Being fat gave me superpowers! It made me invisible- providing me a deep perspective on life and people. Have you ever heard the song Mr. Cellophane? It’s an OST from the blockbuster movie ‘Chicago’? Watch the movie if you haven’t already and if any part of this blog resonates with you, look out for the song. The lyrics are:
“Mister Cellophane, Should have been my name
Mister Cellophane,Cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me, And never know I'm there
I tell ya, Cellophane
Mister Cellophane, Should have been my name”
Click on the link to watch now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfNIYUvPrsM
Replace the Mister with Miss and that’s how I felt for the longest time. By which I mean, till I was clinically obese. I am still overweight, I am a certain number on the scale, which doesn’t invite criticism or unsolicited advice from “well wishers” and society anymore, but I am not rake thin and I don’t have a size zero figure. Is that a problem? Sometimes…when I look at fashion magazines and compare myself to the glamourous shots of women with unrealistic body statistics. I remind myself that it’s airbrushed and then, it’s alright…Until the next time I pick up another fashion magazine. And so on and so forth.
But it’s true, society tends to have certain fixed ideas about fat people. They think that we eat too much, exercise too little, are lazy, are not intelligent, are always happy, and perhaps even that we don’t have feelings. I don’t want to talk about my journey from fat to not so fat or give advice on what to eat, how much to exercise or what to wear. There’s enough out there and for all who can relate, I am sure you already know what to do. My take here is different, I say, “Flip the script” Cobra Kai style. Remember, when Hawk made his facial scar a source of strength, rather than weakness? It happened because he embraced it.
So go ahead and embrace your fatness. It opens you up to that side of humanity which is rarely seen by the so-called, ‘genetically privileged’. ‘We’ see something that ‘they’ don’t. It’s seeing people as they are. Warts and all. It gives you the ability to cut the crap. Because we are not “seen”, we observe better. We are able to separate the grain from the chaff. We know who’s genuine and who’s faking it. We know whom to trust and whom to keep at arm’s length. The reason we are able to do this is because we get beaten about weight advice from all sorts of people. Those who mean well and those who simply want to feel better at our expense.
Genetically privileged people never have this experience. You, my friend, are blessed. Use it to your advantage. Choose professions where observation is key, or use it as a personal vetting mechanism when choosing mates or friends. You have encountered enough crappy humans to know the good from the bad. Over time, these observations will develop a pattern. The pattern will render results which will get you through life. You will be able to look through and correctly judge people and situations for what they are rather than what they are being presented to you as. Own your “fatness”. Flip that script!