this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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askchapo

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About fatphobia, how do you stay proudly loving your body and showing yourself off despite other's self-projections of their own insecurities onto you? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by HexaSnoot@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I don't think I'm paranoid that people quietly think them. I may not always know when, but I know the sight of my stomach triggers people's insecurities.

One time I saw a woman with a stomach as big as an exercise ball in a crop top, and I've aspired to rock out as shamelessly as she did in her fully exposed stomach ever since.

This matters to me: I don't think she was pregnant. And I feel that means she didn't need a pregnancy as "excuse" to know she's entitled to proudly showing off her belly.

Btw, I think we've got to depict bellies as a sexy part of the body more. Even on abs, imo, a little pudge can look nice.

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[–] HexaSnoot@hexbear.net 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't like it, but I know for most of my childhood I felt I could never wear a crop top in my life even though I was already thin. Then, 15 lbs less than now, I did it comfortably when I was a little fat. In retrospect, as a child I was the one projecting my own shame on my stomach, and I know I'm doing it now. Especially when someone obese like comedian Stavros Halkias frequently goes shirtless, has a shirtless statue of himself, and describes how he feels absolutely dashing about his looks. But he's immensely confident, with great assertive comebacks to any insult I've heard people tell him at his shows, and I'm not. Maybe I just need to build an arsenal of simple responses to someone acting disgusted at my stomach.