Womenzwerk,Oprah and thongs

Do we discriminate against our fellow women based on weight?

I'm not happy with Oprah these days. I have to say that I may be in a distinctive minority on this issue, but I like Oprah with a little weight on. I think she looks frightening when she gets to her "ideal weight" and she seems so much happier when she's not feeling guilty about what her body does or doesn't look like. The whole mea culpa in her self-produced media about how she had a thyroid issue and lost her focus and balance just slays me. If she'd freaked out and committed an act of violence or insulted her guests on her show, I'd say she'd lost her balance. But just getting a little larger? I'm not seeing her in that much trouble here.

Maybe I'm not sensitive enough. My issues go the other way. Although today I endure a little middle-aged excess, I've never struggled with being overweight. I'm a recovered anorexic, having been skinny when skinny wasn't cool, and that might give me a different perspective. But it seems to me that it's women who refuse to accept women's varying body sizes. When I was skinny, my female friends and relatives would "cluck-cluck" around me and tell me I needed to eat, needed to look more like them. Back then, they didn't know that I had a disease that could actually mean I was unhealthy. All they saw was someone who was different. I was an outsider to all women's social circles and the subject of some nasty name calling and gossip. I imagine that women with plus-sized issues experience the same subtle rejection from their fellow women.

Last week, I bought some thong underwear and picked up the wrong size. When I brought it home I realized I'd picked up some extra-large thongs. My first reaction was to laugh out loud. What extra large sized woman wears thongs, I thought. Then I realized that I was being terribly biased. Why the extra large sized woman who doesn't want panty lines wears a thong, the same reason I do. How telling that moment was for me. I'm guessing Oprah is still wearing thongs. I wish she would use her significant influence to make it OK to be whatever size you are at any time in your life. I wish she would talk about her thongs.

So, what do you think...do women discriminate against other women based on body size?