WARNING: POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF ASSAULT
There were several stories in the news this week about sexual abuse and several other stories about weight and body size. In both instances, I feel they got it wrong. Sure, they got the facts right, but they missed the story. And the story is where the message is. The reason I know they got it wrong is because I'm intimately familiar with both subjects.
I have been overweight my entire life, and I survived years of childhood sexual abuse. Perhaps there seems to be no connection, or that to make a connection is just an excuse for lazy, fat people. Because that's what I am, right? A lazy, fat, undisciplined woman. A woman who chooses to belittle herself by living in such a way that I can't shop at Abercrombie and Fitch.
The extra flesh served me well for many years. When I needed to build a fortress around my heart and didn't know how else to do it, weight worked. At a very young age, when those who should have protected me didn't, I found a way to do it myself. Eat!
The food served two purposes: numb my heart, protect my body. The food was not the problem. What was happening to me was the problem. What happened in the dark, in my room, in my bed was the problem.
I understand now that the extra weight is a health issue, and that the thing that saved me when I was a little girl could be the thing that kills me as an adult. But at 6 and 9 and 12 years of age, I needed my body to say for me what I wasn't allowed to say with my voice,
"STOP! GET AWAY! NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!"
As I got older, I learned quickly that weight keeps men away. Weight says, "I won't let you get close to me." Weight is a shield and protector when the world feels too scary. Weight made me invisible.
For many years, I would have told you I wanted to lose weight, and I think there were parts of me that did. But the parts that felt so scared of being noticed needed the weight. For so many years, formative years, being noticed meant physical pain, humiliation and shame. I was prepared to do anything to keep from being noticed by a man. And here's an example of why...
I don't sleep. I don't shut my eyes. Sleep is too scary. If I'm awake I hear him coming. He can't surprise me. I hate surprises, but his room has a door to mine so I get surprised a lot.
He's coming. Don't move. Disappear. He's still coming. I hear his hand on the door knob.
"NO NO NO"
I don't know if I said it out loud or just in my head. The round light hanging from the pointy part in my ceiling starts to come on. It has a turny thing so it can have the light bright or not bright. He never makes it bright, he told me before he needs just a tiny little light.
He's so big. His big makes my small seem very small. He's standing beside my bed. I can smell him already. I hate him. I know what's coming. His smell makes my tummy hurt.
Mad Mad Mad. I feel so mad, but I have to be still or it will hurt more. I push all the mad into my tummy where it has to stay. If I get mad he hits, so it's better to make the mad go into that little ball in my tummy.
With the dim light, I see he has on a white shirt and no pants. I know what it looks like down there because he made me see it before, but it still scares me and I start to cry. He's holding it and says something, but I don't know what. Everything sounds fuzzy like when I'm in the deep end at the swimming pool.
His hand is so big it covers all of my head. I hear someone in my head yelling "NO NO NO"
but now I'm on the swing. There is a big rope and a swing and it goes out over were the ground falls down to the road in our yard. I sway back and forth. I can feel the sunshine and my feet are out and under, out and then under. I go to the swing when he doesn't have pants on. I can't remember why.
I can see that big round light hanging from the pointy part in my ceiling again. It's staring at me. I am crying again. I hate when I can't remember why.
He's so big. Maybe he is a giant. He doesn't seem so big when we have breakfast downstairs before I go to school, but when he is pulling up my Stawberry Shortcake nightgown, with his big scratchy hands he is a giant. I think he is big enough to eat the peach in James and the Giant Peach that our teacher is reading to us.
NO NO NO "Don't do that!!" Uh, oh, I think I said it out loud.
I lay perfectly still. I am like the little baby deer that sleeps under our trampoline. He can lay so still, so I try to be like him. ...NO NO! I feel my panties sliding off under my bottom. Put the mad in the little ball. Push all the mad to the little ball in my tummy. It's safer there.
I sure am glad for that round light that hangs from the pointy part in my ceiling. Because that's where I go a lot. I can hear him making some noises, but I can't see him because I'm so little now I fit inside the light. It's warm in here and that's good. It's better when I float up in here when my panties are coming off. I can't remember why. I just float away and nothing hurts anymore....
I share this because I think the words sexual abuse mean less all the time in our western venacular. I share it because when you see a person who weighs more than you think they should, I want you to remember that it's possible you don't know why they have needed to build a fortress. It's possible that they are more than just fat, lazy, undisciplined. It's possible that they are doing the best they can with what they have been given.
Please know, I am not saying there is no personal responsibility when it comes to health, because there is. I am responsible now, as an adult, for taking care of my body. I am responsible for learning ways to feel and be safe other than just getting bigger and creating more space between myself and others. I'm the adult now.
When a little girl is being used by a grown man sexually, when he is finding sexual gratification and pleasure in a child, when he is changing the shape of her heart by violating her body, we need to sometimes remember what sexual abuse really means. It is not a statistic, it is a heart.
If a woman has had a home invasion and has a top of the line security system installed afterwards, we'd call that person resourceful. I realize the analogy has flaws, but if a woman has had her body invaded, and puts on weight because she doesn't know any other way to feel safe (and she probably doesn't even realize it's what she's doing), we might want to rethink how we see her. Because I see her as resourceful, and I want to help her find new ways to feel safe.
We never fully know someone's story or why they do what they do. When in doubt, choose compassion.