From Kameron Hurley's "Public Speaking While Fat"

From Kameron Hurley's essay "Public Speaking While Fat":

The only time I’ve ever been praised for my weight repeatedly was when I was dying of a chronic illness, which winnowed me down to a (still considered “overweight”!) 170lbs.
I’ll never forget my mother on the phone with my dad, having just gotten me out of the ICU, telling him how great I looked because I was so skinny (!!!).
…
I vowed from that moment on …that I would never, ever ever beat myself up or hate myself for being fat ever again.
 …
I have always considered fear and hatred of taking up space as a feminist issue, as it’s so often used to shame women, no matter what their actual size.
…
Many women-identified people worry about heckling, about pointing and shouting “You’re fat! You’re not a real woman! You’re stupid! You talk too much!” and I get that the pain and fear and sorrow over that can be too much. But being in these spaces, and being heard in them, is vitally important to changing these conversations…

Go forth into the world, retreat when it is too much, but know that when you stand up to be heard, and be counted, you’re doing your own part to change the narrative, and in doing so, to change the world."

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Originally posted on her website,
Kameron Hurley, Intellectual Badass, 
now in her collection of essays, Geek Feminist Revolution  (2016) >
which I like so much I actually bought, new.

I'd blogged a long time ago about what a time suck it is to obsess about diet & weight: "Being Pretty". 
(Wow--that was Dec. 7, 2007, nine years ago to the day...)
If you just look at it objectively like a time-use study or a public health survey, it's an almost criminal waste of human energy. 

And it's such a bore--we could be doing so much more interesting things. But if people keep throwing sticky stuff at you, you do have to give it some attention.