Reality Sandwiches

I don't want to play the fat guy or the friend for the rest of my life.
-Sean Astin

I think fat guys, hell even fat girls, identify with this statement in terms of their life.

Hollywood, in many ways, is a filmed representation of society's caste system. We declare certain people unfit for reproduction, employment, and even entitlement to the basic rights afforded to us by the constitution, by displaying their image in a movie theater or on stage.

There was a reason that the blaxploitation era
had mythical black heroes that killed Nazis while having sex with beautiful women... true, most of it was exploitative hot garbage, but the idea behind it was that they wanted to show images of black people that didn't show them as fools or pawns of white people. As a result, an industry sprang up out of it... and slowly black people have gained more and more equity in showbusiness (much more needs to be done, but still...)

Fat people are still easy targets. There are entire movies that exist just to make fun of those silly people who can't get off their fat asses and stop eating cheeseburgers. But since America (and most of the world) considers the movies to be the truth, let me enlighten you with a few tidbits:

- Fat people know that they're fat. Skinny people are not playing Merlin to their young Arthur, instructing them on their lot in life as a fat person. Contrary to popular belief, we have eyes.
- Fat people aren't all the same. Your diet plan might work for your 52 year old mother, but not for me, a 27 year old guy. Suggestions are, while certainly helpful for you and your discomfort with my "situation", completely unnecessary. Unless you're a medical expert that I'm paying or someone I asked for advice, stop speaking or change the subject.
- Fat people pay money to try and help themselves out of their problem. Its incredibly expensive, too, but its worth it if you can identify what is wrong with what you're doing (or what's wrong with your body or mind) and make some strides towards making things better. But...
- Some fat people aren't unhealthy at all. Sometimes they just have rounded bodies. Sometimes they're just short. Sometimes they're just big and tall. Accept it: people are gonna look different. Love them for who they are and not what you think you can change them into (and that goes way beyond body image. Maybe then we wouldn't have a 56 percent divorce rate.) But also...
- Fat people can be beautiful. Camryn Manheim could get a ring from me. Kelly Price could get one too. Faith Evans and Missy Elliott frequently occupied my dreams in high school and college, and I still jones for Faith (Missy, too, but not as much as Faith.) Toccara from America's Next Top Model could convince me to do... well, anything.
- Finally, fat people don't need your approval or permission to live. So don't feel like you somehow have to help or save them from their fat asses. We'll figure it out. In the meantime, you can work on why its so hard for you to look at a fat person and acknowledge that they're human beings.