Fat Chicks Rule

Happy International No Dieting Day!

19th International No Diet Day

Greetings to all of you celebrating this auspicious day.
How far have we come since 1992? Well, in some respects a long, long way.
More health professionals support a 'health at every size' approach.
There are fat study groups in colleges as younger people are challenging the status quo.
And people in the public eye are speaking out about their experiences.
Plus there are a few more clothes to choose from.

But, the pressure is still on us all to be other than we are...
Whether child or geriatric
There's far too many people ever ready with their knives.
And quacks peddling magic drugs and potions
Fat remains an easy and socially acceptable target and a useful vehicle for others to project their self hate.

It is not unusual for oppressed people to understand their oppressors more than they understand us.
So, no surprise if people scratch their heads in puzzlement as we say, in our various ways, "get off our backs" -
when 'they only have our best interests at heart'.
But today is a day of pride and to use our precious creative and fighting energy to challenge institutional sizeism and the nasty trinity:
diet, media and fashion who exploit us all for their own ends.

As a British politician famously said, "Don't let the bastards get you down".
INDD is an opportunity to change the rules: encourage self acceptance and respect for all.
And use your love and friendship to have a great day.... in the way it suits you.
Go well.

In solidarity, Mary Evans Young
Oxfordshire, England

Setting the fashion industry on fire

If the fashion industry went out of business, I wouldn't care. If everyone stopped subscribing to fashion magazines, I wouldn't cry. I don't follow trends, so I never know what's in or out.

High fashion and these magazines don't cater to me. They cater to what their advertizers want us to be: unnaturally thin, with flawless skin, glassy inhuman eyes, fully made up by a professional. Oh and photoshopped. They also want me to buy expenisve clothes, except I can't until I lose 100 pounds.  Before I started on my size acceptance journey, I believed a lot of this bunk. I thought I really could be unobtainable.

I know one place that does cater to me: The Fat Girl Flea Market, which I am happy to say is returning this year on April 30th. Yes this post is a shameless plug for the Flea but I wanted to tell you the difference between shopping at the Flea and shopping at Macy's. I don't shop at Macy's anymore. Do you know why? I feel like a leper. The local Macys has such a limited plus size section, it's nearly impossible to find anything with a good fit, leaving me to either not buy clothes or leave with poorly fitting one.  When I go to the flea I have lots of selection. If something doesn't fit right, on to the next thing.  With everything under $10 if I buy something then turn out I don't like it, I can donated it to next year's flea. At the flea I feel comfortable and happy with myself.

I know not everyone has things like the Flea or Re/Dress within a reasonable distance, if at all. I know some people only have Walmart as an option, but if you have other options use them instead of the stores that treat you like dirt.  As of now I only shop at Re/dress, Marshalls, and occassionally Lane Bryant, Torrid, and The Avenue.  I refuse to shop at a place that doesn't make me feel welcome for being fat.

People hearing without listening

I went to a body image conference on Friday night and Saturday. Although I had a good time, learned a lot, enjoyed the speeches especially of Deb Lemire, Deb Burgard, Erica Watson, Katherine Flegal, among others, I have my own issues with this conference. Namely something I wrote in my essay about fat chick lit: I referred o size 16 as the fat glass ceiling. In my essay I mentioned that in chick lit novels the average size of fat heroines was 16. Granted you won't find size 16 or 40 on the Howard Stern show, but you do find far more acceptance of someone like Cannie Shapiro of Good in Bed compared to Ronnie in Alt. Beauty (Ronnie weights 300lbs, Cannie is a size 16.) 

After a panel about medicalization and the body, people lined up for questions. Because I tend to be familiar with a lot of the issues, I like to ask a question so the audience would have something to think about. So my question was about Let's Move. I said while I'm not against encouraging kids to eat better and excercise, I am concerned about using it to make fat kids thin. I feel that it would create eating disorders, low self-esteem, and stigma. I was also worried that the diet industry was targeting children as a new cash cow. 

But to repeat. I am not against healthy eating, junk food in moderation, and enjoyable movement. 

So about five minutes later, we got a commenter with "Won't someone please think of the children?" She remarked that she worked with children and the essence of her comment was Let's Move is a great idea, we need to get children healthy and that all fat children had diabetes. 

Deb Burgard asked the woman for her sources. When the woman couldn't give any other than anedotal data, Deb told her, the official statistics for diabetes for children were very low about .26% (Rates for Adults are 8.3. And that .26% is mostly Type 1). Deb had to repeat no one was against healthy eating, and exercise, but felt it was unfair to target one group to change (when there is no proof that the majority of people who lose weight keep it off).

I believe that anti-fat bias is so ingrained that we only see fat never the message. No one on the panel taked about encouraging unhealthy eating or sitting on the couch, merely to remove weight as a health indicator.