March 25, 2021:
Body shaming. Continually. "You're nothing but skin and bones,", says Bertie Angell, shaking her head sadly. Where his mother literally tells him one day that if he fails to gain weight the authorities will conclude she's a bad mother and take him away from her.
Yet I see nothing alarming or even unusual in any of these pics. He's an ordinary, lanky, bean-pole of a boy.
It's true he hated their food. That was their fault, not his. He'd eat happily at diners. Burgers, fries, malts. It was the food they prepared at home which made him gag. They might have discovered the pattern, if they'd been interested. Perhaps invested in a cook book.
He grew up ashamed of his body, wishing most days to escape it, not through death but through liberation. Drugs, perhaps. Astral projection. He believed no-one could find him attractive, so that it was disorienting when eventually someone did.
What were they thinking? Was it as simple as projecting their fears onto the powerless?