This article resonated with me. At primary school a teacher instigated teasing and taunting, based on my weight. She used the phrase being cruel to be kind, to justify what she was doing. I wasnt even seriously overweight, just a bit of puppy fat maybe. But what she and others did left a life-long wound of body image issues that are painful and messy, tied in closely with what amounted to emotional and psychological abuse. I have been off work for close to three months, seriously ill, hospitalised, panting for breath at times, and no longer able to cycle or swim or even walk much. I returned to work, briefly before Christmas for a day, and go back again this Monday. And the best someone there could manage was oh, youve put on weight. And every nasty little trigger in the depths of my psyche detonated and it hurt like it did at school and I blushed with shame. And this is not isolated. It seems people believe they have a right to comment on the morphology of others. And they dont. They are not being cruel to be kind, and they are not plain speaking, they are just rude people who are overstepping the mark of privacy, boundaries, and common courtesy. My health will return and so will my normal level of fitness; and I hope that I will never be so rude, so crass as to comment, or intrude on another persons body image.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 20:57:47 +0000
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