I stopped at the drugstore today on the way home from work, and was shamed by a 5 year old girl in the store. Seriously. She was chatting chatting in a kind of bratty way, walking through the store with her mother (who was ignoring her) and as the girl got closer to me I heard her saying "You have a big belly, don't you? You have a big, big belly, don't you?" And I said, "Well, yes, I do," in a pretty normal voice.
Then she said, "You look really really big. You look big." And I said, "Uh huh, ok," and tried to catch her mother's eye to get this little brat, who was getting louder and louder, under control. Of course, her mom acted like nothing was happening. The girl said "You are super big!" quite loudly, and I said, "Yes, and you are super annoying!" just as loud. Her mother gave me a dirty look, and pulled her in the opposite direction. The clerk standing the next aisle over snorted, but I am not sure at what.
So. I was reduced to a snark-off with a preschooler today. I stood there for a minute after, perfectly still, pretending to continue to look at the lip gloss. What to do? I stood, for a minute, then I walked away and continued shopping, and literally waited til the girl left to go to that part of the store.
In a perfect world, I suppose I would have engaged the girl in fun conversation about how people come in all shapes and sizes. Or, maybe in a perfect world the girl's freaking mother would have stepped in and done that for me. I just can't stop thinking about it, though - the girl was 5 goddamned years old. I am fairly certain I'm not the first fat woman she's ever seen. Why is it ok for her to call out my size without her mom intervening? And why does it bother me so?
Thanks to the seemingly freaky and highly talented "toastycakes" for posting this public photo on flickr. Thanks for sharing.
1 comment:
This is so frustrating. I've had people call me fat, ask when i was having the baby even when i wasn't prgnant and so on. I even had a homeless guy tell me I was fat once. I was pregnant at the time so I was super, super sensitive and I almost cried there at my bus stop. I'm already sensitive about my weight fools!
We get it alot with jackson too. Adults and children alike stare and stare and give him weird looks. i ask if they would like to take a picture sometimes (in a snarky tone). We have many who smile and ask questions too, which makes me feel better.
I feel you though. The reason it is so annoying is because it is the mother's fault. Kids don't care usually so the kid has probably heard the parents saying bad things about fat people. If the parents didn't have a problem with it the kid wouldn't have said anything. The mom should have said something to the child and apologized to you.
People suck.
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