants
10 sizes before Walmart does.
If they make pants
For all sizes, clothes
For all bodies–
What kind of bodies does
Walmart know about that
Duluth doesn’t…?
Anyway–
I have been all three
A small fat, and a fat– and
A super fat.
I diet and exercise and I have
Lost and gained and lost and gained and
Since testosterone I have gained
A lot of weight, but not really
Much size, which is weird as fuck.
I think a lot of it has to do
With the health issues I’ve been dealing with–
The new medications are fucking crazy,
They all make me both bloated, dizzy
And nauseated
All the fucking time.
It’s awesome lmfao yeah right.
Anyway–
I am sick of pretending
That fat isn’t a spectrum of experience
I’ve lived the privileges of being even just
A smaller fat person and that
Honestly, was a cake walk
Compared to the other end of the spectrum.
No one cares or notices
Super fat existence–
Most of us are ostracized into hiding
Gilbert Grape was not as much a warning
As it was a window, and
To be honest, when I hear
Thin people talk about that movie
It’s like we watched
Different things entirely.
My whole family is fat and
I come from a long line of fatties, my
Great grandparents were fat
And the ones that came before them–
My grandma lived through the great depression
Working as a farmer
On canned goods and cattails
She was obese the whole fucking time
Eating off the land.
She died after she was misdiagnosed
By a doctor who insisted
She was a fat hypochondriac, but in reality
Had colon cancer.
Fatphobia is in my past, present, and
It will be in my future.
I’m just trying to see
Who I can help educate
To stop participating
In hatred, ostracization, and shaming
Of fat-bodied people.