How disgusting is this...

I mean, ****, I think that people should be more outraged about her father beating the **** out of her, but here people are more upset that she isn't going on some diet to lose weight.

SMH.

Our society is ****ed.

Actually, I'm upset that she is refusing to address the mental and emotional scars that the abuse created. Being fat is what made her feel better. By choosing to stay fat, she is choosing not to find a more constructive coping mechanism.

I see what you are saying here. Like she has a bad coping mechanism and she is embracing that. That makes more sense to me than a lot of other people's comments here.

On the other hand, I think this article is about social pressure on a woman to look a certain way and the woman choosing to prioritize other things in her life. I don't think the pressure on her to be thin is about her health. It's about our society's attitude towards "Fat chicks." It's the epitome of the "ugly chick." If I were an ugly chick, who shouldn't show my face (have you seen the movie "Grown ups"? There's the pretty girls and the ugly girl in there.), I might rather focus my attention on my academics and career, even if people keep telling me to get a make over. To me, that's more what is going on here. And what if I choose to stay "ugly"? Is that some horrible crime? Perhaps I value other things about myself more than that. This is how I read the article- a woman speaking out about the pressure and assumptions made on her about her physical appearance, who chooses to not conform. Yes, of course, she might be "healthier" if she were less heavy, but I don't think she is saying "f you" to her health (she mentioned blood work, etc.

I know folks who are bigger folks who are healthy and who pursue careers and are amazing and their size isn't on their agenda. I think that's ok.

I didn't find her story disgusting but I did find it sad--and I mean in the truest, absolutely-no-condescension-here way.

We've all got scars and we all deal with them differently, whether in a healthy manner or not.

She has a lot of pain and I can't in my heart find that disgusting.

But she is using societal pressure as her excuse not to develop healthy coping mechanisms and she is doing it because she knows that people will rally that cause and support her, thus enabling her to neglect her mental health.

The problem is that she justifies her logics with absolutes. I don't know a single person that loses weight and then decides that they have achieved all that they want in life. That is a false perception created by the author to justify the logic that she can hold onto her fat. The fat that makes her feel emotionally safe.

She's not talking about them, she is talking about how the television shows present them.

Okay. So we are back to its okay for to keep my old coping mechanism (fat) because society says its bad and society sucks so I refuse to conform because it means I can keep my "suit of armor".

It's still NOT a good reason to neglect mental health.

She is seeing a therapist. How is she neglecting mental health? Also, how is it unhealthy to feel satisfied with how you look? Or to want to be seen by others as more than just a body?

She said that she is rejecting her therapist advice because she felt the therapist was judging her. Why didn't she just go see another therapist?

I've said all I have had to say on the subject. If you want to believe that her choice is a positive action, then that is your choice, but I see it as dangerous and destructive and I am disgusted that she would publish these views for the world to see so that others like her can claim that societal pressure is a good reason not to cope with an eating disorder.

It was sort of pointed out earlier, but not really effectively expressed, but an anarexic can easily make the same justification.

What is going on in here?

This.

Glad she is still getting mental help.