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Fat woman offended because book character isnt fat enough. People scream slay queen

https://old.reddit.com/r/PlusSize/comments/18yl4gg/unrealistic_portrayals_of_weight_of_plussize

								

								

I just finished the book Jemima J, and the main character is a plus-size woman. She has a quadruple chin, people stare at her on the street, and she needs to catch her breath after walking up the stairs. Then toward the middle of the book it's revealed that she is 5'7" and her highest weight is 217. I'm not saying a person of that size wouldn't have any issues, but it seems like the issues described would be unlikely.

Similarly, in the book She's Come Undone the main character is 5'6" and weighs 257. She needs a special chair in class, she is too big even for plus-size stores and when she gets in a car it tilts because of her weight. These experiences also don't seem to be accurate for someone of this weight (the book is set in the 1960s/1970s during these things, so I understand views on weight and average sizes were different. But still).

I can think of a lot of other examples as well where a character seems to be having the experience of someone 100 or more pounds heavier.

Any ideas as to why authors often get this so wrong?

37
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I think it's because people get it wrong. We don't have a lot of good/positive representations of size. I'm a 24 pant size and people have no idea what my weight is, including one of my best friends, who sees me regularly. He was legitimately shocked when I told him my weight.

I'm in the upper 300s and also 5'7, and sure I have some mobility problems but like... It's far from being housebound and I can do stairs no problem. I do squats regularly at the gym. But media/society doesn't show people at my weight doing things, so people have a very warped sense of what fatness looks like.

The thinnest braphog of /r/FatSize bellows in support of OP.

Another moo's her way in:

Same here. I'm 5'8 and 340lbs. I have no issue with mobility. I'm up and down stairs all day long, I walk about 10x a day for 15/20 minutes a time. So many people are shocked when they learn my weight and that I'm a size 24/26. My BFF thought I was mid 200's until I told her.

Their friends are shocked because it's a morbidly obese weight.

Definitely this. When I was classified obese I was pretty shocked because I thought that only applied to a more extreme end of that range.

:marseysmirk2:

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I looked through her profile and she is 33 (or 31, cant remebere which) imagine having to say i do stairs no proplem and you have some mobility proplems. With how fast healtcare is advancing. Living to 100 should be given for someone who is 30. For her. 100 is 3x her current age. Yet her body is catastrophe allready.

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>15/20

>15 to 20 minutes

:#marseythumbsup:

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