Judgement Day

Guten Morgen!

I don't speak Norwegian or Swedish or whatever language that was in... I just didn't want to write "good morning" again, since I wrote it the other day. 

Okay.  Let's talk about discrimination and judginess.  (Yes, I know "judginess" is not a word,  but hey, everything's a word - it's just not in the dictionary!)  I have a friend who made an amazing video once about discrimination towards obese people.  I've made at least one video myself about discrimination against underweight people or people with eating disorders.  The two concepts are not so very different (my friend's video and mine, that is.) 

I don't understand why it's generally accepted in most of society today that discriminating against someone for the color of his or her skin is wrong, discriminating against someone for their gender is wrong, discriminating against someone for a disability is wrong, but it is still acceptable to discriminate openly about people because of their size.

THIS IS NOT OKAY!!!!

Since I can only speak for myself, I will use myself as an example.  There are several things about me as a person that can be used to stereotype me.  I am young, female, blonde, dare I say attractive (hey, it's what I'm told, all right?), slender/thin, anorexic, Russian by blood, Jewish by nurture, and intelligent.

Now... take a look at that list and it won't take you long to find things that don't seem to match up.  But yet, they are all fact (except for the attractive thing, because that's a matter of opinion.)  For example, I'm blonde and Jewish.  Those two typically don't go to together.  So someone might look at me, see my incredibly aryan features, and assume I celebrate Christmas only.  Then, they might look closer and see the Star of David necklace around my neck.

Probably the funniest one for me is what happens at school every single term.  I am pretty quiet in lectures, I don't often raise my hand to speak or state my opinion or willingly answer questions.  I tend to sit in the back corner of lecture halls or classrooms, and I often stare into space while the teacher is talking.  I take notes, but not fervently.  I have literally seen many people's faces shift, including the instructor's, when I do raise my hand and open my mouth and say something.  The looks they wear are clearly saying, oh shit, there's a brain behind that face!  It's hilarious.  The reason they look this way is because typically people don't expect blonde, pretty and intelligent to come together all in one package.

Or, in the words of my wonderful fiance, "you're only blonde until you open your mouth."

Great, right?  I love it.  It never fails to amuse me.

But here's another thing:  I hate when people assume I'm just genetically, naturally thin.  On the one hand, it's nice to know that people think I'm thin.  But at the same time, they are dismissing all my hard work and willpower.  I will NEVER apologize for my body.  People have been jealous of me, and made that known.  I refuse to apologize because I work hard, damnit.  I'm not naturally like this.  It takes work, every single day.  I go to Zumba.  I run.  I walk.  I do ab workouts.  I watch what I eat (okay.... I have an eating disorder, whatever.  Still doesn't mean it's easy!)  It drives me batshit crazy when people complain about being fat and then go eat cookies and can't understand why they are the way they are.  Don't judge me as a skinny bitch just because you're not.  That's not my fault.  I try not to judge people unless they judge me first.  I'm not perfect at it, but that's my aim. 

I am going to leave you with a picture I saw on facebook yesterday.  It seems to fit perfectly with this.