Weight

Weight is usually an extremely touchy subject with people. It is considered more impolite to discuss weight than it is to discuss religion, politics, and issues with one's parents combined. To me, treating weight as such a sensitive issue has always seemed extremely strange. Besides, as a person with Asperger's I love raising issues that other people avoid. :-) So the time has come for me to blog about weight.

I haven't been skinny since the advent of puberty. I have also been blessed by high self-esteem and a great body image, so I never tortured myself with the desire to be size zero. Or even size eight. In the last year, I have gained some weight, which, from what I hear, is very normal when people start their first full-time job. It might later go away. Or it might not. Both possibilities are perfectly fine with me. What is funny, though, is how people react to my weight. For the most part, they studiously avoid noticing this simple reality to the degree when it becomes really funny to observe their heroic efforts not to mention it. It seems like for some reason people assume that I have to be heart-broken about it and any mention of this can send me over the edge. These same people have no difficulty mentioning any other change in my appearance, so the avoidance of the weight issue seems extremely strange. The idea that I might be perfectly fine with it - or even happy about it - never seems to cross anybody's mind.

When I refer to my own weight, people often feel so uncomfortable that they immediately try to silence me on this subject. I remember how I was once talking with a very nice and kind friend of mine and said something to the effect that I'm not skinny. "Oh, Clarissa, don't say that about yourself!" she replied all horrified. Apparently, being skinny is often considered as uniformly good and desirable, while not being skinny is perceived as undoubtedly horrible and painful.

For me, mentioning weight is not offensive. The avoidance of the subject, however, is because it betrays a person's belief that people who are not thin must necessarily hate their weight and be miserable about it.