Looking Fat vs Looking Thin

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had to go shopping – a lot! And all those who know me know that I mean it when I say “had to”. I do quite dislike shopping. It bothers me. I don’t see the point of going from shop to shop just looking at stuff which I either don’t like, don’t fit into or cant afford. And then it's supposed to be retail therapy! Whats so therapeutic about it? I refuse to understand how it helps make anyone’s mood better? Anyhow, not digressing from the topic, I’ve had to shop a lot. Shopping a lot has obviously meant visiting the changing / fitting rooms. And having visited about 4-5 different fitting rooms about 3-4 times each in the past 2 weeks or so has brought to my notice something very very weird. Apart from all that you usually hear in a fitting room – gossip, rants, abuses for an ungrateful man, or monologues about those few grateful ones, I realised something that I had never before. I was stood in the changing room trying on my shirt, looking in the mirror and asking myself – does this make me look thin!? And then I heard it for the 1^st time – “Does this make me look fat?” and since I'm such a rubbish curious person I looked out of my booth to see a skinny girl standing in a body hugging dress critically assessing herself in the mirror, talking to her friend stood behind. When I say skinny, she wasn’t a size 8-10 skinny but like a size 4 skinny. It was hard not to scowl. “No it doesn’t make u look fat, far from it” said her friend... my scowl only got worse! Over the weeks and different changing rooms I noticed a general trend – if the woman was chubby she was asking the question - Does this make me look thin!? And if she was skinny she was asking – Does this make me look fat!? On my bus ride home I pondered and pressured my brain about it. Why? And then the answer came to me like a bolt of lightening. A skinny woman will never ask ‘does this make me look thin’, why would she!? She’s thin anyway and I think somewhere they know that the answer to their question will be negative and im sure its a good feeling. On the other hand, if a chubby woman asked if it made her look fat... she would be causing some major discomfort to the person with her! I mean theres not much to do but nod, stare at your shoes and shift uncomfortably from one side to the other. But its weird isn’t it? Its surprising how we all know the answer but none of us want to hear it... and what we wouldn’t do to get around the question that might throw the truth in our faces!