Speechless No More

Today during lunch a colleague--a friend, I thought-- made a fat joke about another teacher.

For not the first time.

Yes, really.

The last time, I was so shocked and disgusted and discouraged that I said nothing although I wished I had. Unfortunately, I had another opportunity to respond more appropriately today.

I thought, "Hello! Have we met?! I'm fat and you make jokes about people like me!"

How insensitive. How rude and inappropriate it is to make fun of someone for her weight. Or anything else for that matter. And I hope you believe that I would have stood up for the teacher who was the brunt of his joke even if I were skinny. Because I would have.

So what I said was: "That is so mean! I hate when you make fat jokes. We're grown-ups for God's sake. And you make fat jokes?!?!"

He turned red but said nothing. I regained composure and carried on for the remaining 10 minutes of my twenty-minute lunch, but I haven't really let it go.

I will eventually, but not right now. For now I remain sad that people can be so rude and insensitive. I'm especially sad and discouraged that in my forties I still have to endure fat jokes.

Because really, he was talking about me too.