Kathleen, you took the words out of my mouth here. I felt so awful for the woman who had come in to get the massage and how she was muted in her own experience. I wish there had been some hint or inclusion of how the massage therapist tried to connect with the client and worked out her own misgivings about the client’s different body type, but it looks like the former chose to go through all these motions on her own and then write them out in the rawest, most painful words she could.

There was a rush between finding the client repulsive and accepting her, indicating that the massage therapist herself didn’t want to actually go through any effort or stages of acceptance. It’s just easier to write that she sent her love and acceptance because these are such all-encompassing words in such conversations.

As a somewhat obese woman, I’ve been shamed by my masseuses while they were massaging me. I’ve always felt an incomparable rage against them because I’m so fiercely in love with my body that I refuse to let that energy come anywher near me, especially if I’m having to pay for it.

I feel sad that that poor woman had to endure the therapist’s judgmental hands all over her as the latter fought to find basic humanity in the execution of her chosen profession.