The conventional female lead we get to see—no matter how quirky the character, no matter how different, intelligent, brave, strong, or “badass”—is almost always skinny.
In a cis-normative world, dysphoria is often perceived as body negativity and trans persons’ desire to physically transition is often incorrectly viewed as a patriarchal aspiration.
I routinely traverse a minefield of reminders that I am living a double life. While I put on my best online activist hat and pontificate about queer rights being human rights, I deliberately omit doing so from the stance of a queer person. I am what you might term ‘partially closeted’.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fat—first, a chubby kid and then, an overweight adult. Somehow, it never bothered me. No one spoke about dieting or achieving a target weight in my family. I was happy the way I was, or so I thought.
