This picture has always disturbed me

I was quite slim in high school and my Uni days, up until 1983, I was betwen 105-111 pounds. Unfortunately at the age of 22 I developed binge eating disorder and have been in recovery for the last 4 months or so, so it is safe to say that more than half of my life has been spent as an overweight but mainly obese woman. ( Obesity at my height begins at 154 pounds ).

It saddens me to think that these' fat ladies ' of old in circus side shows/freak shows, made their meager living from standing there or dancing or whatever it is they did, to gaping, giggling, staring, pointing crowds and being mocked.

But in some ways things never change, nowadays you take the same abuse but for free - I can not count the amount of times I had men pass me by in the streets or drive past in cars yelling out ' hey fat ass ' or some other rude remarks about my looks, Oinked at , mooed at. I weigh less than half of that woman in the picture, so can only imagine how sad a life she had.

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

Lets look at it from another angle,That lady must have been comfortable with how she looked or she would not be in a side show ,yes people would have gone to see her,and she was getting a wage much as the Models of today do who strut thier stuff .
She might have never been able to earn a living in a ordinary job ,so i think in one way she was lucky .
Regards yourself its not nice being called any sort of name,but you are doing something about it so the out come is going to be good for you ..

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

Bit like the bearded lady and all the other weird things that were classed as entertainment, very cruel but no-one seemed to think anything of it then.

For me, as I said on another thread, yes if I thought someone close to me was getting too heavy and I knew they wanted a push, some do, then I would say so, tactfully. I would never make fun of anyone because of their weight, height, looks, intelligence, colour, gender - the list is endless..

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

Life is how it is, people are how they are, you can only change one thing and that is yourself and how you decide to deal with it.
It isn't always helpful to see yourself as a victim of other people, leave their opinions to them and live your life.

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

I admire those who are different and use it to their advantage, showing their strengths, who can blame them? They aren't the ones with a problem, it's those who single them out that have issues

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

Yes, it was possibly their own choice, or they felt forced into it, but I hate the idea of people being thought of as circus freaks.

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

as long as they didn't feel that way I don't see it as a problem, sadly many that were "different" were exploited against their wishes

Re: This picture has always disturbed me

Having done the calculations on the lbs that would mean that lady was
nearly 49stone. Many people that size would not be walking around and
dancing so I wouldn't believe everything you read and don't feel
disheartened because of it. They had to advertise to get paying customers
so what's a few more pounds than was real.