When I recently read a weight inclusive article written by someone who does not inhabit a larger body, I became instantly uncomfortable. In my privilege, I haven’t really experienced someone including me in a broad brush stroke of a politically correct term. Anger quickly replaced feeling uncomfortable.

Now I fucking get it. I’ve heard various friends say that person of color or “POC” does not resonate with them nor does African American. But I experience so many people who exist outside of those communities using those labels and it feels weird. What got me the most was the author’s use of “person of size”. Now, I know we are killing the term “obese” and have even seen it spelled “obxse” in some instances, and I am completely on that band wagon. But what’s going to replace that word? I am voting a big HELL NO on the phrase “person of size”. It feels foreign, like the person using it has no idea what it’s like to be a “person of size”. It’s a term for outsiders that makes some insiders (um hello, me!) uncomfortable.

Some people have reclaimed the word fat and use it to describe themselves. It’s been hurled as an insult at me so many times that I won’t say it. The term I’m most comfortable with is “someone in a larger body”.

Terminology constantly confusing you so you want to give up on being “PC”? Just ask the person to whom you’re speaking or speaking about. It’s uncomfortable for the person asking, but it makes the person being asked a lot more comfortable down the road.

With all my love,

Mae