What someone complains about can tell you a lot about them. It shows their assumptions.
For example, complaining about the fit of hospital gowns.
I mean, it’s understandable. They’re often overlarge drafty and billowy things.
But I have a hard time being sympathetic.
I can’t walk into a clothing store and assume there’s anything there that will fit me.
When I can find clothes that will fit, I’ll have a much smaller selection to choose from. I’ll probably end up paying quite a bit more, too. I had to look for about an hour online to find a hat in an okay color and style and that would fit… and it cost half again what the others cost, just because my hat size is outside the “normal” range. [1]
And those limitations also go for hospital scrubs and gowns.
Even with all the jokes about fat Americans, people of my size aren’t that common . It would be foolishly arrogant for me to expect a box store to fully stock things in my size, hoping they might be able to sell it one day. I take my own folding chair because I exceed the weight limits of most cheap ones. My bike is a super-heavy duty one, because I’ve had a wheel buckle under me.
You get the idea.
Because I don’t expect other people or facilities to accomodate me or my size automatically. It is not a default assumption, and that’s okay.
There are those people who refuse to recognize the reality of their body’s shape. Those people are idiots; pretending you’re a different size than you are isn’t body-positive, it’s self-shaming.
There are people who make fun of or are hurtful toward other people because of thier body’s shape and size. Those people are assholes.
But I would really like to have thinner folks – those people who are in the default range – to quit whining when their hospital gown doesn’t fit quite right, when I can’t find one at all.
.
Oh, one more thing.
That annoying thin person whining?
It may sound familiar.
It sounds a lot like straight people whining about Pride parades. Or like Karens and Chads whining that “All Lives Matter”. Or incels, or Sad Puppies, or Gamergate whining.
It’s the thin high-pitched whine of privilege.
The notes are a little different, but the melody’s the same.
[1] Yes, I just said I have a fat head. 🙂
Featured Photo by Clark Street Mercantile on Unsplash