Kind of nervous to ask this but I'm curious. What would you consider to be fat? I have always had body issues around my stomach and weight generally, I am about 80kg and 5'8. People often treat me as "larger" but I wouldn't say I've been called fat to my face many times. I generally wear clothes that hide my body /are oversized because I'm transmasc and I don't want to accentuate my chest anyway. I fit into UK size 14-16 which is about a US 10-12. I usually wear mens clothes though so about a 36 x 32 in trousers. Plus size generally starts at 16 so by that metric I would be plus sized in the UK but not in the US. Its confusing, man, I'm confused.
I'm obviously anti-fatphobia either way, I just don't want to say that I'm fat if that takes away from people who are larger than me or is dishonest to the consensus view of what is considered fat. Sorry if this is a weird question, I've just seen people talking about smaller people calling themselves fat as a bad thing so I don't want to be that person.
Hi!
This isn't a weird question, don't worry. A lot of people have your exact question. Honestly, fatness is slightly subjective. So there's not exactly a definitive "You must be this tall to ride" situation. Some people go strictly by clothing size, but that isn't always a reliable answer because there are definitely short fat people who don't wear plus sizes, and there are thin people who do (which is why so many "plus size models" don't look fat. They just happen to fit the clothing despite not having a fat body type).
There's also different categories of fatness, so it's possible you're fat but considered small fat. Another factor is how there are some people who are neither thin nor fat, which is called mid-size. You sound like you may possibly be mid-sized from how you described yourself. Mid-sized people do not endure the same degree or types of discrimination necessarily as fat people, but mid-size people do still endure discrimination and some lack of thin privilege.
In high school, I was mid-size myself, and it was definitely a situation of "I'm not as hated as fat people, but I'm also clearly separate from actual thin people." And if my metric conversion is correct, I think I was about your weight and height after I had extremely starved myself to get to that point of definitely mid-sized. One factor though is that, even at my thinnest points in life, I have always had a fat face and fat limbs, so I generally looked bigger regardless of my exact weight due to the fat distribution of my body. So that being said, I can't tell you whether or not you're fat, and honestly no one on the internet really can.
I also personally believe that if you're calling yourself fat because your body is at that subjective range and you identify as fat, then that's okay. Someone who's on the edge of mid-size and fat calling themself fat in a genuine, self-identification way is way different than a thin person calling themself fat as an insult because they believe fat people are bad. And no matter what, I'm glad to have you as part of this activism movement!
-Mod Worthy
