In a dialin question and answer session for a radio talk show, I was asked straight up by a listener, "Mbak, as someone who is quite large, have you ever had any problems travelling?"
It was a strange question. I answered, "It's actually helpful, because it means I am strong enough to carry around a backpack and people think twice about disturbing me." It really isn't a problem as long as you don't mind being embarrassed occasionally. I think I am beyond embarrassment these days I usually just find it funny. I simply don't think being fat is a hindrance, except maybe when shopping for clothes. I still wear tank tops, shorts and bikinis. If I am called a "dugong" or a "whale" well, I am used to it!
I do remember one embarrassing moment while travelling. When I was in Petra, Jordan, I was going to rent a horse. I was rejected several times by the owners, "No! No! You are too fat!"... In front of everyone! It's also embarrassing getting on a small plane when everyone has to be weighed. I don't like having my weight announced in public. Perhaps the most common thing that happens though is having a chair collapse under me. It's embarrassing enough breaking a chair at a friend's house. But then, it started happening in restaurants. I hate the sound of, first, the chair breaking... and then the plates and cutlery and glasses hitting the ground because of course I try to hold on to the table. And then the whole restaurant is staring at me, laughing. The only thing to do is put my dorky smile on and laugh along with everyone else.
During the Summer holidays of 2009, I was starting to get invitations to appear on TV and needed a new outfit. I asked a friend of mine, who weighs 105 kg, to help. So, she took me to a small boutique she uses in a mall in Jakarta selling plus sized clothes. This boutique turned out to be tiny three metres square but the clothes were very "trendy". So, I started trying some on. Apparently I was the smallest size they have, an XL. My friend, who is a 5L told me, "Oh my god, you are so skinny!" The shop assistant told me they sold clothes sized between XL and 8L 3L was the most popular.
Some other oversized customers arrived later, and, without entering the store, shouted in to the assistant, "Do you have anything new in 5L, Mbak?" I liked this one straight away and she gave me some advice on the clothes I was picking. While I was waiting to use the changing room I had a look at the other collections. They even sold underwear, and the assistant showed me some. "Are these underpants or scales from a neighbourhood health clinic?" I asked, eliciting peals of laughter from around the shop. It seems all overweight people have the same sense of humour about it and refuse to see this kind of thing as an insult. Anyway, this visit made me feel tiny!
There are other things that make me feel grateful for what I am. Once, just for fun, I went along to audition for Biggest Loser Asia a foreign reality TV show in which contestants try to lose the most weight and the winner gets a billion rupiah. Queuing for the interview were more than a hundred overweight Indonesians. My theory was proved correct: overweight people are more fun and less inhibited than others. We all hit it off straight away, joking and teasing each other. When we were weighed, there was no embarrassment in telling the whole room, "I am 134 kg, you know!" or, "Wow, I've lost 2 kg. I am down to 109 now!"
When we had our blood pressure checked, one person told us, "You know what? My pressure is up to 160!" when the normal is more like 120. When we received the automatic printout from the scale it told us what our target weight loss should be and also our ideal weight. The girl next to me said, "Ha! I have to lose 58 kg!" The weight of her extra fat was the same as a grown woman! Everyone spoke freely, and it was so funny I was in tears most of time.
After an hour there though, I noticed some of the other participants were looking at me strangely. I found out why when one of them came over and asked, "What are you doing here? Are you trying to cure your anorexia or something?" It was funny to find out that, from their perspective, I looked like I was too skinny! I guess that makes me the Kate Moss of the plus sized world then!
Straight after the audition I went to Bandung with some friends from my old office to spend the night. As usual, we were going to Bandung for the food what else are you going to do there? I was still enjoying the feeling of being "not too bad"... and then I managed to destroy a plastic chair in one restaurant and a wooden bench in another!
0 comments:
Post a Comment