*Trigger warning for anyone with an eating disorder: examination of the word fat. I could have died once upon a time when I was wasting away on drugs, so it stands to reason that I believe having some fat on my bones is a good thing.
Why are so many of us afraid of being or getting fat? I love the quote by Cheryl Strayed, who tells us to stop worrying about whether we're fat.
As she says, "Who gives a shit?" I grew up thinking that fat was a bad word and that I shouldn't use it. In fact, I don't think I ever heard my mother use it.
She did, however, say things like "So-and-so has become an awful size" when I'm pretty sure she meant so-and-so had gotten fat. God bless her, she had a few weird ways about her, my mom.
I would hazard a guess that so-and-so would have rather been called "fat" than "an awful size." One of the things that I love about the anti-diet movement is that it encourages us to reclaim the word fat. I'm not always able to use it comfortably yet, but I'm trying.