Fat Chicks Rule

90% fat-clothing free.

On Friday my husband and I had to deal with our bank and Time Warner cable both of which reside in the Queens Center mall.  I thought that I would look for sweat pants.  The mall has Lane Bryant and Ashley Stewart and since Time Warner was in the basement I knew both stores wouldn't be far.  How wrong I was.  Both stores were gone.  I knew Lane Bryant was having financial difficulties but to not keep a store in a central location?   

There were no fat clothing stores in this mall.  Sure there was JC Penney pathetic section and Macys no longer had a Macy's woman in this store but some sporting apparel. Apparently Macys is in the habit now of offering more fat clothes in black neighborhoods. (Don't know how true it is, but when I reviewed Macys for my book, this one had a full Macy's woman).

So I'm done with this mall that doubled its size from when I was younger and now doubling it's offering to size small.  I'm done with it.  I don't want your table scraps.   I want to be treated like a human being who has money to buy clothes.   This means I shouldn't have to trek all over to find a pair of freaking sweat pants.

Another edition of the Good, the Bad and ugly.

The Good

Have a very Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, a good day off work, or whatever you celebrate.  Remember the holidays should be about family not counting calories. 

Check out this cute video Pot Belly by the band Freshly Grounded.  (Also have very xmasy colors)

The Bad

From my own State of New York comes "The Obesity Tax." A tax on non-diet soda so those fatties will stay away from it.  Cause we all know thin people don't drink soda ever and fat people are that way cause they can't stop glugging down soda.   And you know what, this won't really affect me, the only time I ever buy soda is for my yearly holiday party for my friends and I don't drink any.  Also Gov. Patterson really needs to look in the research on diet soda.  Artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar and can even have the same effect sugar does.  

The Ugly.

This one always gets me mad.  The comparison of obesity to starvation.  Starvation, mal-nutrition, food insecurity (the idea that you might not have enough money to feed your family and pay the rent) is a real global epidemic.  It kills about 25k A DAY mostly children.  Let me repeat that starvation kills 25K A DAY mostly children.  

Good tiding to all but no sweaters for fat men.

Every year my husband and I have an annual end of the year holiday bash.  We invite our friends and stuff them filled with food and presents.  I am usually the one who buys the gifts except this year my husband had to buy exactly one: a 4x sweater from my friend's boyfriend. 

So as a typical guy, he never bought the present.  It was the day of the party and we were one present short.  We weren't at a total loss as we had to go to Target to pick up some holiday supplies.  Not the best store but they go up to 3x for women, surely they'll have something for men.  Nope, no dice, men get up to XXL.  I went downstairs to Daffys were told that they might have an XXL somewhere hidden in the store (Oh boy a scavenger hunt!)

All wasn't lost, as I sent my husband out to Sears and Marshals to get this mystical sweater.  No dice there either.  So we ended up buying something completely different and my friend is sweaterless.  It really annoyed me because if my friend was a medium, I could find something for him anywhere.   If he was female there was an Avenue downstairs from the Target which might have not had a 4x, but at least they would have been close.

So it pretty much comes down to this.  Fat men can't get clothes, fat women have to shop in basements.  Stores who don't carry plus sizes will cater to a heftier man (usually up to XXL) then a chubby woman (finding an XL is a miracle at the Gap.)

Stupid in, stupid out.

So according to a "scientific" study, fat people eat more at the buffet. In which "trained observers to watch 213 randomly-selected patrons of 11 all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets across the United States. The observers also noted the approximate age, height and weight of each patron they studied".  This crack commando unit knows your height, weight, age, and if you are a fat pig or not.  So lets flip the "study"?  Were the thin people eating enough?   Maybe thin people graze throughout the day where fat people eat less times a day but have bigger meals.  Since we are going on anecdotal evidence, I will use myself and my thin friend as examples.  When we go to the delectable Lancaster, PA buffets, I eat more than she does.  But that usually tides me for many hours.  She on the other hand will will want to eat again a few hours later.  So by my "study" I'm a pig and she's a cow, oink!  This is junk science as it's best.  (I'm talking about the buffet "study" and my own.)

Speaking of stupidity, India, the home of actual starving people apparently has an OBESITY EPIDEMIC. But here lies the issue, they want a 25 BMI to be the "new obese" Junk Food Science gives more information on this issue and the horrible draconian guidelines.  This isn't much different from cause of the 'epidemic' in America when the BMI range for overweight and obese was lowered.  Despite the fact that there are three studies that say people in the overweight range live the longest.

So one thing isn't stupid, Amanda Palmer fans. Apparently Amanda Palmer a punk singer from the Dresdens Dolls was told by her record company her belly was too fat to appear in a video.  Palmer fans filed suit and launched "The ReBellyion" a site were fans can show off their bellies. Palmer herself is pleased to hear about it.

Be an activist, enjoy your doughnuts.

I hope everyone in the States had a fantastic Thanksgiving and had seconds if the food was good.  I had extra stuffing like I do every year otherwise the box calls to me and I end up eating more than needed.

Here is some fat stuff in the news.

Another fantastic column from Paul Campos.  I really like the mention of the profit pharmaceutical companies make off of 'obesity'. Recently there was a study that linked Fen-Phen to heart valve problem years after the person stops taking the drugs.  So let's all say this together.  "NO DIET DRUG HAS BEEN PROVEN TO WORK LONG TERM."

Pledge to Health at Every Size Linda Bacon author of Health at Every Size (buy the book, I've only read a few pages and it's all ready fabulous) has come up with a website for people to pledge their support for health at every size.  I tend to think HAES is the way to go regarding health. HAES isn't considered profitable (especially to the diet industry so it's us activists who have to get it out there. )

Watch Bay Area fat activists including Kelly Cochran, Sondra Solovay and Marilyn Wann in this Current TV short.