Body Shaming

No six packs here.

I have never reached that comfort level of identifying myself as a cis-male. Should a person have to declare his/her/its/their gender or sex upon presentation with respect to what it was determined to have been at birth? The process is still strange to me.
Unless, of course, the individual opts to be ambiguous by choice. I think of Pat from Saturday Night Live.
Young people look at someone and can fixate on some of the oddest things to poke fun at. Some thought my years were large (usually the African American boys who seemed to have smaller ones). They were more pronounced with crew cuts that my father insisted I have.
I had a belly and I hated sports. I never understood why anyone wanted to be outside for long periods of time. What's more I never understood why anyone wanted to participate in team sports. Having one friend at a time was difficult enough, but to have to interact with a group was a brutal challenge. I couldn't hit and I had asthma, so running was a dangerous undertaking.
Then there were the allergies. I was allergic to a lot of foods that my family craved... shrimp, lobster, and other bottom feeders that were popular in the Chinese restaurants. I suspect the MSG also contributed to bodily reaction to these crustaceans.
Monosodium glutamate (MSG): What it is, and why you might consider avoiding foods that contain it - Harvard Health
According to a good deal of the literature online, the allergy is referred to as a myth that has been debunked. I like to think that I am part of the small subset that is still affected by it. Why take a risk?
In my adult years, I have gone into restaurants that served food with shrimp. The effects are not as violent as they once were, but I still noted smaller rashes popping up (and lasting longer).
But I digress.
I struggle with my weight. I like to eat what I like to eat, and I have to focus on making sure my portions are measured and 'sensible'. I used to be able to 'go on a diet' and have positive results. But now? What's wrong? What I observe is that there is a noted lack of physical activity in my life. It isn't impossible to overcome this loss. There is a fitness center where I work which means I can walk on a treadmill before or after work. There are flat streets in my neighborhood, and I know, for example that a one-way stroll to Aldi is 1½ miles (1,61 kms), or to Sprouts is 1.7 miles (2,74 kms). A walk to Global Fresh (formerly known as ValuMart) is just one mile south of the homestead (1,61 kms).
I am loathe to walk in the summertime. Even as late as 1930 (just an hour and a half before the stores close the doors) it can be too hot to ambulate. And who wants to make the return trip with a shopping sack filled with cans of tuna or beans?
Now that I am in my mid-60s, the shaming seems to be less. No one of course says things like, "Wow, you really look good for your age." I've reached a point in my life wherein I enjoy being ignored (unless I'm looking for a job, of course).
I also avoid body shaming. There are things that I find jarring still such as multiple piercings, excessive tattoos, 9-inch fingernails, nasty looking feet in flip-flops.
My hair is shoulder length and I keep a beard long enough to cover the dewlap or turkey waddle. The turkey waddle is part of the anterior triangle (submandibular triangle and submental triangle). In older folks, it hangs. Curiously, I have never thought much of plastic surgery. There is nothing anatomically or physiologically wrong with the region. It doesn't affect eating or swallowing and it doesn't cause any stress to glans or muscles. When I think of plastic surgery the two faces that come to mind are Nancy Reagan and Joan Rivers. The former had a level of vanity that could only be described as superficially republican. The latter one was a vulgar comic who referred to herself as a satirist. A satirist is someone who can shame or humiliate others without fear of retribution.
That's about it for body shaming... for now...