DIARY OF A MAD FAT WOMAN

  We've all been told its better to be skinny than it is to be fat. People who are larger in size have a lot of problems that comes with them being fat. You not only have to deal with how the public views you, you also have to deal with the health problems, and also the cost. Yes the cost! Having to by more food than a normal size person, having to pay for and extra sit a board an airplane, and also having to pay more for clothes. Why is it that in this economy people who are above a certain size have to pay more for the little things in life? Well the answer to that question is because we are large.

  I've always been a size 12, until recently I gave birth nine months ago and went from a size 12 to something between a size 16 and a size 18. Never did I ever thought I would get this big, but carrying a child changes your body a lot. I've been asked so many times when I was going to take the weight off? As it was something you can do over night. I've been told by my doctors to also lose the weight and have been placed on diets that just never work. The last diet I was on had me drinking vegetable soup for a week. Lets just say that too was a failure in the many diets that I've tried. But lets get back to the reason I'm talking about my size. Clothes! Clothes! Clothes! Why is that we have to pay more to dress?  and why don't some companies cater to larger size people. I guess its because we have more to cover.

  The other day I went to my favorite store to get something clothes to start my new job. When I went there I was excited by what I saw and was eager to try on the things I like. Lets say everything was going fine until I tried to put on an extra large shirt and was stopped dead in my tracks. The shirt did not fit and they did not have a size large than that. Much to say I was very upset about this due to the fact that they carried pants from size 2 (who the hell wears a size 2) to size 18. So why wouldn't they carry a XXL size shirt? I can't for the life of me remember when a woman who is a size 18 fit in pants has ever just fit into and extra large shirt. I was intent on writing a note to the company about this, but then I thought to myself  they really wouldn't care since its all about the money. Making clothes that are about extra large cost more money.

  Yes making clothes that are larger than extra large cost more money.  The fact that they use more fabric and other materials to cloth larger people cost these companies money so some of them, I believe choose no to cater to larger people to keep money in their pockets. This shouldn't be so! With the on going expanding waist line of the American public you would think that some of these companies that sell clothes would by clothes that at least goes up to an 1XL. By not buying into the larger size groups they deny themselves potential customers that are welling to spend money to wear their clothes. But you might think wouldn't it just cost us anyway to wear their clothes since they would be passing on the extra they have to spend on us? Well yes and no. Yes it would cost the companies a little bit more to buy clothes that are above extra larger, but I feel that would be negated by the pure fact that they would increase their profits from the larger customer market they are now including.

 
But lets not through these clothing companies under the bus just yet also. The fact is making clothes for large size people even though it might be profitable for them in the long run, it comes with its difficulties. The main one being not all larger size people are shaped the same way. Many retail stores such as JC Penney, Sears, and Macy's carry a plus size section, but the selection is usually very limited to things that look like potato sacks. Being that people carry their weight in different areas of the body makes it hard to just make a size that fits perfectly.

So!!!! What I'm trying to say is that companies shouldn't just look at the bottom line which are their profits. They should also look at the fact that society is changing. There are more fat people in the United States than their are skinny people. About 60% of the U.S. population is either considered overweight or obese. The now average size of the American woman is now a size 14, two sizes smaller than my old size of size 12 which is also considered to be average. Taking the extra step to just include larger clothing for people of larger size will only open up more business for these companies. Hopefully companies are able to see the light at the end of the rainbow, when it comes to this topic and see that they are putting themselves out of making more money.