Insecurities are a myth: existing as a fat person in a fatphobic society
CW: fatphobia
I don't believe in insecurities.
I didn't choose these feelings of never being enough and it isn't a personal failure to struggle with confidence.
For so long the world has sent me messages about what is wrong with me. But different people get different messages, depending on how the world perceives you.
If I grew up with fat positive role models in my life, my chubby little 5-year-old self might not have felt so "insecure" about how different my body was.
Or if that same little kid had doctors in their life that didn't shame them about how their body looked, maybe it wouldn't be so fucking hard for me to love this fat body I have been given.
My body is hard to love only because this society has sent me so many messages saying that this fat body is bad, something that shouldn't be allow to exist in peace.
I am fucking beautiful, just trying to exist in a world that thinks it is acceptable to shame me for how my body looks, but not acceptable for me to love myself as I am.
If I find that hard to cope with some days, I'm not "insecure". I am just battling systemic oppression every time I get dressed in the morning or go to the grocery store. And it is fucking exhausting.
This photo was taken in 2019 of me and my partner, Patrick, in Yosemite.
Let's be friends! What are your thoughts on what it means to feel insecure? How do you navigate a world that doesn't tolerate anything less than its own version of "perfect"?
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