Forced to pay for two seats in a taxi‚ used to satisfy sexual fetishes and bullied their whole lives‚ a group of KwaZulu-Natal women are proud to be “fat and ugly“.

Members of online support group Fat and Ugly‚ which aims to teach “big women” to love themselves.

The online support group Fat and Ugly reaches out to “big girls” on Facebook and WhatsApp.

“People are always going to call us fat and ugly. Maybe we can educate others about big girls but it is more about how we see ourselves. We want people to become comfortable with being called fat and ugly because at the end of the day‚ it’s not about what a person is calling you. It is about the confidence that you have within yourself‚ so when they call you fat and ugly‚ you look in the mirror and see beauty‚” founder Noxolo Mchunu said.

Thirty women have been sharing their body shaming stories on the WhatsApp group while more than 150 log onto the Facebook page for motivation daily. The “big girls” have shared their humiliation when taxi drivers demand that they pay for two seats‚ their heartbreak when older men try to date them just to fulfil a “fat woman” fetish‚ and the depression that followed years of being teased by classmates.

 “We are literally judged before people get to know us or even talk to us‚ just because we are big. When it comes to job interviews and dates‚ we have to try ten times harder because people always see us as fat‚” Mchunu said.

 All the women in the support group exercise and try to follow healthy lifestyles.

 “People will probably think that we are promoting being unhealthy because we are big. We all actually go to gym. We don’t have health problems. In fact‚ we are big because that’s just what we are. But people assume that fat women are big because we eat too much and are unhealthy‚” Noxolo said.