Why do we treat Thin as Healthy and Fat as Unhealthy?

It was just another Sunday morning where I decided to start binging on a new show. As pleasing it sounds it’s almost cruel how holidays pass by in a jiffy especially if you are binging on TV series. And luckily or not we do live in times where content on entertainment is just unlimited. Was it always there though I always wonder. But technology and openness to non-traditional work have flourished and opened to an unbelievable extent.

We were just mere hunter gatherers where needs were all survival based. But now doesn’t it seem more than that? Not only we’ve added comfort in food, sex, home, clothing and so on but also in every single task imaginable! This should scare us.

My father told me a very interesting story the other day. Our office resides in the heart of the goods & commodities market of the city where you will find anything and everything. He showed me a small ordinary shop which looked antique.

They were selling mud. I was like what’s so fascinating about this? He said they were the first ones to ever sell mud. He added that people were amazed as to why is this even being sold. Isn’t mud like everywhere? And people to especially cater to their gardening needs would bring it from their villages or just another land around and so on. But apparently it was a success and it used to sell like “hotcakes”(well even though it might look like one it wasn’t).

So word started getting around and people used to say things like this city is unpredictable and anything can sell! This definitely offers a perspective on things right? Sociologically speaking it seems that we are binging on life. I know it sounds absurd and how we associate binging with a set of activities. These activities according to me is nothing but on the comforts we live in. Anything in access should be binging right?

So coming back to my Sunday morning binging scene. I like getting some suggestions from my friends to get a perspective on how they liked from a particular show. In a way also indulging into discussions and sharing insights and so on. So I was recommended “The Crown”. It’s a drama series based on the life of Queen Elizabeth ll. Taking us down a historic lane and showcasing how monarchies intertwine with a democracy. Princess Diana whom the world adored because of her warm presence making her an international icon.

She was introduced in the 4th season and her life was prominently showcased. For people who do not know and given that this is based on true events and has been open for a long time I shall take the liberty to not treat this as any kind of spoilers. She had bulimia. A condition which is potentially a life threatening eating disorder. They may secretly binge without any control and then purge, trying to get rid of extra calories in an unhealthy way. Given that theoretically we are exposed to a lot of conditions related to binging, a second hand experience in a cinematic form does help feel for a person who’s living the condition.

This brings me to a certain revelation. A revelation which I believe again is something which we as individuals know but we can’t seem to embody it. We as a society fat shame people, especially ourselves. But skinny shaming is nowhere close or prominent as being fat.

This itself proves that we don’t consider thin as being unhealthy right? It may be inarguably due to the fact that obesity is more prominent in the world (at least in the high metropolitan regions) and the fact that it takes a much severe toll and affects body image which mentally does a lot of damage. A bulimic person or an anorexic (an eating disorder characterised by abnormally low weight someone who has an unwarranted fear of being overweight) are one of such rare conditions which are life threatening by being thin.

And maybe I have nothing here and sure on a practical note it seems reasonable that there are many diseases in the world and sure there are some of them which leaves a person with no life enforcing elements and they end up decaying themselves. What I’m trying to say is these are clinical conditions which are treated and managed clinically. And that’s fine and good. But when it comes to people in general who are thin.

A more appropriate term here would be lean. Lean and belly fat is not at all considered unhealthy. But we don’t register the fact that they aren’t healthy as well! Maybe again it goes back to the study of anthropology where people all across were lean and that we associated being lean as being fit. But in this day and age what might happen inside can be totally different than what is on the outside. A regular or a chain smoker is or will have medical issues but their body on the outside may not reflect the same. It’s more or less very philosophical how we even hide our true selves, feelings and thoughts inside. So in actuality people who are rather thin can be equally unhealthy.