Cheeseburger Rule #11: Fat is not a dirty word

For those of you who don’t know, yesterday was International No Diet Day! As I was reflecting on the concept of not dieting, I started thinking about the word fat and all that it means in our society and I remembered this clip from Friends. If you don’t have time to watch the whole clip let me sum it up for you: Chandler calls Monica fat. She then loses a ton of weight (in the course of a year) to get back at Chandler for insulting her. And somehow Chandler ends up losing the tip of his toe.

All the friends make a big deal about the fact that Chandler called Monica fat, which make sense because calling someone fat is just about the worst insult ever. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered why being called fat is such a bad thing after all? (Before you get all upset and start lecturing me about the “dangers” of obesity please know that I am talking about how our society feels about fat aesthetically not in terms of health, ok read on).

I think the reason fat is such an insult in our society is because of the way fat people are treated. Think about it…the way we make fun of fat people in movies, tv shows and books, the way fat is always talked about in magazines as if it were the ultimate evil, the way we pit fat people up against each other on reality tv shows so we can make a contest out of who can lose the most fat. I could go on and on and I’m sure you could too. The sad reality is, we HATE fat and anything having to do with it, so of course we see fat as the ultimate insult.

Then I started thinking, what is “fat” anyway? When you google fat, tons of images of large people pop up. But is that what fat really is? We are taught to hate fat in and of itself, but don’t we all need at least some fat on our bodies? Maybe fat is not something you are, maybe it’s something you have.

I’m not here to define whats fat and whats not, but I have been thinking about the ways that I can personally embrace my female fat and think of it as a good thing instead of such a dirty three letter word. Here is what I came up with:

~My fat is feminine. If I were just skin and bones, I would look like a 12 year old boy! No thanks! My curves make me look like a grown women.

~My fat gives me cushion. No seriously, if we were all just bones, we wold have a pretty uncomfortable time sitting down don’t ya think?

~My fat keeps me warm. The extra cushion insulates my body so that I’m not cold all the time. If we didn’t have any fat, we would be freezing!

~Fat in food makes it more tasty! Foods with no fat and sugar are nasty! I’m not saying we should all go out and eat the foods with the most fat in them all the time, but we also don’t have to restrict ourselves to a bland, tasteless diet.

One of Dictionary.com’s definitions of fat is “the richest or best part of anything.” Now I like that definition.

So instead of fearing and hating fat so much, let’s think of ways to re-define fat. The next time someone calls me fat, I’m going to smile and say “Thank you! That is so sweet!” Their look of utter confusion will be pure entertainment.