Virgie Tovar

I would find myself being taught by boys at school that I was unlovable and disgusting because of my fat body. I would lose sight of how magical my body was, how magical I was. I would lose the sense that my body was mine at all

As much as I wish it were, my story is not unique. It is, in many ways, the story of women’s lives in America

A woman told me she had cancer that went untreated because her doctor told her that the problem was her weight. She went in for an appointment because she was experiencing excruciating menstrual cramps and very heavy periods. She was afraid. Rather than examining her, the doctor told her that if she lost weight that everything would be fine. Had the doctor been willing to take her seriously, she could have found the lump in her uterus, but instead it grew unchecked for another three years

In many ways, however, these ideas are merely symptoms of a larger cultural problem, not least our country’s history of unresolved racism, white supremacy, classism, and misogyny

unsolicited masculine sexual attention and the drive to control feminine bodies go hand in hand.

Because of the way fat people are positioned in our culture, people learn to fear becoming fat. They are afraid of discrimination and hatred. It is normal to feel afraid of people hating you. It is not normal for people to hate anyone based on how much they weigh

The language used to sell diet products has shifted away from shame and fear in favor of aspiration and optimization. Rather than specifically focusing on weight loss, there are more references to “health” and the idea that “healthy is the new skinny.”

My core belief is both painfully obvious and wholly subversive: every person, regardless of weight or health status, deserves to live a life completely free from bigotry and discrimination

“Fat” and “thin” are make-believe categories the way “gay” and “straight” are. They were brought into existence for no other reason than to control people

As I sat on the exam table he congratulated me on my lowered weight. He did not ask me how I lost the weight. He did not ask me what I was or wasn’t eating. It didn’t matter. Literally no one seemed to care. He believed, like most, that when a fat woman—or girl—loses weight, it’s always positive no matter how the loss happened.