Now, I've always been pretty skinny and a few years ago I gave up on ratcheting down size 32 pants and just started buying 30 or 31. So I start digging through these pants, there are shelves of them and I realize I'm not going to find anything. There is nothing in this style with a waist smaller than 34. Okay. Fine. I've been scrawny for a long time, I know the deal. So I find another pair I like and - you guessed it - nothing below a 32. And then I quit caring if the pants looked good or whatever, I'm just looking for pants with a waist smaller than 32 inches. And of course, there aren't any. None.
I figure, what the heck, I'm here already, try the 32 and see if they work. What's the harm. So I grab the 32 off the shelf and then notice the length is 30. The only 32 inch waist pants in the whole giant LL Bean store have a 30 inch length. I need 32. So, there are no pants - including jeans and the "technical" waterproof deals - in this whole store that fits me.
That's when I had to leave the store. Now if this had been some other store I might not have minded too much. But I'm standing there looking at the selection of bicycles and kayaks for sale right next to the pants and there is nothing for a skinny person to wear. Have you ever seen a professional cyclist? They make me look like Chris Farley. And LL Bean is selling that life style, right? They're saying "shop here and you'll be a fitness loving rugged outdoors man who kayaks to the mountain bike trail and the rides to the deer stand." They have giant photographs of dudes on fishing expeditions or standing on cliffs, and those dudes likely can't buy pants in the store itself.
So, I leave the store and go to Old Navy where I buy literally the only pants in THAT store that fits me.
And really, this is no big deal in the long run, I went back into Bean and bought some sweaters and shirts. The world did not end.
But I do want to say the following, and it might be offensive, I don't know.
This morning on NPR I heard the phrase "just another example of discrimination against the fat". I don't remember the exact context, something about the health care debate. My point is, what discrimination? Almost every grocery store and restaurant in America caters to the obese. I can't buy gas without someone trying to sell me sausage and cheese between pancakes. Now I have to order my clothes on the internet because they aren't available. Forget Big and Tall stores, we need Skinny and Tall; EVERY store is for the big. Discrimination? "The fat" are running this show for crying out loud.
Did I do anything to be skinny? Does it make me a better person? No, of course not. Hell, I started this project to GAIN weight. I fail at the PCP every single day, I'm not saying it is easy to change. It's luck in the genetic lottery, I know that. But I'm just sick of hearing about how tough things are for people that drink Coke at breakfast or eat McDonald's every day. And so what if they advertise? People really cannot overcome a picture of a hamburger with some silly music and a lame joke? Honestly? Every time I watch TV the breaks are full of ads for crap like 2 and Half Men, but I don't watch it, because I know it is crap. People don't know by now that Burger King is crap? Of course it's crap. It has always been crap. It's not like they were selling fruit salad and the changed it up all the sudden. "Oh it's the high fructose corn syrup. ADM is evil for putting it in my food." Then don't buy that food. No HFCS in an apple. No multinational added sugars to the carrots.
Do I slip up on the diet? Of course, everyone slips, but take responsibility for it. Are there genetic or cultural factors. Sure. But how many graduates of this program would of said they just had bad genetics before starting? How many people never try because they're given that excuse day in day out by some talking head on TV. Tell people they're always going to be out of shape because of their genes or culture or socio-economics status or whatever and they will always be out of shape. Tell people they can improve and they'll improve.
Is that too naive? Maybe. Sorry if I'm a jerk. Long couple days at work topped by this nonsense today.
Alright, enough being a baby, time to cook up some dinner.
well said, ya big jerk ;)
ReplyDeleteseriously though.
Whew, yeah -- it's mind boggling sometimes. Especially when you delve into the power of the talking box.
ReplyDeleteI recently saw a commercial for a $3.99 Sonic meal -- chicken strips, texas toast, onion rings and fries, every morsel is fried! Oh, and you can get a soda, too! Look at all the "food" you get for $3.99!
I'm left shaking my head and muttering, "none of that is actually food."
You sir are absolutely correct on every point. I hate shopping for pants. Every single time it's like someone rubs a little salt in the old wounds from high school. You know, those ones where the bigger kids pick on the skinny kids. Ok maybe it's not that bad. But seriously, I would like it to not be assumed that by being of average height I am averagely overweight.
ReplyDeleteI can identify, Mike. In the women's section, at least, the number sizes definitely do not correspond to the same sizes they were 10 years ago. I wear a size 0 now, which I think is ludicrous anyway, but I have often thought, what happens if I lose weight. Do they make a -1?
ReplyDeleteBeing one of the overweight people, I'm coming from the other end of the spectrum. I roll my eyes every time there is the cry of discrimination against "fat people". At least they can get off their behinds and do something about it, unlike the other classes of people who face real discrimination each day because of factors they can't change (like skin color, gender, orientation, disability).
ReplyDeleteThe downside of Food vs "food" is that companies can make "food" a lot cheaper than the farmers with real Food. Sure an apple doesn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, but the cost an apple can be higher than the cost of a liter of apple juice. For someone with a limited income, they will buy the liter because it will feed a few kids through a number of meals (especially if you water it down). The apple will only satisfy one child.
Until the U.S. can figure out how to produce real Food and get it to the people without the lobbyists blocking the way so their own interests can prosper, people will be eating unhealthily and getting bigger.