in all my years of shopping in the states (i am a shopaholic), i have never had someone comment on my weight when trying on clothes. maybe it is because even though i'm a size large, i carry myself well, or maybe it's because i usually approach people with a smile, or maybe it's because size 12 is not the end of the line in sizes or maybe it's because i am usually dressed very well. size 12 is not large at all in real life. it is actually quite average, in fact, it's the national average of the u.s. and i am not fat, it happens to be a lot of muscle from running everyday. i am black, i have big thighs, a big ass, everything about me is big and black. so, i know that the way in which these comments were made, these were insults directed at me to hurt me or to make me feel big and black. hell yes, i'm big and black. so what? but it bothered them that i was even there, let alone trying on clothes, so they struck me where they thought it would hurt. it's true, women can be their own worst enemies. they can really make each other feel like crap over the most trivial of things. so now i'm back in my state and all around me i see these bovine women...and i feel o.k. again. here we need the fat to stave off the cold, there they don't need it...but you can be damn sure we have plenty of size 2's on our shelves waiting for them when they come, thanks to our screwed up body perceptions as well.