The Ink-Pot and the Palette

Thank you! Excellent point. It's one of the sub-themes of Restraint, and I'm surprised I didn't recognize it in real life: the difference between gifts and accomplishments. Of course, in Restraint I'm looking at the price some people pay for their unearned gifts, and not at their privileged views of 'lesser folk".

I've only recently managed to arrive at the belief that it's okay to be round, and my belief is not cell-deep (yet), so I think I just got stuck on the political incorrectness of judging other people by their body shape, and couldn't get beyond it to the levels of privilege the guy was parading about as a result of what's probably a) his natural thinness and b) his deep fear that he's gonna turn out like his mother.

And also the misogyny of a man publicly berating his mother in such a detailed way--well, it felt like being emotionally bludgeoned.