We all know the common swear words. The S word, the N word, the C word. And we all know the F word. No not that F word, the “FAT”
word. The word that makes us cringe and look down at our feet ashamed.

We all know that word.

We have all used that word in relation to ourselves or other people. I myself have used it.

However, have we ever considered the consequence of that word?

In AP English classes,students gear up to tackle “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and it is racially offensive language, and every teacher is going to great lengths to be sensitive
and appropriate while addressing the book.

But nobody prepares us to be called “Fat”. Nobody is sensitive while saying the “F” word, nobody just skips over it while reading, and not one person is asked whether they are offended by it.

It’s the one cuss word we can all say because we don’t classify it as a dirty word. But “fat”cuts just as deep and just as wide.

We all pretend that it doesn’t matter, that it doesn’t affect us. But internally we all cringe away from the word, not wanting to be its victim.  We shy away from it, for fear of being “unperfect” or “unworthy”.

However, if used against other people, we rally together to do more damage, so long as we are not in the line of fire.

But “fat” does not just represent flab or girth, it represents all of the negative images we hold about ourselves, whether it be too tall, too wide, too this , too that.

It does not matter whether you’re a size two, or a size sixteen, someone somewhere has said something harsh and degrading about the way you look.

The all encompassing  “perfection” does not exist, so berating someone for not obtaining the desired Photoshop look is pointless and mean.

But because we as a generation and society will not release “perfection” or the idea of it, and that is the really cuss word.

The reason we cringe at “fat” is not because the word itself is not visually offensive, it’s the deeper meaning of not being accepted that hurts and scars us all. So just remember the next time you decided to call the random girl walking by, or the kid behind the movie ticket counter fat, you are committing an act just as ugly.