I was taught that complaining about being sick or in pain is something lazy people do. A person who is strong and dependable shows up and gets things done every day regardless of the state of their body. Urgent unlearning for me

Fat women have no value.

I've been relatively fit most of my life but my most recent medications, which have finally kept me mentally balanced, have made me gain some weight. Now my challenge is to either sacrifice my mental health or my body image, and it's a hard decision because of how overweight women are treated.

That calories in/calories out is all you need to focus on and it's the only way to maintain a healthy weight. If you're not losing weight, you're lazy and eating too much.

I struggle with eating enough food during the day even now. That I don't deserve food if I'm overweight. I have to really push myself to eat enough calories and the "food noise" is a constant buzz in my head all day long.

Does learning about count? If so, that I learnt about a belief that claims clumps of cells hold more value than y'know, actual people.

They don't give a shit about life, all they want is control, they seek control over people's bodies, even if it means for the latter to die.

I never understood how some people can be so warped that they believe it's wrong to remove a clump of cells to help a woman's wellbeing, but a-OK for that clump to either:

a) die anyways and have the pregnant person murdered due to lack of legal access to abortion
b) or become a child that then gets shot to death a few years later (or die due to lack of a vaccination)
c) and if they survive childhood; possibly grow up in a country where they don't even have full say over their body, nor have affordable living, nor free and universal education & healthcare, nor walkable, safe environments in a landscape free from reactionary media empires. It sows terrible mental health and obesity.

A certain country has often striked to me as a country of oxymorons in that regard. Vast as it is, there is a wide disparity. Despite the long way they still have to go, the northeast and west coast are much nicer in these regards; but the midwest and deep south have long faced deliberate neglect by wealthy folk.

It's something to address, and I believe we can together do that.

That women who don't shave their legs and underarms are gross and unhygienic.

A couple of years ago I discovered that the hygiene argument for shaving was originally aimed at men with beards, and with right. Before modern hygiene standards, many men had overgrown beards with food crumbs and dirt caught in them - truly disgusting. So when razor companies wanted to expand their market, they managed to convince everyone that visible body hair on women is also gross, which coincided timing wise with women first starting to wear short skirts. Somehow today, it's still acceptable for modern men to have beards and their hygiene is never questioned, only their poor sensitive skin from daily shaving or hiding a weak chin, whereas an unshaven woman remains gross.

Despite knowing this intellectually, and accepting that men don't shave their underarms, I haven't (yet) managed to stop shaving my underarms, not even in winter when no-one other than my husband (who doesn't care) would know. I can't stop feeling that it's unhygienic and a trap for sweat.

Edit: typo

That women must be obedient to have a good relationship. Well, I unlearned that 🤣 It's soooo much fun to see men reaction when I just play dumb and they think that they got me and then exposing how ridiculous they are.