We’ve all been there. We know those three dreaded words. Some days I would wake up and feel them creeping up on me; that unwanted sensation that made every nice blouse look like a giant tent on me. “I feel fat.” Yes. I’ve said it. Chances are that you’ve said it, but the more I think of it… can fat really be a feeling?
The word fat has stopped meaning what it used to. Before it was an adjective to describe the physical shape of something. “That cat is so adorably fat.” Or, “That burger had so much fat it dripped on my shirt.” Fat, according to a quick google search, is a noun, an adjective and verb. What surprised me was how generic its definition was: (of a person or animal) having a large amount of excess flesh. Google is just saying what it is, so why are we placing such a bad connotation on the word?
I’ve found that nowadays the sentence “I feel fat.” Can be exchanged with a darker one, “I am not happy with how I look.” But to insinuate that feeling a certain shape brings such negative emotions concerns me. We are limiting body image to one specific criteria: anything but fat. Because fat equals unhappiness and unattractiveness. It doesn’t stop there, because there isn’t a real way to measure how fat looks.
We all have our own definition of fat. For some, it’s that flab on their stomach. Others, it’s a number on a scale. The term has become so abstract, but it continues to be shared with an underlying fear and self-loathing. Very few times have I heard someone say, “I feel fat,” and smile while they eat another scoop of ice cream. I mostly hear it from my healthy looking friends who push away their low-calorie salad while confessing how fat they feel. I couldn’t see it. Where is this fat? That’s when I realized that it’s more a state of mind than a physical state.
Fat is not bad. In fact, we humans need fat to survive. No matter how skinny you are, you will always have fat. And there is nothing wrong with that. I believe it is time we stop using this word to cover up what we really feel. “I don’t feel pretty, adequate, good enough, etc.” Because ‘fat’ is just the tip of the iceberg. Your worth does not lie in how much your thighs jiggle when you jump. No longer can we replace our negative emotions with the word ‘fat’. We need to stop using this word in a negative way and see it for what it truly is.
Next time you believe you feel ‘fat’, ask yourself. What am I really feeling?
