The Assumptions of Trolls

One common assumption by trolls is that because I'm fat I must eat a lot and not exercise. I must also be lazy and smelly and unclean. Don'tcha know?

Oh how little you know me, ye of such overpowering knowledge that ye knowest all while us mere mortals do quiver in fear. 

Puh-lease. These trolls know nothing about me or my lifestyle or my physical/mental health. They know nada. Nothing. Zip. And yet they will tell myself, and every other fat person they see, that they know why we are fat and how to fix it. 

Apart from this being extraordinarily rude, condescending and just down right stupid it's also maddening. But I won't go into that right now, maybe another time when it bothers me slightly less and I can formulate a decent post that doesn't consist of volumes of swearing. 

As I've said before, and so will say again, I can't talk for other people. I can only express my thoughts and how I live blah blah blah. So let me get a few things off my chest. 

Firstly, I don't eat much at all. I still have friends who are stunned by how much less I eat than them. This isn't because I don't want to eat vast amounts when I'm with someone to try and hide my real eating habits. Whether I'm with someone or not I still don't eat much. Of course there are days -- usually relating to PMS -- when I'm ravenous and will want to eat everything I see, but I don't. The argument "you eat too much" is invalid here. Move on, there's nothing to see here. 

Secondly, you may earn yourself a troll point because I don't exercise. Yeah, yeah I should blah blah blah. When you've figured out a way for me to exercise that doesn't result in my mood to fall below an acceptable level resulting in me attempting to commit suicide, then we'll talk. No, dear, I would not rather be dead than fat. 

Thirdly, I'll admit I have lazy moments, but that does not make me lazy. How many times have you procrastinated because you were feeling lazy? How many times have you decided to stay home one weekend and lounge on the sofa in your tracky dacks? Oh, a few times you say!! Does that make you a lazy person or just a person who indulges in a few lazy moments? Just because I'm fat doesn't automatically mean I do nothing but laze around being fat and whining about it. Next bubble to burst please.

Now here's one of my favourites. I've read a tweet from a nurse -- whom I used to follow -- about how she hated assisting in surgery when it was a fat person. Apparently their rolls always stink. Insert eye rolling here. From recent commentary on #thingsfatpeoplearetold I noticed that she wasn't the only person in a medical field to say something so outrageously stupid. In fact there are non-medical related people who just assume that because we're fat we smell. Wrong.

Let's deal with the surgical dribble first. If you've had any kind of procedure you know that you're not allowed to wear deodorant, nail polish, use hair products etc. The list is pretty long if you actually read it and, of course, it depends what procedure you may have. So whether you're fat or thin, tall or short, male or female you're presenting yourself unadorned and without deodorant. 

Now here's something amazing: people sweat. People sweat when they're scared too and guess what a lot of us tend to feel when we're waiting for the nurse to come and tell us they're ready for you!? We feel scared. 

Some people sweat more than others regardless of weight. It's something about adrenal glands or some such -- if you really want to know google it -- and they're different in each of us. Now let's think about all this for a moment. 

No one having surgery can wear deodorant or perfume before the surgery. 

Everyone sweats and may feel nervous or scared pre-surgery. 

Some people can sweat more than others regardless of weight. 

This means -- omfg the world is at an end -- that everyone has a chance of smelling bad and not because they have rolls. Would you look at that. That's just too amazing to fathom.

Of course we're not always walking around about to go into surgery and there's still the misconception that fat people stink just because... well... they must? 

A lot of the same rules apply here that did above. People of all sizes may sweat more than others, which is usually the cause of the "smell". There are some fat people who sweat very little and, as such, don't "smell" but are still told they smell. Seriously that's all you can think of? You can't even stop and think why you think that and on what grounds you base this thought on? 

Of course in the real world we have deodorant. Some folks don't like it and that's their own personal choice. There are some -- myself included -- who are so paranoid of being told they "smell" they end up wearing more than is necessary. I even take my Impulse deodorant with me in my bag in the event I do end up sweating and can spray a quick burst while I'm alone in the toilets. Yes, I will always wait until I get a minute alone so I don't upset anyone who may not like the smell of my pretty and sweet spray. It's called being considerate, trolls you should try that some time.

So anyway, this is turning into such a long rant I'm actually getting angry just thinking about all the variations of the same arguments. 

These basic and stupid ideas probably don't even deserve their own post, but I've been thinking about them for a while and decided even the smallest things should be addressed. Acceptance and change both start with rearranging the smallest thoughts, which lead to amending bigger thoughts.