MissToodles
dead peasant
I wrote about this experience somewhere else. I use walking poles to improve my stamina. I try to fill my day with excercise, so they go where I go. They strap around my hands and they are perceived by many to be an assistive walking device.
I'm used to the lingering stares of people wherever I go. Since using the poleseverywhere, people do a brief glance rather than a staring showdown!. It's almost like they feel shame to be looking at a "disabled" woman. Bus drivers have waited for me at stops (they don't without the sticks), I've been offered seats on crowded buses, and generally people's attitude has improved.
Or has it? I don't get it. Pity isn't empathy. Perhaps they feel I can control my weight but because of whatever is "wrong" with me, that it is beyond my measure? Fatness seems to be forgiven when you're seen as disabled. Is fatness on a body excused when people think I can't "help it" or does one 'flaw' supercede the other?
I'm used to the lingering stares of people wherever I go. Since using the poleseverywhere, people do a brief glance rather than a staring showdown!. It's almost like they feel shame to be looking at a "disabled" woman. Bus drivers have waited for me at stops (they don't without the sticks), I've been offered seats on crowded buses, and generally people's attitude has improved.
Or has it? I don't get it. Pity isn't empathy. Perhaps they feel I can control my weight but because of whatever is "wrong" with me, that it is beyond my measure? Fatness seems to be forgiven when you're seen as disabled. Is fatness on a body excused when people think I can't "help it" or does one 'flaw' supercede the other?
