I really believe that’s true for everyone. With rare exception, dating is considered a pain in the arse, but a necessary hurdle if you want to advance to the next romantic level. And when you’re plus-sized (or if your appearance doesn’t conform to mainstream beauty standards in other ways), dating can seem fraught with even more challenges. It’s not a level playing field, and there’s no point pretending it is. But having a larger body is not a deal-breaker — though it may seem so. The internet is full of stories about women being horrifically fat-shamed or harassed on dating sites, and yes, those stories need to be told. But they’re not the whole story, by any means. And at a certain point, I think they can become inadvertent scare tactics, frightening plus-sized women out of the dating pool.