Greetings and salutations... you a Heather?

"On my way to work today, walking downtown, tell me why some young ( *&#*^%**#&) of a guy decided it was OK to start yelling at me on the street that I was a fat pig, too fat to be walking the sidewalk and when I did walk it shook the street like an earthquake?"

The above was written recently by a friend of mine who describes herself as a plus size person who is confident with who she is on the inside and outside. She went on to say  "I don't know why I am so bothered by this as I normally would shake it off; I guess today it got under my skin."

I was absolutely shocked when I read this as well as disgusted and disappointed. What gives ANYBODY the right to shout such horrible criticisms at another person? If I were her I would have shouted something back about his mother and probably ended up in a war of words but she didn't. She took his crap and her hurt feelings, held her head high and continued on to work with her wits and dignity intact. I cannot begin to tell you the amount of respect I have for this woman for doing what she did. She didn't cause a scene and did not stoop to his level of indecency and disrespect. I applaud her.

Sadly, today's society is full of assholes like this. Assholes that feel the need to let others know how they fall short of the ideal standards set forth by the media. I have also been a victim of this type of behaviour and I pushed back. I caused a scene that would bring shame to my parents and forced the guy into a corner speechless and shaking. Do these people think we don't know that we're overweight, have acne, wear glasses, have red hair, have no boobs or have/not have the myriad of other things they come up with? They act like we've never seen a mirror before. I know I'm not perfect in the eyes of most just as I'm sure my friend knows this, we don't need reminders. Random prick on the street does not need to be a mobile app reminding us to look in the mirror and feel bad about ourselves. If I wanted that app, I'd bloody well pay for it, or download for free. Semantics really.

I always thought that bullying would stop once I was out of school and in the adult world, alas I was wrong. It never stops and no matter how many pink shirt days and dedicated websites we have, it will always be there. Instead of wasting our resources on awareness, why don't we teach people how to deal with it instead? Wearing a pink shirt means nothing if you can't handle the situation. A pink shirt is not going to stop the bully, only you can stop the bully. Hold your head high, say something intelligent and walk away. Or if you want to use me as a role model, fight back with words that have more than three syllables and your fists until THEY run away. I recommend the first one though.