Clear plastic bin offers reply to everyday sexism

THE trainer, a lovely curvy woman in tight lycra whom I have expressly picked out from a line up in the gym, because she looks normal rather than someone who exists on egg white omelette and kale, assumes I have engaged her because I want to be thinner.

I tell her that actually I just want to be a bit stronger and faster and fitter, and if that includes thinner, then fine, but really, thinner is not my primary purpose here. I am not here because of any self-loathing, self-inflicted hen pecking, or concerns relating to does my bum look big in this. Just to up my fitness levels.

The poor trainer looks a bit blank. “But you will be so much happier when you start fitting into smaller dress sizes,” she ventures. But I AM HAPPY, I want to scream, except screaming that you are happy could be taken as a sign of unhappiness, which at this moment would be accurate, but not for the reasons she thinks.