Right, you lot. Let's get this sorted then.

Through feedreaders, Aishwarya occasionally shares random interesting, funny, and just plain wacky posts by others. A few days back, she pointed to this article. And it seemed like the perfect excuse to talk about something that some readers of this blog probably hate me for.

(Aside - I disliked that article. No wait....I thoroughly disliked the article. It is the ideal example of why I don't read sites/blogs that are about 'movements' or 'viewpoints'. Because they're the kind of places that post long, rambling writeups filled with pseudo-jargon created not just to exclude any new reader (that's a given), but also to cover up the distinct lack of a new thought/idea/angle. I mean, seriously, "thin privilege"? What utter shite).

Anyways, this isn't about the ideas discussed in the article per se. It's about why that woman could write the article in the first place - by being perpetually thin.

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Most people assume that if you're not fat, you're fit. That just because it's not too healthy to be overweight, and since you're so obviously not, you're healthy. That just because you can go through a lunch-for-two at breakfast, but not put on any weight, that you're blessed and "soooo lucky - uggh, I haaaate you". That just because you can fit into a size 'S' means you won't have all the problems that people at the other end of the physical spectrum face.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Being lean is better. Being trim is healthy. Being the type of person who can lose or gain five kilos in three weeks of training, and can bench press twice their body weight while still fitting in a 'S/M', that's healthy. Being naturally thin, despite every attempt you make to not be so, isn't.

(And by naturally thin, I'm not referring to anorexic models, or people who eat half an apple and complain about how much they've eaten today. I mean people like this. People who represent the other extreme of the weight-gene, who need to do three lunges after three helpings of biryani and phirni to burn off all the calories they just ingested. People who are skinny as kids, gangly as teenagers, and thin as adults. And by the way, it's got nothing to do with metabolic rates. Is a myth, that. It does have to do with genes, though.)

Because naturally thin people can have high levels of cholesterol too. Because they are more at risk when they fall ill - losing five kilos to that bout of malaria could mean tipping over from 'underweight' to 'famine-zone thin'. Because they have to spend more money than most people to buy more layers of clothing than other people do, when living in cool climes, what with not having the layers of natural fat that others use to ward off cold winds.

Because they end up spending even more money on gyms and trainers only to discover that if they don't go for just one week, they'll be back to their old skinnyass self. Because they're more likely to get hernias from injudiciously trying to lift something (or someone) heavy, just to prove that while they might be thin, they're not weak. Because they're more likely to be shaken about like a rag when the wind is howling down the streets.

Because they spend more money than average on food, because they need to eat more than the normal amount just to keep on remaining that thin. Because despite stuffing their face at every single meal, when they meet someone after a period of more than a fortnight, they are inevitably told that they're "wasting away".

Because they too suffer from name-calling trauma, what with epithets such as beanpole, cricket stump, clothes hanger and sookhi bombil* being merrily applied to them throughout their lives. Because they end up being less touchy-feely after years of having other people complain about how their bones are short-range weapons of Pain.

And by 'they', obviously I mean 'us'.

So yes, being overweight isn't fun. But neither is the opposite. Being naturally, genetically thin is NOT a blessing. It is NOT to be envied. And it is certainly NOT something such people deserve to be hated for.

Let that be the end of that. We good? Good.

Now excuse me while I go eat my mid-morning triple-decker cheese toast, with a side order of hot chocolate.....whaaaat? It's snowing outside. I need all those layers.



* Dried Bombay Duck. You'll understand if you've seen one.