Fat is the new wog

On Saturday night, Nerida brought over Better off Dead - an absolute classic - and apart from shamelessly objectifying John Cusack, we laughed about the fact that the lead roles were played by fat chicks. At least, by current standards, they were fat chicks. They had, like, thighs. And hips.

It occurred to me, since we had a wog in our midst, that fat needs to follow in the footsteps of wog. Wog was a terrible insult, until the wogs of Australia embraced the term. Perhaps, in some places, there may be some stigma still, but you can pretty safely call your friend a wog and know that it will be taken as meant - slang for "of Mediterranean descent". Fat needs to mean "not what the media thinks is thin". If we start thinking of everyone who the media thinks is "not thin" as fat, we can all accept that we are fat and move on.

"Do I look in fat in this?"
"Why yes, you do."

"I'm fat, I need to lose 5 kgs."
"Yes, and no."

And then tonight I read Sweet Machine talking about "But you're not fat", and she was echoing my thoughts, from a different angle. Sweet Machine is fat. Her thighs are wider than her femurs and her stomach is not concave. She might even be harbouring organs in her torso. She is fat. I am fat, my thighs look like swiss cheese and when I tried on a delightful tight dress with a seam down the middle of its front, I looked like I was carrying an arse up front. (If you thought this was unattractive, you should have seen that little number!) But the thing is, even when I weigh less, this is still true. So I will always be fat. Time to get over it - not to accept that I am fat, but to embrace it. To say "Yes, I am fat, thanks for noticing."

Given that it took a while for wog to make the transition, I am not expecting this to happen overnight, but I may try very hard to never say "But you're not fat" to anyone again. I hope not too many people will be offended by "Yeah, you're fat, and you look fucking fantastic."