All Shapes and Sizes Are Beautiful

Many many years ago, a couple of months before I got married and on the day I was trying on my wedding dress, a 'friend' criticized me for being FAT. Oh, she didn't do it in a smug way but rather in a kind and gentle voice telling me that I should lose a bit more weight if I want to look good in that dress. Excuse me?

I was 28 and even though I was old enough to tell her off, I was too insecure and such a pathetic people-pleaser so I said nothing. I regret that I said nothing. That happened 12 years ago. I am in my early 40s now. And if she does that to me now I bet I would ROAR in her face. And she would probably run for her dear life, not wanting to talk to me again.

I am generally a nice person. I usually keep my mouth shut and smile kindly in the face of unkindness. But I could be nasty when the situation calls for it. And I don't want to be nasty.

That's me on my wedding day. Seriously, do I look FAT? Even if I was fat, does it matter? Would it hurt anyone if I was fat?

The thing is, that day when I was trying on my dress, I didn't feel fat at all. I was roughly around 57kg. Yeah, I was chubby but I didn't feel insecure about my weight. I felt fabulous. I just don't get it why it was such a problem to my 'friend' that I looked less than desirable. It hurts back then. It still hurts when I think about it now.

I know my experience resonates a lot with other women - young and old. Why are we obsessed with our shapes and sizes? Now, don't get me wrong. I am all for wanting to stay in that ideal weight to maintain a good health, but why does it matter so much to lose weight/gain weight for the sake of gaining praises or approval from others?

The truth is people can be really rude. If you are FAT, people call you nasty names - fatso, lard, pig, chunky dunk etc. And if you are as thin as a reed, you get called hurtful things too - pencil, jingli, wafer, lolly pop etc. We are labeled regardless of our shapes and sizes.

It hurts to be called names.

And the sad thing is no matter how beautiful we are, inside and outside, we are still being judged for things we can't control. Some people stay chubby regardless of how hard they tried to lose weight. I believe it's the same for those who are thin and trying hard to gain weight. It's their genetic. Or sometimes it's due to an illness. We don't judge people based on their shapes and sizes. We don't know their struggles in life.

We are beautiful regardless of our shapes and sizes

We are special no matter how we look like. If I am fat or thin, so what? I know this sounds cliche but at the end of our life, how we look like won't matter anymore. Handsome, pretty, tall, short, fat, thin - we all will die. There is so much more to life than our physical appearances.

The painting

I recently stumbled upon Ben Eine's art. Ben is a British street artist who is well-known for his blocked letters style. I almost never use wordings in my stencil art. I decided to give it a try after feeling inspired by Ben's street art. I used Gloria font and painted the wordings using watercolored pencils. The stencil was painted using black watercolor.

Here are the progress photos...