"My gosh you're so fat!"
Why are we so anxious to measure up?
By Vasana K. de Mel
I find it shocking that a people so highly praised in tourist brochures as compassionate and accepting of others possess an affinity for shallow insensitivity and rudeness toward any person of supposedly insufficient or ample body mass! Therefore it pleased me a great deal to find Ms. Dilini Algama's article in The Sunday Times' Mirror Magazine entitled, "I'd rather be fat, thank you", (October 5, 2003). Here is a writer who had the courage to give voice to the on-going, fully sanctioned, social ostracism of so-called "fat" women by socially inept, ignorant Sri Lankans.

I was moved to share my perspective as a Sri Lankan immigrant with exposure to, and appreciation of different female body images, and with a mindset that places importance on the worth of the whole person as opposed to their individual parts, namely physical attributes.

Something has to be wrong
Though I am neither a psychologist nor a sociologist, I perceive the common misconception among Sri Lankans to be an overall ignorant assumption that fatness is surely owed to over-eating, while thinness is attributed to under-eating. What else could it possibly be? The sheer consideration that hereditary medical conditions, certain medicines, genetics, pre/post-pregnancy trauma, stress related under-eating dysfunctions, depression, consumption of foods with preservatives, alcohol consumption, use of steroids, sedentary lifestyles in homes or work places and weather/altitude stimulate weight gain is too improbable for the average Sri Lankan.

Furthermore, Sri Lankans insinuate that being thin is due to a lack of food - implying poverty or bulimic conditions, neither of which merit teasing but require moral support.
Returning to the ostracism of ‘fat’ women, Sri Lanka's criteria for exemption from being labelled ‘fat’ seems to be if one possesses an ‘ideal’ slimness. Reality check: while fatness of obese proportions is a medically alarming health risk, plumpness and chubbiness, both of which unfortunately fall under the clumsy term ‘fat’ in Sri Lanka, are mostly harmless expressions of individuality, provided that these individuals have regular physical examinations to confirm cholesterol levels and eliminate heart diseases!

So could a linguistic handicap attribute to the mislabelling of ‘fat’ Sri Lankan women? Anyone in Sri Lanka who looks plump, as opposed to slim, is immediately labelled ‘fat’ and made to feel abnormal in a culture where an exclusive image of slimness dominates as the ‘norm’.

Plain lazy?
To add insult to injury, with being labelled ‘fat’ you also inherit a host of other character traits that you didn't know you had. People assume that you are lazy/lethargic, slow/sedentary, stupid, lacking in will power, predisposed to over-eating, generally complacent and over-sensitive! Over-sensitive? I can't think why?
If you are a woman, add to this a predicted inability to attract a marriage partner who will find you attractive, remain faithful, and love you. Marriage is the ultimate social dictate for women in Sri Lankan society. And competing for a man means looking ‘ideal’.

In contemporary Sri Lankan culture, body image seems to singularly dictate the individual worth of women as opposed to traits like intelligence, talent, compassion, generosity, sensibility, humility, humour and perseverance. It follows that in accordance with these shallow societal ascriptions of female worth, plump women are to be punished for their crime in refusing to fit the ‘norm’.

Changing norms
What I find revealing between contemporary Sri Lankan culture and our antiquarian culture are the contrasts in the depiction of the female body in artistic representations. Notice that antiquarian depictions of the female body in Sri Lankan and South Asian art were curvaceous and voluptuous. Bountiful bosoms, hips and protruding bellies graced numerous artifacts venerating the female figure for its fertility and life-giving potential.

In contrast, modern ‘artifacts’ (billboards/ movies) portray a drastically different female body image - the slim, flat figure that resembles an adolescent boy’s body. Today, it is this ubiquitous Joan of Arc, Hillary Swank tomboy physique that is mediated as though it is representative of all contemporary women's bodies!

If we were including the infinite number of possibilities for social acceptance of women's body images so that curvaceous/voluptuous, fat, thin and slim women share equal social value, then that would be a great, socially constructive, service. Unfortunately what appears to be the reality is that there is only one accepted body image for the contemporary Sri Lankan woman. That is the slim physique that many curvaceous/voluptuous women, such as myself, could never hope to achieve unless we chisel away at our bone structure.

One of the reasons for the shift from adoring voluptuousness to adoring slimness is advances in communications technology that enable other cultures' ideals to replace one's own ideals.

Two related booming industries that have partnered in establishing the norm regarding female figures are the garment and exercise industries. Manufacturing clothes that appear to shrink in size, the garment industry dictates the proportions for the female body in such restrictive ways that only mannequins could fit into those clothes.
To assist us in our quest to trim down is a thriving exercise industry. This industry uses exercise as a motivating factor to enhance external beauty rather than health.

All encompassing
Society devalues ‘fat’ and ‘thin’ women and denies them their right to be as they are!
Women must fight these discriminatory ideas which dictate the ways in which they are systemically devalued by a society that would rather force them into an exclusive slim, Barbie-doll patent, rather than nurture acceptance of manifold physiques. Change can only occur if women accept each other regardless of one another's physical appearance. Offenders in cases of verbal abuse on so-called ‘fat’ or ‘thin’

women fail to realize that: (a) they are playing into unhealthy body stereotypifications; (b) they will one day be victim to the same ideals which they once helped sustain; (c) all figures change over a period of time as bodies transform from childhood to adolescence, adulthood and old age.

You are responsible, in your own actions or inactions, for the continuation of this form of abusive control over women's image. You are also responsible for the anguish suffered by those who are ridiculed for not fitting into the ‘norm’. The sooner Sri Lankan women realize this and unite to challenge an oppressive mechanism of self-administered social control, the sooner these demeaning ideas will fade.

But, malicious or ignoramus folks aside, if a physician recommends weight loss for those of you who need it, do take that as constructive cues on how to better enrich your health and thus your life.

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