NO. WE. DON'T.

There's not a lot going on right now in my WLS journey, so I thought I'd touch upon some of the reasons why I made the decision to have gastric sleeve surgery.

Fat people know what it's like to be fat.  (When I say fat people, I mean significantly fat people, not those skinny bitches who moan because they can no longer fit into their size 4 acid-washed high-waisted jeans from 1985).  Apologies to skinny bitches everywhere.  We envy you, so suppress your mom-jeans rage.

Fat people get treated differently.  As someone who has been both fat and not-fat, I can personally attest to this.

For example, I'm a photographer.  I used to do a lot of weddings, before my arthritis got bad.  I had been emailing back and forth with a groom about their upcoming wedding and photo needs.  He had seen many galleries of my past weddings, he knew my rates and my availability, and he was ready to sign.  I suggested meeting so he and his fiance could see the different album types, page styles, papers, and options, and to sign the contract.  So we met at a Starbucks one afternoon.

He showed up with his fiancé, whom he had said was also ready to sign papers.  He looked through the books and albums carefully, seeing which styles he liked best.  He then passed them to his fiancé who breezed through them so quickly, I doubt she saw anything.

Well, it was kind of a formality anyway, so I didn't think much of it.  When the groom got done with the albums, he said, "Okay!  Let's do it!  Where do we sign?" and his fiancé said, "Well, we have a few other photographers to talk to first".

He turned to her as if she had broccoli coming out of her ears.  He said with a laugh, "No, we don't!"

She then turned to him, looked him DEAD in the eye and said very seriously and deliberately, "YES. WE. DO".

He looked embarrassed, but relented and said he'd let me know. 

I knew I'd never hear from them again.  And I didn't.

The fiancé loved my work, was fine with my rates...etc.  It wasn't until she actually met me that she decided there were "others to talk to first".  Others have been brides that are model-thin, and have models for bridesmaids, and really don't want someone who doesn't fit the "landscape" waddling around, mucking up the scenery.

I don't look like your average photographer.  People DO judge books by their covers.  So as wrong as it may seem, one of the reasons I wish to have this surgery is so I can be more successful again in my business.  In addition to "looking the part", I will have more energy and stamina to make it through those 10-12 hour days that weddings are. 

We've found a lot of acceptance in recent years for many things:  race, gender, orientation, nationality... but I don't think there will ever be real acceptance when it comes to fat people.

Do you?