Weight-based victimization is nothing new

If what I remember of my childhood is correct, I was a chubby kid. I was active and played sports, but I was still on the portly side, enough so that I occasionally got teased by other kids during my elementary school years. But I got lucky. When I reached junior high, I went through what could be considered a growth spurt – I shot up a whole three or four inches – and I began to thin out. By the time I was a freshman, the fat and chubby jokes were gone. I was skinny throughout high school, and didn’t begin to put on weight until I got to college and realized I could eat pizza for every meal, and no one could stop me. Like I said, I was lucky. I had plenty of friends who were on the heavy side, some of whom tried to lose the weight, and some who didn’t. And then there was the friend whose father reminded her of how overweight she was on a regular basis.