#patrick zweig gentle giant

[diyasgarden]

hi diya!!! please feel free to ignore this if it’s too much but i’m curious to know how you think art and/or patrick would go about handling life and especially intimate moments with someone with body insecurity/food issues? especially since art also doesn’t seem to have the best relationship with food in the movie either

oo this is really interesting to think about. naturally, discussion of bodily image and eating disorders under the cut!

It would take time for Patrick to even understand you were struggling with food and bodily insecurity. Not out of a place of insensitivity, but from one of confusion. His vast confidence and self-assured nature leads to this unawareness of conceptualizing insecurities coherently, both in himself and others (more of a deep-seated feeling he can sense but tries not to verbalize). He'd pick up on little details but not really be able to understand what was the driving factor. Honestly you'd probably have to sit down and talk about it with him after a certain point for him to fully understand, and even then he'd find it hard to understand why. You're perfect to him, he can't understand you feeling any other way.

Art on the other hand would notice and connect the dots very quickly, but take time to really say anything. His own struggles with food, would make him hyperaware of any of the signs on you, and because he struggles he understands the place that it is coming from. It takes him time to really address it with you, mostly because he is a bit apprehensive about opening a can of worms he doesn't know if can close, but he does eventually. Just really trying to show that he is there for you.

Regardless of how it takes them to fully realize you're struggling, they'd both instantly want to support you through it. Although I think they'd go about it in different ways.

Patrick would want you to see you the way he sees you, and will constantly try to reassure you that you're perfect. Through little whispers, the way he holds onto you, even through the looks he gives you. It radiates love and admiration. Now if you struggle with eating, he does his best to give you some stability with it. While he may not fully understand, what he knows is that he wants you to have a healthy relationship with food. If you struggle with eating in the first place, he does what he can to make sure you're eating consistently. Being with you for meals when he can, calling/texting to make sure you ate on tour, and bringing you food if he thinks you haven't ate. Every once in a while this probably leads to a fight, but really he just wants to be there for you, even if he doesn't know how. If you struggle with binge eating, he tries to be there with you after to make sure you don't do anything too rash.

Art is more gentle with it. I think it'd be hard for him to help you the best he can when he is actively struggling, but he tries to make sure you're eating. He is never too direct with it, but you can tell what his motivations are. Similar to Patrick, if you binge eat he tries to make sure he's there with you after. I even think that trying to make sure you engage in healthy habits would help him get better too. His pattern of restriction falls under orthorexia, so forcefully trying to make you engage in healthy habits helps him out too. Of course there are moments where the competitive nature of these issues win out and he needs space, but you know he's struggling too so it's never personal.

As for intimate moments, both of them really do what they can to show how desired you are. Again through touch, looks, and words, really just emphasizing how much they love you. . While Art may not be as direct during day to day life, he is in bed. Really plays it by ear to give you exactly what you need in that moment to feel comfortable. Whatever Patrick does in daily life with you is ten fold during sex, just very tender and gentle