Pretty cute for a funny girl.

So, it's Tuesday. Which means I'm watching The Biggest Loser again. And I've been thinking.

I'm a fat girl. That's not meant to be an insult, or self-deprecating, or whatever. It's the truth. But we all agree that shouldn't be the thing that defines who I am as a person, right? And yet, there are things that are expected of me as a person based on the size of my jeans. Because I'm big, I'm supposed to be friendly, and warm, and soft, and funny. Fat = funny. Lucky for me, I happen to fit this particular stereotype. (Well, the funny part, anyway. I'm kind of a bitch most of the time.) But I know plenty of hilarious women who are model-thin. And we're all gorgeous. I'm serious. We are amazingly hot ladies and you men (or other ladies, if that's our thing) are lucky we even speak to you.

So where did this stereotype come from? The idea that funny women aren't pretty, and pretty women aren't funny? I guess it's easy to blame the patriarchy, and say that men can't handle women with power, and to make someone laugh is to have power over them. So they try to take away our power in other areas by telling us that we're ugly or fat or shameful in some other way so we'll hide and not use our powers. It seems like it's been working for a long time. I don't have any answers as to how this mindset became so deeply ingrained in the group mind. If you do, please enlighten me in the comments. Seriously, I'm curious.

But I guess in the long run, it doesn't matter why we think this way, it only matters that we do. And that we realize that we do, so that we can stop this outdated line of thinking and stop putting expectations on people based on their external appearance.

Because, frankly, I'm not as funny as my weight would lead you to believe. I just really like eating and sitting still.
~RvdS