Elizabeth
started gaining weight in high school and laughs that "my big hips come
from my dad's side because my mother is extremely small." Elizabeth, who
never knew her father, regularly braves the dating scene but says she knows
lots of overweight women who don't dare: Some sisters "hold on to extra
weight as physical and psychological protection against a hostile world. The
thinking goes like this: If I am fat already, I don't have to concern myself
about going out and trying to find a man, because I already know that most men
want thin women. So many women think, 'Oh my God, if I lost weight, someone
might actually be attracted to me and I might have a relationship-and risk
being rejected for some other reason.'"
Beyond the
immediate issue of using your weight to avoid intimacy lurks another tragedy
for some women. They turn to food to ease the painful memories of childhood
sexual abuse. Sadly, young women and girls who've been molested,
