Fat Chicks Rule

Big Beautiful Bargains

BIG BEAUTIFUL BARGAINS

(New and Used Plus-Size fashions for Less!)

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 29^th and

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 30^th

^10AM-5PM

^{THE KNITTING FACTORY CLUB}

^{74 LEONARD ST.}

^{NYC 10013}

^INFO: [email protected]

 

www.myspace.com/bigbeautifulbargains.com

 

Big Beautiful Bargains is a fundraising event for Big Moves NY, a non-profit dance company promoting size acceptance.

Announcements and "Disfigured"

First off for those in the tristate area,  I am selling my book at Big Beautiful Bargins at the Knitting Factory. Don't just come to buy my book, check out all the clothing bargains and support the dance troupe Big Moves. 

So after ordering the movie on Netflix months ago (it was constantly out of stock) I finally sat down and watched the movie Disfigured.  It wasn't as bad as I expected but it wasn't great.

The premise of the movie is anorexic Darcy tries to join a fat acceptance group because she wants to accept she's fat.  She is rebuffed by the members except for Lydia.  Lydia and Darcy slowly become friends with Lydia eventually asking for anorexia lessons.  When Lydia fails, it is Darcy who begins to lose control and Lydia who has to help her. 

The good points included: a strong friendship developing between Lydia and Darcy as they both come to terms with their issues; a nicely filmed fat sex scene. (Although almost ruined by it's juxtaposition with another scene), the fact that Lydia the fat girl is much more accepting of her size than Darcy (as Lydia fails miserably at being anorexic) and of course the use of actual fat actors and not thin folks in fat suits.

The bad points included (and they pretty much ruin the movie): a very unaccepting fat acceptance group.  In the beginning of the film Lydia announces she wants to have a fat acceptance walk.  Her group completely freaks out and continues to freak out in the following session.  I can't imagine any group who would do that.   It wasn't like Lydia was offering a walk to lose weight you big fatties, she wanted to have a safe spot for people to exercise.  Their treatment of Darcy was much worse.  I can't imagine any fat acceptance group turning her away, at least not in the mean spirited way it was done. It makes it seem like we hate thin people.  If anything someone like Darcy might benefit from it by seeing that fat isn't disguisting.

Bob, Lydia's love interest is probably most the annoying part of the story.  Bob is a good looking fat man in a very John Goodman kind of way.  (Bob is played by an actor who appeared on the Biggest Loser)  Yet he lives with his parents, works for his parents (doing what looks to be an active job) and has to pay for sex.  He hooks up with Lydia for casual sex under the pretense there is no place for him just to hook up for sex. All I could think of was where the closest BBW/BHW club in LA was.  He later rejects Lydia after he decides to get Gastric Bypass surgery (He stops walking so he can gain weight to qualify).

The finally annoyance comes from a personal source that is the Binge Eating Disorder.   Lydia seems to enjoy her binges, even has a binge buddy in high school.  In reality she just enjoys food and does the kind of eating you might do in a nice restaurant or a good dinner or delicious food.  Binge-eating is the non-stop eating of food with NO enjoyment at all. 

Was this a size positive movie? Not really.  It's insulting to fat men and fat acceptance activists who want a safe world for people of all sizes including woman like Darcy.  It's negatives outweigh (no pun intended) the positives.  If the movie was just about Darcy and Lydia coming to terms with weight and cut out the mean fat acceptance group (or at least made them more mellow) and got rid of the annoying love interest, I would have liked it better.  I give it a C+. 

Fun and love in the face of adversity.

All of you fat activists out there we now have our own social network: the Fat Activists Network.  Come and share a virtual cup of joe with other activists.  It's just starting out but it is growing quickly. 

Finally something useful from the Journal Obesity. An entire supplement about fat bias.  (All the articles are free).  It's nice to see this but it goes back to my post about the Rudd Center.  You can't have it both way.  You can't say "Fat is Bad!" then say "We should be nice to fat people".

And a personal anecdote. While waiting forever in my doctor's office, I looked at the medical literature and apparently weight loss surgery the cure all to everything does not actually cure Sleep Apnea.  So besides diabetes which can be helped with proper diet and not necessarily with weight loss, what benefits does WLS have? 

So long sucker!

On Friday I did a massive purge of my apartment.  I donated bags of clothes, put stuff in storage, and

FINALLY THREW OUT MY SCALE!

When I stopped dieting I decided to keep my scale.  It was one of those super digital ones that give your weight, body fat, time and temperature, programmed your VCR and went after your enemies.  When I bought it I was so obsessed with numbers I had to have the most accurate reading ever.  I couldn't get rid of it for three reasons: (1) I couldn't live yet without a scale (2) I wanted to see how stopping dieting would affect my weight and (3) I paid $85 freaking dollars for it.  .

So periodically I would check my weight and it would always be anywhere from 230 to 240.  It never ever changed.  No matter how I ate or moved, the median was always 235.

So I got bored and forgot about it. (Thinking I would one day smash it in a scale smashing party that never happened) until I found it while cleaning.  It was covered with an inch of dust.  I hit the button thinking the battery was long dead but I got the 000.  So I thought I would take my last run on it.

This is the last time I weighed myself at home. I plan on getting a Yay! scale which I will be happy to step on every single day.

It took a lot of willpower, especially when I tossed the 85 freaking dollar super smart scale into the regular garbage (being a digital, I couldn't make it into a Yay! scale). I didn't give it to someone else or freecycle it.  

So goes my final dieting tool to a landfill in New Jersey that people in the future will one day find and wonder what it is.

Diet, diet, no more diets. Quick rant time!

Opps saved in draft but forget to post!!

Just an off-topic reminder: for those of you in the States, remember to vote!!

It's that time of year, yes it's time to nominate your favorite lying scumbag diet for the Slim Chance Award.  Yes, vote for Most Outrageous Claim – Worst Claim – Worst Product – Worst Gimmick.  I personally think all diets should be nominated but if you see a crazy one please submit it.

Do I sound mean for calling diets lying scumbags?  I really don't care.  They took advantage of me when I was 13 and didn't know that diets fail.  I thought it was normal to take dangerous weight loss products because the answer to fatness was to be thin.  I blame them for jeopardizing my health and my self esteem.  Even now six years after I stopped dieting, I find it hard to undo the bad habits I got from dieting. I finally gave up diet drinks a year ago.  I hope one day I will able to eat like a normal human being.

I say this because the holidays are coming up and I don't want people to feel guilty if they are eating more 'unhealthy' food.  It will all balance out in the end.