The Fat vs. Skinny scale

I was working at a huge technology tradeshow this week doing sales and demos in a booth for this software company. The woman who hired me had read this blog and after meeting me in person, told me she though I was tiny, and didn’t get why I need to get back into my skinny pants because I already look like I wear those skinny jeans. She was very genuine, and I was flattered by the compliment.

However, let me explain something before ya’ll start thinking that I’m one of those obsessive bitches who really is skinny but complains about being fat because she is starved for attention. Admittedly though, I used to be that way in my 20’s. Fat and skinny really is relative. For me, my size and weight are deceiving because I look thin proportionally. However my hips and waist are really off. I have size 8 hips, but a size 12 waist. My butt and thighs are always small. I just don’t gain weight there, but my waist and gut are a whole other story. If I overate for a week, I’d gain 3 pounds just in my gut, and nowhere else. I wear big flowy tops to help hide the love handles.

There is a weight/size range though where you could be considered skinny to one group, and then fat to another. Even if you weighed 200lbs, in some circles that might even be considered small, if the group average weight was over 300. In the modeling world, the runway gals are usually a size 2-6 tops. To be a plus size model, usually the minimum is a size 16-18. Personally, I think that the reality skew in the fashion world is pretty fucked up. How can you be considered a fat cow to model clothes if you are an 8 or 10 when the average American woman wears a size 12 and is 5’4”? Why can’t we see more models that fit the American average?

At tradeshows, there are moments when I feel like a big fat cow. Those moments happen when I stand next to a booth babe who’s got legs up to her neck, C+ boobies, and looks like she could jump out of a cake. Then there are the moments at the tradeshow when I feel like a tiny thing when I stand next to all the big, tall businessmen who have guts hanging over their belts. Sometimes I wonder if I stay in the tech industry because it’s male dominated, and because there are a shortage of women, I don’t have a great deal to compare myself to. I’d probably have even more body issues if I worked in the fashion world, entertainment world, advertising world, or any world where the majority looked like Cindy Crawford.