Thin privilege?

   Before you read this I want it to be known that these are just my own personal experiences as a thin person and I do not know if other people have had these experiences but if you have I would love to hear about it in the comments.


     Recently I came across a few articles on one of my favorite web sites, Everyday Feminism, about Thin Privilege. One of these contained a list of examples of thin privilege and can be found by clicking on the link below. I'm not denying that thin privilege exists, there are a lot of things that I do not have to deal with because I am thin, but  I just wanted to address a few things on this list from the perspective of a thin person (5'1 and 116 pounds). http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/11/20-examples-of-thin-privilege/

      The very first thing on this list, "You're not assumed unhealthy just because of your size," kind of bothered me because it is simply not true. A few years ago I had just began getting into the weight range of 105 to 110 (before returning to my current weight) and almost everyone had something to say about it. Of the occasional "you look good" was accepted, but there was a lot of people who thought that I either had an eating disorder or was otherwise unhealthy. People at church were constantly going up to my mom and asking her about me to make sure I was okay. One woman suggested that I might be anemic (yes I realize that that has virtually nothing to do with one's weight, she apprently did not know that)  for the sole fact that had lost some weight and was now smaller than the average person. The truth was that I was not unhealthy. I felt unhealthy because people kept making comments about my size and suggesting to my mother that I might have an eating disorder, but the reason I had lost weight was because I had was a lot happier than I was the year before. I was not stress eating as much, and had started exercising. In reality I was not unhealthy at all, in fact it was the opposite, I had gotten healthier. But since I'm a little person everyone assumed that there was something wrong with me.
    The other thing on this list that made me tilt my head and squint my eyes was the ninth thing on the list, "When you go to the doctor they don't expect diabetes as the first problem." It is true that I can't sympathize with that. And that is really frustrating especially since it is coming from a professional who shouldn't make assumptions about their patience health based on their appearance. But the connotation that thin people also don't experience at least a mildly level of assumptions made by their doctors is untrue. After my drastic weight loss I was so convinced by everyone's comments that it was indeed unhealthy and I did have something wrong with me that I went to the doctor about it. My mother didn't think there was anything wrong with me and I had to beg her to take me since I was a minor at the time. After my doctor talked to me for a few minutes he brought my mother out of the room and told he was concerned I had an eating disorder. That was it. After talking to a thin, teenage girl who had experience a significant weight change he assumed it was an eating disorder. The worst part of it was that my mother who ate dinner with me virtually every night and saw me eat, believed him and monitored my meal intake for about the next week after that. I have never had an eating disorder, I understand that a lot thin people do have eating disorders but people, especially should not assume that I have an eating disorder because then I feel like unhealthy and unattractive for simply being small.
    Once again I'm not saying thin privilege  does not exist, because it does. I'm also not trying to compare my problems as a small person to someone else's problems as big person and I'm certainly not trying to say my problems are worse or more important. Simply that making assumptions or comments about somebody because of their body type whether or not you think you're just showing concern, is usually offensive, whether that person is smaller than what you consider average or bigger than what you consider average.