by LJ Knight of Yeah She Said It
Black women, we love our curves. Don’t we? We love the fact that we have hips, a booty, how our silhouette is to envy. A young woman asked me recently to write a post about women who are overweight and how they should remain confident. Now, I tried to write a sincere piece about this topic but my heart was not there. I want all women to have a positive self image, love themselves and to be confident no matter their size but I will not encourage them to remain ignorant to the truth. I cannot in good conscious encourage a woman to remain overweight and risk her body shutting down from bad health. Oh yes, it can happen. I have seen it first hand on more than one occasion.
I want women, Black women in particular to stop misusing the word “thick” when they are in fact “overweight” or simply “fat”. This is just another tool that the African American community uses to ignore the ugly truth of how obesity is plaguing us. There is a difference between being thick and being fat. Having curves, a booty, thighs, full breasts, etc Yes, you are thick. However if you are at least 100 to 150 pounds or more overweight then you are not thick. You are fat. Chances are you are not that healthy either. Which is where my real concern comes in. I can tell you one hundred times that you look great. Don’t worry about loosing any weight. It doesn’t matter what you eat. Who cares that you are at least 100 pounds overweight. Girl you better eat! Girl you just extra thick. I would be doing you a disservice. I could tell you all those things and these and none of them would be true. The truth would be that you are going down the path of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, etc..
Let me say that, I am in no way an advocate for women to starve themselves or attempt to be an unrealistic small size. See, the pendulum swings both ways. I do not think you should be morbidly obese or ridiculously thin. Both of these categories are equally unhealthy. I also do not subscribe to White America’s generalization that in order for a woman to be considered attractive she has to be a size 1, 2 3 or even a 4. Especially when the average woman in America is about a size 9/10. Nor am I encouraging you to be a size 1 or 2 unless you are naturally petite. The truth is that hiding behind the word “thick” is not going to prevent the health problems down the line if you are indeed fat and not thick.
There has to be a balance. Black women we fight against the “system” and we purposely separate ourselves from other women of other cultures by embracing our curves. We laugh at the them for wanting what we have naturally. For years they belittled and mocked our bodies and now they pay people to stick needles in their lips and ass in order to get it. Oh the irony. We are even braggadocios about our backside and the curvature it comes with. We refer to ourselves as being “juicy” “thick as hell”, “super thick” etc.. These are all terms of endearment. It is the reason why when it is picture time the first thing we do is turn around and throw the camera an ass shot. I love that we possess these assets. I dig the confidence and never want any of us to be hunched over a toilet trying to cause self inflicting vomiting. However, I never want to have to witness any of us go through health conditions because at some point we surpassed thick and rolled over into the fat category like the Walmart happy face logo. Yet we refused to believe we are fat and would rather hide behind the word thick until we implode. We do not have to look like “them” to be beautiful but we do have to take care of ourselves to be healthy.
Years ago, my Mother had to have open heart surgery because she did not eat right, and was overweight. In my Mom’s case she knew she was not thick and was in fact overweight but continued to eat unhealthy until her body screamed “I can’t take it anymore”. Luckily, my Mother survived and did have to loose weight in order to take some of the pressure and extra work from her heart. Imagine if she didn’t. Imagine if she ignored the doctors and held on to her dream like self image of being thick?
Ladies, I am not hear to judge anyone or tear us down. I’m not perfect. Even I know that I could stand to loose at least 30 pounds and am in the midst of that journey. Let’s take away the veil of ignorance and stop hiding behind those old ghetto declarations we tell ourselves in order to ignore the truths and because they made us feel good. Ask yourself, are you thick? Or just fat?
