Boy George and being fat


Boy George has lost a huge amount of weight (and just in time for Fashanker week too), everyone cheers and says "how wonderful". Am I the only person who sees him looking, well, a little ill?

It could be down to hard graft yet I suspect a gastric band and good luck to him. Now I've heard chubsters say such procedures are cheating and a betrayal of 'fat pride' but I challenge any fatty who'd deny the offer of a free gastric makeover, with a guarantee of no complications and a fat free life. Fat people are bullied and judged on a daily basis. Thin is 'good' and a quick fix is a lot easier than months and years of exercising, misery and starvation, only to pile it all back on again (as in the published cases of numerous female celebrities).

From the media, advertising, TV, films and everything visible thrown at us in a bid to buy more stuff, to be considered sexually attractive and even professional, you've got to be thin. Fat is lazy, incapable and undesirable. The Daily Mail are the worst perpetrators of this beauty myth. A quick look at their online gossip pages and every other story glorifies the weight loss or derides gain of someone we've vaguely heard of, usually female. I suspect the editor is a self hating, weight obsessed neurotic who is jealous of those who lose and angry with those who have lost their way in the quest for the body beautiful. 

I'm overweight. In socially acceptable terms, very overweight. But on a day to day basis and because I respect myself, am honestly happy with that. It's only when I go clothes shopping that I become frustrated where I'm expected to wear hideous, shapeless garments that age me by 20 years (seriously, who designs these things?). I overeat, under exercise and don't blame anyone for my size except myself (granted I've got fat genes being poured in from both sides of my family but hey..nobody forced me to eat that cake).

I'm currently in Thailand after travelling here and Cambodia where fat is unusual. Add to the mix being an unmarried, solo female traveler with very short hair and I've been stared and laughed at like a mythical monster in some parts.
Whilst talking to a couple on Rabbit Island about what-we-do-back-home and showing them a picture of myself looking faaaabulous (I studied photography and know how to pose honey), the young barman took one look and said "that's not you, you are fat". I was initially taken aback, forgetting for a moment that I'm in a part of the world where it's socially acceptable to say what you see. I'm not used to people commenting on my weight in such a blunt fashion but then again, why not? Being precariously PC, overweight  people are talked about in a passive aggressive language in the west, what's wrong in being so honest? It then became a running joke every-time I saw him, you know us fatties...always funny and self deprecating...



I don't believe in fat or thin, just healthy but healthy is different for different people. There should be more of a balance in the media when it comes to body size and shape. Less airbrushing, more realness of all sizes across the media and absolutely no focus on the rise and fall of someone's body weight because really, who cares? Of course fashion and advertising aren't able to cope with various sizing as they prey on the insecurities of consumers but the odd advert for soap showing a pick and pix variety of happy women in their pants isn't enough for women  (and more and more so, men) to stop hating and being insecure about their bodies.

Good luck to George and his slimline body. I'm no body language expert but to me, he doesn't look happy and reminds me a little of his withdrawn heroin days. Granted he looks marvelous in a westernised ideal of slimness but his eyes look removed and distant (but that could just be an indifference to the press).

It's a cliché but if you don't like something, change it but you've got to respect yourself first or you'll be just as miserable as when you started.
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