A Story of American Society's War Against Women's Self-Esteem

I was standing in line at the lunch truck with my friend, Karen. Two young guys came up and handed some fliers to the two girls in front of us and said, "While you're waiting, read this literature on why you're getting fat." I couldn't believe my ears. The girls turned red and looked embarrassed, not knowing how to respond. The guys began walking away as the four of us stood there.

I looked at Karen and she looked furious. She looked at me and simply said, "No."

She came up behind them and tapped one on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, what the hell is your problem?"

He looked confused and said, "What?"

She said, "What you said to these ladies was rude and terrible, and you should apologize."

He said, "Come on, it's part of my job - that's how we get people's attention," and showed her the flier for some weight loss program.

Karen said, "Well for one thing, I doubt your boss would like to hear that your sales strategy is to insult people. And secondly, what gives you the right to say anything to anyone? You're not exactly in shape yourself. This great health company you work for hires pudgy guys to walk up to women on their lunch break and tell them they're fat? Nice sales strategy."

The guy mumbled, "Whatever." Karen just stood and glared at him. Then he said, "Fine. If I offended anyone, I apologize," and grabbed the fliers back from the girls and walked away with his friend. The girls smiled thankfully at Karen but didn't say anything. I don't blame them. The whole situation was so embarrassing.

Sure, in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal, but to me and to those girls, Karen is a hero. We have enough pressures on us every day to look "perfect" without random strangers coming up and telling us we're fat. It's not right. I can't believe she had the nerve to say something, because normally she'd run a mile to avoid a confrontation. We talked about it, and she said, "I'm at the end of my rope with this country's obsession with women's weight. In a way, I guess it was sort of my chance to yell at the world for not accepting people the way they are, for expecting everyone to be gorgeous and thin and exactly alike."

Karen is a hero because she wasn't afraid to say something when she saw someone being treated unfairly and unkindly.

But I'd like to take this one step further: to me, any woman today who is confident in herself, and accepts herself and loves herself just as she is, who's able to ignore a society that tries to convince her every day that who and what she is just isn't good enough . . . well, those women are heroes to me.

Anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders caused by poor self-image affect thousands and thousands of girls and woman in America today. We could all stand to focus a little more on smiles and personality and heart, and less on muscle tone and percentage of body fat. I think if that guy had looked at those girls' pretty faces and listened to their laughter, instead of focusing on the fact that they weren't wearing size 4 dresses, he wouldn't have said what he said. At least I'd like to think so.