Welcome to the adventure of fat Michelle in fatphobic Hong Kong!
Was at a dinner when I got told that someone’s hairdresser had found me on YouTube.
“You should really tell Michelle that it’s not nice to keep showing her body. It’s actually quite disgusting that she shows all the cuts on her stomach”
Not only did the hairdresser find this acceptable to say but the person actually found it acceptable to pass onto me with the additional comment of saying:
“Did you know this is what people were saying about you?” It’s most ironic because 10 minutes before I had been asked how much hate mail I get and troll comments. I simply said: “At this point, the difference from internet trolls and real life haters is negligible”
Their response: “Well I think you need to be more humble and care more what other people think. You can’t be so arrogant”. All I could think was if this is arrogance, then thank god I’m arrogant. More importantly, thank god I’ve learnt to have the toughest skin imaginable and found a creative outlet to healthily express this anger. Thank god, I haven’t let this anger consume me. And FYI I am damn entitled to this anger and it is entirely justified.
Bluntly put, this is not a conversation that would happen in England. This is also a conversation that most my friends in England would not believe actually happened. Yet it did, and is one of the more minor conversations in my 3 weeks in Hong Kong.
I sometimes think about these conversations when I think we haven’t come far in body positivity in the U.K. and hold a little hope that it can reach a little further east. This is why we must talk about it because it’s really easy to believe our safe bubble is the whole world and it’s not. I keep saying I’m bringing the fire in 2018. This is why. I could get down about Hong Kong but instead it just fuelled my fire 🔥 This convo just fanned the flames #ScarredNotScared