When I wrote my essay for the Fat Studies Reader one of my source materials spoke about the book Jermina Jby Jane Green. In the book the main character is fat and to impress a man she never met she drops 80 pounds through crash dieting then buys a whole new wardrobe. The essay spoke about the issue of consumption. Fat people are often the examples of consumption gone wild. We obviously steal food from hungry babies while driving our gas guzzling automobiles. However the essay points out the Jermina consumes much more after she becomes thin. When Jerminia is fat, she consumes less clothes, when she is thin, she buys a new wardrobe. She consumes way more materialistic things than she did when she was fat. (And btw, I am not saying thin people consume more or less than fat people. It's Clothing and fashion industry consumption, and they happen to make mostly thin people's clothes.)
Fat people, being shunned by the mainstream fashion industry, consume less clothes. I barely buy new clothes, instead chose to get most of my selection at Big Fat Flea (formerly the Fat Girl's Flea Market) (May 13 btw, you better be there) and keeping my old clothes in good repair.
Oh look it's me and the fabulous Lesley Kinzel of fatshionistas who also wrote a fabulous book based on her blog: Two whole cakes. Leslie is a self described "clothes horse" but she laments in her book what many other fat people can share with her, unable to find clothes in her size. Another book I happened to be reading at the same time Greenwashed talks about the immense amount of clothes waste (clothes only have ten wear lifes span. I have a skirt from high school still in my closet.)
Getting back to Leslie's book. It's a short but intense read of vignettes and most fat people could share stories almost to the same as hers. If you are unfamiliar with where the term Two Whole Cakes comes from. On Fatshionistas, there was a troll who on another board said that all fat people eat Two whole cakes a day (at my worst binging (i.e. not eating normally), I only managed to get most of one and I got really sick afterwards). One particular story I shared with Leslie was about going to Jenny Craig (in my case Nutrisystem) eating the gross food, losing weight in the beginning than tapering off. For me and for Leslie, both the tapering off and the hungry were the reasons we "gave" up (or our bodies did.) In Leslie's case she walked away, in mine Nutrisystem went "out of business". I got a whole refund of $89.
So recommend this Earth day that you buy Leslie's book (available as an ebook) and fat people tell the fashion industry to stick it, you are consuming less of their crappy badly made clothes.
*(Note: purple shirt, Fat girl's flea market, Pink Jacket, Re/Dress)
How, exactly, do you tell the fashion industry to "stick it"? How do you boycott an industry when they're not making products for you in the first place? Even at Fat Flea, you're still buying fashion, even if it's second-hand fashion.
Not all of us have the time, equipment or talent to make our own clothes, either. And what about shoes?
Just buying less fashion doesn't work either. We've been forced to do this for a long time anyway, due to lack of options. Then the fashion industry concludes that fat people just don't want to buy clothes and it's not worthwhile providing more.
Posted by: Mulberry | April 24, 2012 at 05:33 PM
Regardless of their size, you can't consider the quinttaiy of material in that way when it comes to clothes. You're paying for something that you believe looks good or is brand name or suits the weather and fits to your comfort. As a skinny person, I do know where you're coming from. If you're good at sewing like my girlfriend, you'll buy the XL shirts, and change it to a new outfit. This only really benefits you if you're buying larger sizes for making more clothes hahaReferences :
Posted by: KAYLA | June 03, 2012 at 11:07 AM
im a fashion dnesgeir. my fat people clothes ROCK! there made for the especially for the fat, and the fattest. i can fit like 12 of me in one pair of pants! woot! .oh yeh, and fat people clothes should cost more because of the more fabric.References : i feel fat and sassy!
Posted by: Carmen | June 03, 2012 at 08:39 PM