Spring: Fat Woman Body
I am not comfortable in my fat body. I feel shame in my fatness. Anyone who has been fat understands what it’s like to navigate the public arena; the psychological aspects are much worse than the physical limitations of a fat body, which can be considerable. In a world designed primarily, and unapologetically, for the slender, watching out for physical barriers is an on-going worry: tight spaces, small cars, elevators, crowded public transportation (airplanes, especially), and skimpy chairs designed to hold bodies up to 250 pounds – that is, if one is lucky. Once, when I was on my Fulbright in Macedonia, where the population is still relatively slender (although this is rapidly changing), and dining in a small Italian restaurant, I stood up from a rickety plastic armchair to leave, and the chair arose with me. Everyone knows that a chair is not supposed to be a fashion accessory for the posterior, but there I was, sporting a white chair, no less, and trying to wiggle out of ...