The offending burrito and food judgement
Recently, a friend of mine was attacked by an anonymous person online for ‘promoting unhealthy habits’.
Her ‘unhealthy habit’? Choosing to participate in a burrito eating competition and posting photographs of said burrito. Which she couldn’t even finish.
Oh my word, call the health police, she’s got a burrito! Somebody stop her!
Really?
As she pointed out in response to this person, the blog she writes is only a snippet of her life. The pictures she chooses to place on the blog reflect moments in a life, not her entire life. This anonymous person does not know her, what she does every day, what she eats every day, what clothing she chooses every day. This person only knows fragments.
But really, who cares if she chooses to eat a burrito every day? Who cares if she chooses to eat two whole cakes? What business is it of some anonymous person on the internet? Or some anonymous person on the street? Because she self-identifies as fat and a woman, her body and her eating habits are public property? Hell no.
This goes both ways – I have a friend who is naturally rather slim. People have said the usual things they say to slimmer people – ‘Eat a cheeseburger, you’re wasting away, are you anorexic?’ They see her eating something like KFC and nod in approval. More body judgment.
I wish people’s bodies were just that – people’s bodies. Their own. No one else’s. Fat, slim, in between, and pregnant. I wish strangers or even people we know didn’t feel they have the right to comment on another person’s body.
