Woman defends her body shape after ‘curvy’ friend accuses her of ‘flaunting skinny privilege’

A woman has revealed how she was forced to defend her slim body type following a stream of abuse from her “larger” friend.

The Reddit user, 21, insisted she had never made any comments about her pal’s shape yet “when we go out to eat together she makes countless comments about my weight and body”.

The 21-year-old said that she had been bullied at school by people branding her an “anorexic freak” or joking that she made herself sick.

However, she insisted that at 5ft1in tall and weighing 90lbs, she is “perfectly healthy, just small.”

Still, this didn’t stop her friend who describes herself as “curvy and proud” from telling her she “needs to ‘fatten up’ or no guys will be attracted to [her]”.

The Redditor continued: “She also says that I am inconsiderate and taking advantage of my ‘skinny privilege’ if I order dessert anywhere or if I add bacon or cheese to a burger or something.

“She talks on and on about how I never experienced true hardships like her, and how I could never understand what it feels like to be mocked and made fun of based on your weight, which I feel is a low blow and insensitive of her.”

“But,” she added: “I know from experience that if I ever say anything while she is saying these things she will turn it on me and say I am turning into ‘one of those ugly skinny bitches’.”

The Redditor said her friend accused her of ‘flaunting her skinny privilege’ whenever she tucked in to fattier foodsGetty Images/iStockphoto

The narrator then described how the woman loudly criticised her when she saw her eating some pie at a group barbeque.

“I asked her to stop, that I was just trying to enjoy the bbq and I wasn’t doing anything wrong by simply eating,” the 21-year-old wrote.

“She huffed and said something along the lines of ‘oh yeah, cause skinny people can never do wrong, huh?’”

The 21-year-old went on: “At this point, I was fed up. I told her to just shut up, that I never once flaunted anything, that I can’t help how my body shape is. I said how I never once made a comment on anyone else’s body or said that my body was better than anyone else’s.

“I also pointed out how it was only me in our whole friend group that she ever made comments to, and she is being just as bad as all those people back in school who had tormented me, that she was being every bit as much of a bully as those people she used to say she hated.”

The Redditor ended her post by saying that their mutual friends had been divided over the fall-out.

“Some say I was in the right but that I couldn’t understand the struggle of being mocked for my body and that I should apologize still to keep the peace, some are saying that she deserved to be put in her place, and others are saying I was a total a**hole,” she wrote.

Readers suggested the overweight woman was projecting her insecurities onto her thinner friendGetty Images/iStockphoto

Her post racked up hundreds of comments and more than 2,900 upvotes within a day as fellow users of the platform weighed in on the issue.

“Body shaming is body shaming, regardless of who it’s coming from,” one said.

“That’s not your friend. That’s someone projecting their shame on you. Cut ‘em off, you deserve friends who celebrate you for who you are.”

Another said: “This makes me so sad...no one deserves to be body shamed by narcissistic friends. I’ve had to cut people off for that awful behavior and it’s the worst! I always think they’ll improve or stop being mean but it just gets worse.”

However, a third countered their argument, writing: “I don’t think the other girl is a narcissist. I think she’s unbearably insecure and, rather than dealing with it in a healthy fashion, she’s lashing out at others, in this case OP to try and bring them down to her level…”

Others agreed that the other woman was motivated by insecurity.

“She’s insecure AF and wanting to drag her ‘friend’ down in every way possible,” said one. “There’s no winning when she tells OP to eat more, then turning around a berating her for eating dessert or adding bacon.”

Meanwhile, others shared similar personal experiences.

One wrote: “As someone who was ‘skinny shamed’ I know personally how horrible it can feel. And then to be made feel even worse because ‘it’s different than fat shaming’. It’s still a form of bullying.”

And another said: “I’ve also been small all my life. Even now, at 30, I have co-workers who are bigger women who constantly pressure me to eat the unhealthier things/desserts at work lunches because I’m ‘already skinny and don’t need to watch my weight’ and they don’t want to be the only ones grabbing a cupcake or something.

“What they don’t understand is, even though I’m small, I actually have high cholesterol and a strong genetic predisposition for heart disease. So that’s why I try to eat healthy, and it’s nobody’s business but mine and my doctor’s.”