The Similarities and Differences of Body Types

Essay by mattikusCollege, UndergraduateA, November 2004

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My particular body type has definitely shaped how I act and who I am as a person today. Having been a big guy all my life, I know what it is like to be discriminated against because of one's appearance. On the other hand, I also know what it is like to be respected due to my size. A person's body type can have a drastic effect on how people treat them, how they dress, and their self-image.

I have been overweight since I was a child. My weight reached its highest point during my high school years. I have since lost a great deal of weight, but the impact it had on my personality all those years is forever stuck with me. In middle school I befriended another big guy, as well as a rather short, thin fellow. My big friend and I would often discuss how society was both directly and indirectly biased against fat people. An example of direct bias was how other people would treat us or talk to us. Indirect bias was in the fact that not many things in our society and culture are made to accommodate fat people. Often our smaller friend would agree with us because he was treated just as unfairly by others. He had difficulty finding dates, and people assumed they could easily push him around due to his small, short stature. Despite the fact that we had a different body type than his, all of us were treated with similar prejudice.

Finding the right clothes can be a rather aggravating task for someone with an irregular body type. The availability of clothing sizes certainly has an effect on how overweight and underweight people dress. Overweight people nearly always look for baggy clothes that will hide their body,