raging

As I stepped around a couple in the store this morning the boyfriend -who is at least 300lb- looked at his girlfriend and yelled, “Muffin tops!”

My bakery oriented mind, seeing as I work in a bakery, immediately thought of the “muffies” that we sell. As I walked past them it dawned on me that they were referring to the body shape of having a “muffin top.” I was immediately angry enough to want to yell at him but I kept walking instead and heard his girlfriend ask curiously what he was even talking about.

First of all, I was the only one in that isle besides them and second of all I don’t even have a muffin top. Finally, I’m nearly twenty, I’m past the stage where absentminded stupid things like that hit my self-confidence really hard. The only reason I’m at all angry was that I know how a fourteen year old girl would feel had that happened to her.

The vast majority of the population does not understand how malleable junior youth and youth can be. In the Faith it’s very highly emphasized that the period between 11-16 or seventeen is one where youth form the habits they’ll exemplify for the rest of their lives. And outside influences are so critical.

There’s no wondering why teenage girls in our population are so obsessed with being skinny, it’s all they see and all they hear and as they grow older that obsession becomes a habit they have to fight the rest of their lives. I am a healthy weight. My measurements are something like 38” 30” 36” perfectly healthy, not-barbie-sized, dimensions for a grown woman who plans on having children later in her life. Yet there are so many people who could look at me and call me “fat” without any doubt in their mind. And seeing the girls that are taller and thinner than me be concerned about their weigh scares me.

So hearing something so derogatory and rude and absentminded like that just makes me fear for the fate of our race. People are so obsessed with themselves and with hurting others to make themselves feel better and it just destroys the self-confidence and pride that our youth should have.

They are our future. Learn that and respect them. Your children and mine deserve better than that.