A Big Fat Revolution

[lightningandsnow]

http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=1361&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=2

It's kind of an old article... but this group is amazing. I actually know Chelsey, and she is totally badass.

What do you think of this? Of "Fat Activism" in general?

(I got kind of inspired by some of the other threads on here, so I posted this)

[ismnotwasm]

1. Hmm

I'm a bit torn. On one hand, I'm a health advocate, I like to see folks take care of their bodies. If weight is a health problem, rather than a self esteem problem, I like for women to do what they can do to optimize their health. Which doesn't mean going from a size 22 to a size 6, more like a 22 to 18 or 16 or maybe forget size and just work out with some light weight training and do cardio, (you don't need to join a gym for that thank goodness) along with good nutrition. In fact, fuck size--it's about health.


On the other hand, I've met perfectly healthy "overweight" women who have had to live a life of rejection or feeling like shit about themselves because they don't fit the current idea of What Is Sexy. That's typical patriarchal bullshit.

I had a patient one time who had breast cancer, and needed a mastectomy. She nearly didn't get the surgery because of her weight. She was morbidly obese and had some cardiovascular problems related to it--but not as severe as you might think. What I noticed about her body, is it was, well, shapely. Every body part was rounded, and tapered, in other words she was proportional, her waist small in comparison to upper torso and hips, feet and calves small in comparison to thighs, forearms and hands small in comparison to upper arms. Her body was beautiful to me and obviously to her husband, and she had no body image problems. Not even after her mastectomy. She was an amazing woman.

I like the idea of fighting against false beauty standards.

[bliss_eternal]

2. I am pro-size acceptance.

I wonder how different my life would have been, if I'd grown up around women that accepted that they were never going to be a size 6 and learned to love and appreciate their bodies as they were. It was difficult absorbing messages that they hated me for being smaller than they were, yet simultaneously told me that I should hate myself if I ever got bigger. :crazy: Of course I got bigger, and guess how I felt? It didn't help that every where you look (magazines, tv, etc.) there is something saying "hate yourself if you aren't this size."

I dislike the idea that many seem to hold that by being pro-size acceptance, I am also advocating that women be "unhealthy." Not every plus-size person is a heart attack waiting to happen. I've known women that were probably a size 22--but could kick your ass at the gym. Seriously. An aerobics instructor's class that I loved was a plus size woman and incredibly fit. Some didn't want to take her class, based on the way she looked--thinking she couldn't help them reach their fitness goals.

I really wish people could focus on being cardiovascularly fit, healthy and feeling good, and move away from the need to be a certain size and shape with washboard abs.

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. I am also pro-size acceptance.

We have to accept men at whatever size they are at; so they should do the same for us--and we should for each other.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. I have known so many slender women who were unhealthy trainwrecks

Chain-smoking, heavy drinking, snorting coke, etc., it's not even funny. Yet the weight police have done such a brilliant job of convincing everyone that thin = healthy in women that a size 0 who takes terrible care of herself and doesn't do a lick of exercise will be automatically deemed to be "healthier" than a size 14 who eats well and works out religiously. Strangely this doesn't translate to men.

Men are given all kinds of leeway to vary in their weight and regarded as individuals when it comes to assessing their health. If a man is described as being 6 feet tall and 220 lbs, no one assumes that he is a fat lazy pig right off the bat, even though he is technically overweight according to most charts. Generally, people will inquire if he is physically active or not. Contrast that to a woman being described as 5 foot 6 and weighing 170 lbs. I guarantee most people would assume several things about her right off the bat, and none of them would be positive. All women, regardless of height, build, or activity level should weigh no more than 120 lbs, or so we've been convinced.

BTW, Laila Ali the professional boxer is 5'6" and 170 lbs.

[spooky3]

6. Among the women I play tennis with, there is no relationship between

body size and how good they are. One of the very best is at least 40 pounds above the "ideal." For the men, there doesn't seem to be much of a relationship either.

Serena Williams is probably a bit taller and heavier than Laila Ali. But as a sad commentary on our society, on the women's tennis tour website, for a long time she listed herself as "135 lbs", nowhere close to her actual weight, as if to say that conforming to standards of thinness for women is more important than being the most powerful and dominant female player around (when she's not injured). I don't know why the WTA would put weights on their site; it's completely irrelevant, since there are no weight classes in tennis.

[Book Lover]

5. I think that I am one of the most fortunate people in the world

My parents instilled a backbone in me that will be solid decades after I die and turn back to dust. They built up my self-confidence in so many ways that my large size doesn't bother me (except when I am trying to climb three sets of staircases - then I buckle a bit :-)) in the least. And if anyone else has a problem with it, well, that bull just rolls off my back. So if my sisters need a support group to develop what I was given as a child, all I can say is Go sisters! Believe me, it is beautiful here in the place where you just don't give a shit about the nonsense.