Don't Treat Me Differently or more realistically Why Did You Treat Me Like That Before?

This topic is why I started this blog in the first place. I just forgot about it for a while. Odd. Ok, anyway, there is no nice way to say this, so I am not going to even try. We treat fat people horribly. I know that sounds like a given, but I'm not referring to the blatent rudeness and disrespect that some people display in the form of name calling, pointing, stareing, etc. No, I'm talking about being treated slightly differently than others are treated. Not being playfully flirted with in general everyday life. Just treated very, um, I'm looking for the right word, disengagingly? Is that a word?

In recent months and weeks, I've found that people treat me much differently than they had before. Interestingly enough, this includes BOTH the general public AND my friends/family/co-workers, etc. I should be happy that people are being really nice to me. People smile at me. People engage me in conversation. Men flirt with me...both in random situations such as the supermarket check out as well as a man in a bar. Yesterday I was at a meeting for work with my dad (family insurance business...had I mentioned that?) and at the meeting were all of the other agents from the region. I've known most of these guys since I was a baby. Many of them changed my diapers. We all go a long way back. I hadn't seen most of them in about 6 months since the last meeting and even THEY ALL treated me differently. I was in complete utter shock. I honestly could not believe it.

This really upsets me. I never ever wanted to believe that this would be the case. I had screaming matches with my dear ol' mom debating this very topic. I argued that I had more personality and people saw past my fat and she agreed that while I do have the personality, no matter what I think, people will treat me differently because of my weight. Well, mother, I will admit that in this instance you were right. Just cuz you were right about that doesn't mean that you did not have a huge hand in causing it, however.

Ok, sorry, back to the blog. I feel like I want to go to fat camps and plead with the kids and explain that it's not about the food and please get the weight under control because it is a cruel world out there. I also want to go to schools as a sensitivity trainer on fat people. If people can learn not to treat fat people differently and people can lose weight all at the same time, I think society will be in good shape. Right. But, seriously, I really do want to talk to groups of children about obesity and both sides of it. Both, how it feels to be treated differently and also how its not about the food.