Were/Are you bullied because of your weight?

DLDzioba

I was an active kid when I was really little, but things changed and I started gaining weight when we moved the summer between 3rd and 4th grade. I gained weight and stayed at home more, at first because I was in a new place but more and more because I had a hard time making friends at school. The neighborhood we moved into had two other children, both around my brother's age and they knew plenty of kids but it was kinda a rough crowd and they got us in far more trouble than they were worth so we pretty much stayed in reading, watching TV, or playing on the computer of video games. We all became overweight.

I don't know if my brothers had it as bad as I did. I'm willing to bet they did, but just didn't let on. Lord knows I tried to hide it from my family as much as possible.

By the time I was in middle school I was wearing size 12-14W jeans. I went to a Catholic school over an hour away from my house because my mother didn't care for the way my brother had been handled in the local middle school. My school was so small there was only one class per grade level. It was a tight-knit community there and very much the privileged kinda kids. The girls were skinny and beautiful and knew how to dress and act and do their makeup and I....was not.

The girls weren't my main problem, though. I had boys who teased me a lot. I was called fat *kitten* fairly often. Once when I fell on the sandy playground I was called a beached whale.
I had my crush ask me to be his girlfriend only to have him laugh in my face when I said yes.
I can't even remember it all. I do remember trying the Adkins diet before I was even a teenager. I also remember envying girls who had the willpower to give themselves eating disorders. I would spend my allowance every week just so I wouldn't have money to buy lunch.

High school was more of the same, though it seemed a lot worse. I was the fat girl (and apparently I was supposed to be a lesbian too) and everyone knew it. I don't think I had much of a social life because I always felt excluded from my peers from the beginning.

Even at work these days I have trouble with it. Not outright name calling or anything. Little things like my managers decided to order my new uniforms a size bigger without telling me.

The worst though is when I am in a really bad place about my weight mentally and my friends will pick on me. I know they're joking harmlessly but sometimes that's the worst of it.

So, are you guys bullied, and how do you cope?

coliema

Aw, I'm so sorry all of that happened. People can be SO cruel, it's not right. I was never bullied about my weight, but I have stuck up for people before that were being bullied about their weight. It's sickening how cruel the human species can be, and we are supposed to be the intelligent species?!

saragato

I was always a bit chubby, the real weight gain didn't start until the last couple years of elementary into junior high. In elementary I had maybe 3 kids call me fat and I punched every one of them. Junior high I had an incident where a boy came and told me his friend wanted to go out with me and a week later after I'd thought it over and confronted the boy, turned out his friend had lied and done it as a joke to embarrass me. The worst ironically was at church. Two older boys for roughly 3 years would corner me in the church's gym between choir practice and evening service and threw basketballs in my face. The youth choir isolated me and on two trips, one to a park and one to an amusement park in another state, tried leaving me there because they would make me leave the group. At the time I was maybe 240lbs, I had short hair, and I wore jeans and t-shirts. They didn't like me because of my weight and hair length, they'd all been taught that's what lesbians looked like so obviously I must be one and gays are a sin.

High school luckily wasn't as bad. I had the occasional "hey my friend thinks you're hot" jokes but I never fell for them again. My best friend of 9 years used me as the "I'm making you look better" friend and her bodyguard whenever we went places guys she wasn't in to hit on her. Not technically bullying, but considering a large part of our friendship to her was for me to make her look better to guys, it hurts all the same.

My second psychiatrist also harassed me about it. I had to obtain a copy of her notes on me for a legal thing and she mentioned my weight over two dozen times in two pages. Course the woman also believed I was lying about having a drug problem.

Even now at 22 I still get some people who can't seem to just let me go about my business. I've been stalked several times in Walmart, I've had a man in a parking lot sit in his car and scream obscenities at me about my weight as I walked past, and I've had strangers on Facebook harass me by commenting on my photos. I put up pictures of me on my 21st birthday last year and some guy who was mutual friends with someone I knew started telling me how hideous I was and how it must've been nice to be let out my cage for such an occasion.

A lot of times I can get over it or feel superior because I don't harass people over their weight or anything else, but since I suffer from Bipolar Disorder (aka Manic Depression) it can really hurt if I think about it and then look at myself in the mirror. My father emotionally, sexually, and verbally abused me mostly about my self worth in general but he often slapped my breasts or butt and laughed if it jiggled. A lot of what he told me over the years still resounds even after years of (very unsuccessful) therapy and I begin to hate myself.

But what we have to remember is, we're all the same and we're all equal. The difference here is we've been on the receiving end of a *kitten* stick so we can spread positivity instead and teach our children how to treat those that are big or just different. To me, right now all that hate is motivation. I will get to the size I want and look my best in and those that spat on me when I was fat will have to kiss my feet when I'm thin. As Marylin Monroe said, "if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best."

christine24t

I was bullied a couple of times - definitely a motivation to lose weight.

emfilomena

I have been bullied throughout my life. From weight, to my eyes, to priding myself on getting A's, to a bunch of other absurd, unnecessary topics, I was bullied. In elementary school, they'd call me fat, fatty, chunky, gross.. Tell me that no guy would ever like me, that I was full of cooties because I was ugly, etc.. I even was physically harassed by boys in my school. They would punch me, push me to the ground, etc., all because I was a short, chubby girl. The school never did much to help me, so I had to fight to defend myself and ended up isolated because I wouldn't stand for the BS, I'd punch people in the face, attack them, do whatever to deflect their negative comments or actions. I got into trouble as a result.

In middle school, I was the victim of many bullies. I was friends with the "popular girls" or whatever you want to call them, but they all turned on me after only a short time, making up stories that I was saying this about so-so and that to what's-his-face. They began to harass me online, at school, everywhere. People called me fat, they called me a *kitten* (I had realized I was into both boys and girls in 6th grade), would hurt me, and guys loved throwing me into lockers. They would always say, "At least I'm not overweight or obese like you." I never went over 130lbs in middle school, so it's hard to believe I was ever THAT big, but I felt horrible about myself and the things I ate. At home, I was dealing with a verbally abusive step dad who told me the same things- I was gross, I ate too much, I was fat, I needed to lose weight, and he'd even make pig noises at me. I stopped eating in front of my family, I hid food in my room and would binge. When I saw I was gaining weight, I started to make myself vomit after eating in 7th grade. I had disordered eating prior to that, but that was when it became an actual eating disorder. People continued to bully me, and I was suicidal, I wanted to die. I'm not going to go much more into how it personally affected me, but it was very traumatic. Their favorite name to call me was Chuckie, because all the bullies agreed that my eyes were too big and that I was weird looking, and apparently similar looking to the Chuckie doll. Even the slightest mention of that doll or movie in public makes me flinch and fills me with anxiety, eventually leading to a panic attack. I have to leave the room after it's mentioned.

In high school, the bullying continued. They still called me fat, made fun of me, called me a lesbian (because that's so bad, right? it's not and it's ridiculous that they'd use that against me), and talked about my over online conversations. I shut myself out, I don't have friends anymore as I'm finishing my year and a half of high school. I've since developed a digestive disorder that hinders my ability to function normally, and people have somehow found reasons to make fun of me for that as well. I hardly attend school currently because I'm so sick, and I'm still battling my eating disorder after all these years. I'm trying, but the effects my bullies had on me was tremendous. It's unfortunate that schools do little to nothing about these issues.

I'm so sorry for what you had to go through, no one should have to deal with bullying EVER.

WickedGarden

I was bullied in school because I was the skinniest/smallest. Always picked last in PE/gym class.

the boys AND girls would tease me about being ugly, one girl even wrote a fake love letter pretending to be a secret admirer. So when I got fat after 21, I figured, 'I was ugly when I was skinny, if I'm fat I'm still ugly...it doesn't matter'

Now, I'm losing weight for me, I get hit on but I never take it seriously...I still have that voice in my head telling me, "they're just making fun of you" That is that hardest part to get over. I know those kids were immature and cruel, but being told by your parent AND the kids at school, really takes a toll.

admanMike

I was very skinny back in grade school/middle school...wasn't bullied to the degree many heavy kids were, mostly intimidation, but enough to not want to be scrawny any more. Started hitting weights freshman year and begun to add muscle and confidence.
Lifted hard through college and did some boxing, and continue lifting today. I'm fortunate it wasn't bad like many kids have been bullied because even now, even as i'm working to lose weight, i feel uneasy recalling those memories. Can't imaging how it is for those kids who were treated so badly and still are dealing with those emotions today, even after they may have lost weight.

christine24t

Now, I'm losing weight for me, I get hit on but I never take it seriously...I still have that voice in my head telling me, "they're just making fun of you" That is that hardest part to get over.

This is exactly my feelings too. My friends always say "oh that guy thinks your cute" or whatever, but I always find a reason that he didn't mean me, wasn't talking to me, etc. This guy texted me the other day and I literally assumed it was a joke even though my friends were like "Christine, he's serious!" He asked me later if he had the wrong number - it wasn't a joke. But I assume it is.

muffin_shufflin

I was bullied so much in elementary & middle school. I'll never forget when I had food thrown at me (two different times, by the same people though) when I was walking home in the 6th grade. SIXTH GRADE. People that are old enough to drive really pick on little kids like that? People can be so cruel. It's a shame. In 8th grade this boy would always throw stuff at me & give me a hard time. That summer I started to lose weight. Now when people see me, they tell me I look great. The people that made fun of me don't say anything at all. Which is kind of a bigger success for me

Trophyyf

I wouldn't say i was bullied but I did get made fun of. Even by my crazy mom who use to say terrible things to me because she was and had always been really really thin.