"My Big Fat Fabulous Life" is a television show on TLC that follows Tiffany Thore through her journey.
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At first, I thought that this show was going to be a good thing for television; it was going to show the weight loss journey of an overweight woman and show her struggles to live life with her weight. Since I have struggled with my weight most of my life, I was excited for everyone to see things from our perspective.
Now, I am all for body positivity, I think that some of us need to be less critical of others and their weight. I long for a world that will not judge me by my looks and weight, but what I have to bring to this world. I have been judged my whole life based off of my weight and people have based their first impressions off of this. I praise Tiffany for having the courage to start a television show to show her daily life and her struggles. I think that it is important that people are taking steps like these to show people that they do not have to be ashamed of their bodies and they can have a life too! I think that it is a really positive thing that she is showing body positivity and I hope that people who do watch the show learn to have body positivity for themselves and others!
However, I have a huge problem with this show and some of the messages that Tiffany portrays on her show. Tiffany suffers from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, also known as PCOS, just like I do. PCOS greatly affects my weight, hair growing where men have hair, etc. It is really tough living with this disorder and having to go through a lot of people never have to. Tiffany is bigger, just like most of us PCOS girls, but she doesn't take ownership for her weight and uses PCOS as a crutch. Before people start criticizing me, hear me out.
PCOS is a hormone disorder and if it is undiagnosed, women can rapidly gain weight and will be bigger. If you Google it, weight gain will be one of the first symptoms that comes up on WebMD for PCOS. I rapidly gained weight throughout middle school and high school because I was undiagnosed. But when I was diagnosed, I regularly took my medications and I had to fight for my body and health, just like any other PCOS girl. I have to carefully watch what I eat and drink, regularly exercise and take my medications in order to be healthy and lose weight. I am an example that you can lose 50-plus pounds with PCOS because I have done it.
Now, it is much harder to lose weight with PCOS and I give props to anyone who has PCOS and is trying to lose weight. Tiffany is different though. She doesn't take responsibility for her weight and she doesn't fully fightlike the rest of us have to. On the show, she has openly admitted to not regularly taking her medications. She has openly admitted to not regularly exercising and doing what she should. She has eaten a whole pizza on her show, but continues to blame PCOS for her weight.She is not fully fighting and trying to get healthy, she just uses PCOS as her crutch instead.
Now, you might be saying, well that's her problem and it only reflects her. But it doesn't. For the uneducated people watching "My Big Fat Fabulous Life," they think that we are all like that. Everyone with PCOS uses it as an excuse and that we all eat whole pizza pies. That we are all accepting that we are going to be fat and bigger than everyone else for the rest of our lives. That we all don't fight for our health and our lives. And that is where I draw the line. I do not want to be judged or have people assume things about me because of this television show. I do not want to be defined by Tiffany Thore and her lack of fight that we all need to have in order to overcome PCOS. This may sound harsh, but if it were you, would you be OK with people assuming you are ready to throw in the towel and be unhealthy for the rest of your life? Because I sure as hell am not OK with that.
