Stop trying to justify your fatness. You are doing yourself, your mothers and your daughters a disservice by teaching them to accept their unhealthy frames.
Read the response by a fellow blogger. And tell me what you think.
I'm black and I am a woman. Part of my journey into health has been in discovering what it means to be a healthy black woman. A few years ago I was tipping the scales close to 230/240. I'm not too tall either. I didn't get any height from my 6 foot 4 inch dad. I got a little bit of my height from that and my mom's beautiful 5 foot 2 inch frame. Do the math and you get me, I'm what, MAYBE 5 foot 5...MAYBE. Okay, maybe 5 foot 4. Shoot. I'm short, but i'm okay.
I haven't been shy about my weight journey. I have shared that it's beyond the number on the scale and I feel like the blog author really neglects the issues that surround what it means that there is a high percentage of black women who struggle with their weight.
Another quote:
My goal here is to get you to accept that most of you don’t really have a handle on your health and that you were NOT born to look like a hippo. You have a problem with food and you need to practice healthier eating habits and take better care of your health.
At what point do we find it appropriate to call out our sisters, brothers, our family on such an intimate issue without an ounce of grace or true, authentic accompaniment. If I went to any nutritionist or health advisor and he or she said that to me, I would give up.
Our health journey isn't just ours. As a black woman, I get to look at my rich history that is scattered all over the world. When I traveled to Sierra Leone, I remember seeing myself in the beautiful skin and curves of the women. I heard my family in the laughter shared in tight modes of transportation. And there was something beautiful about the bodies of the women and how they loved them.
This isn't about the weight. It never has been. It's about how anyone, me, you got to the point you are or were. You can lose all of the weight and be put in the size 2 category, but if you don't love yourself at the size you are...then you haven't figured anything out. You may be skinny, but you won't be happy. And if you aren't happy, then what's the point. No, for real.
We need to look into our history and see what's going on. Black women were objectified throughout the years of slavery...and even now in music videos...
Black women need to recover our bodies, our beauty, our emotions, our stories. And share them. We need more places to share our stories and explore what it means to be a black woman in the United States (or wherever) and what does it mean to be healthy.
And we need less posts that write THIS:
To you unhealthy size 16 women who write all these “We aren’t all a size two posts”. Please sit down and just accept that you are overweight and stop glorifying it. If you are heavier than your man (unless you just like your men bony) then you should be ashamed of yourself.
Do not be ashamed of your body. Embrace it and love it for what it is...at this point and at the next point. And like I've said, weight issues aren't about food in and food out...it's about what's going on with our emotions and dang, that blog author missed that big time. That's too bad. It seems like the blog gets plenty of traffic and it would be nice to see some good energy and inspiration go out from there.
Again.
Embrace your body today...and share your story and journey. And ask for help. You can do this.
2 comments:
My mother and I have consistently outweighed most of the men we've dated, by virtue of not limiting our scope to men taller than us.
You're correct. That blogger should not be saying "shame on you." Women are all too familiar with shame. We got that. Compassionate encouragement? That's scarce.
The shame part is what got me the most. Makes me so angry!
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