Body Image – thin privilege?

I was reading Scarlett’s excellent post (and the subsequent discussion) and I was going to write this as a comment but it got so long I decided to write it as a post.
This post is in response to the inevitable comments about the difficulties that thin girls have that come up on posts regarding weight. I wanted to comment because I’ve been on both ends of this issue. I’ve been both underweight and (am currently) overweight. From 16 to 20 I had a BMI of 17 and accompanying it came all the mean comments (from friends no least!) and the problems buying clothes. I was obsessed with being as thin as I could be. If I ate anything I deemed bad, I would severely restrict my diet for a week before I allowed myself to eat properly again.

Now in my mid-twenties I am overweight and I feel qualified to speak on this because I’ve been on both sides. And let me tell you, no matter what problems accompany being thin, they don’t even compare to the issues dumped on plus-sized women by society!
I hate to say it (because I should know better) but I’d do anything to go back to the time when my friends would say:
“I hate you ’cause you’re so skinny”. “You’re too thin and it’s gross” “You’re so ugly, you need to eat” etc. At the time, their comments would hurt but now I miss those comments, which is crazy because I’m actually healthier now, have breasts (yay!), have hips and because my face also filled out I no longer get offered kid’s menu’s in restaurants!!
So why do I want to be 100 pounds again? When you’re skinny you have so much privilege. I often think that when you are thin, the complaints are akin to the “what about the menz” people. Yes, you have problems but they don’t even compare.
Yet they were problems. The worst problems were the cruel comments from friends, the lack of breasts (and I was bullied about this from 13-18 and hugely resented all the “real women have curves” comments because I felt like I wasn’t a “real woman”) and the way people would try and coerce you into eating when you just didn’t want to. Clothes never fit either and tops would billow out because nothing would fit. I was constantly mistaken for a young child and talked down to just as much.
I should be happier now (and in many ways I am) and yet if I could be 100 pounds again, I would never complain. I would never lament the lack of x-small sizes in stores, or cry over the mean comments. But it wont happen. There’s a part of me that just can’t explain why I want to go back and I do think a large part of it is that being thin defined me in a way (sick I know!) and now I’ve lost that. Also when I was thin, whilst nothing fit properly, at least everything zipped up, buttoned up etc.
I’m going to finish with the comment that triggered this post that came from the post I linked above. It was from theora23.myopenid.com and I agreed with every word:
“Why should every complaint about fat girls not being able to find cool clothes get derailed into being about skinny girls who resent the lack of attention to their needs? Yes, size prejudice is wrong no matter if it’s against fat or thin, but sometimes a post just isn’t about you.
You don’t have to get defensive, you don’t have to use all caps to let us know how much body image problems affect all women, and you don’t need to let us all know what size you are. If you’re posting as an ally, please try to find a way to give your support without pointing up your privilege at the same time.