Unless you're a man, one inch isn't that big of a freaking deal

Since I've lost close to 80 pounds now, I've run out of clothes in my closet that fit. The last time I was this size, it was summertime, and it's a trifle too nippy to scamper about in shorts and cotton tops. So, I've been out clothes-shopping, trying to fill in the gaps in my wardrobe.

I scored a nice pair of jeans from TJ Maxx - a little too tight as yet, but they'll fit in a few weeks, I hope. On the whole, I prefer places like TJ Maxx and Marshall's - discount outlets that you have to treasure-hunt through in order to find the few bits of gold secreted among the dross. It's the department stores that I hate.

Do you know what pisses me off beyond measure about the department stores? I can find a dress in a size 18 in the "misses" (read: normal-sized) section that fits, and it will cost about $50. That same dress in a 1x (which is roughly equivalent) in the "Womens" section for double the price. Can one fucking inch of fabric double the price of a garment? Did it take double the engineering to stretch the goddamn pattern out an inch to make the dress a size larger? Did they have to use titanium to stitch the seams so the obese cow wearing it wouldn't burst out? [/sarcasm] Fucking arsehole clothing manufacturers.

Look, is it not enough humiliation that I suffer just going through life being fat, that I should also have to pay through the nose for the same fucking dress as a woman ONE SIZE SMALLER? Cunts. Is it any wonder fat people dress a bit less nattily than their thin counterparts? It costs an arm and a leg (a fat one, at that) to put together a nice outfit at Lane Bryant, whereas I can pick up some really cute clothes at Sears in "normal" sizes now for the same price that the top alone cost at Lane Bryant. One of my students observed how stylish and better-dressed I am this year compared to last. Not only have my options increased, but so has the size of my clothing budget now that I am no longer being wallet-raped at the till.

The whole thing smacks of the whole fat as a moral issue - that somehow, people are only fat because they're self-indulgent sloths who stuff their faces 24/7, and so deserve to be overcharged. After all, if they'd just push away from the table or put down the fork, they wouldn't be fat and undeserving anymore. It's not so damn simple, as the stitches in my gut and 15 years of dieting can attest to. It's not fair though. It's so not fair.

But, hey, my new jeans are, like, totally cute.