Saturday, February 06, 2010

Proof that Lili Marlene is not completely bereft of social sensitivity

The other day is was stuck amongst a large, dense crowd of people dispersing from a well-attended but rather befuddling concert. I knew that my hubby would most likely be trying to meet up with me, a difficult task considering the volume of seething humanity walking about quite aimlessly. I started looking around for a highly visible landmark that I could move towards, then phone my other half on my mobile to arrange to meet there. Then I got his call. I then noticed that I happened to be standing beside two obese young ladies consicuously sitting on the ground together, with clear space all around them. Did I say to my husband to meet me next to the two fat chicks? No I did not. I am civilised. I have empathy. I am polite. I came from a good family. But the thought did cross my mind.

You know you are too big when people consider you to be a geographical landmark when you stay still for any length of time.

2 comments:

Adelaide Dupont said...

Hope you had a great concert.

The social sensivity towards fuller-figured people is sort of decreasing, now that everyone is getting larger.

And I would still not say, "you do mean MORBIDLY obese, don't you?"

(now that there's super-obese well over that we used to consider morbidly obese...)

Lili Marlene said...

"The social sensivity towards fuller-figured people is sort of decreasing, now that everyone is getting larger."

I think this is a pity, because I do believe there are many people who are genetically obese, and have little power over their situation. The trouble is that it's not obvious which large people are blameless and which are not.