The picture of a sunny day.

“Whale hunting!”  That’s a clever one! Did you come up with it all by yourselves?

My initial thought was to hope you got hit by a bus; however, there aren’t many in this neighborhood this time of night.  Then I realized, no, my hopes for you are threefold and quite different:

1. I hope any fat person you put the moves on sees through your bullshit and shuts you down.

2.I hope you gain empathy.  I hope you have a flash of insight— something that should be an obvious realization to any human being, but would apparently be insight to you— that your fellow human beings are not worthy of your objectification and ridicule due to their physical appearance, for any social identity that might assign.  

3. I hope you come to love and admire a fat person someday, think about tonight (or, one might assume, other nights when you’ve openly displayed such tedious and deplorable behavior), and realize that they deserve more than what you have to offer.

And that’s it.  This experience has been given as much time as it deserves from me.  Done.

I always put so much pressure on myself the night before a haircut.  

I’ve been wanting to go really short for a while, but the stubbornly fatphobic part of my brain is like “If your hair is above your chin your FACE WILL LOOK FAT.”  But then the reasonable part of my brain is like “So, a, the adipose tissue in your face is what makes your face look fat, and b, it’s okay to have a fat face.”

It’s hard as fuck to find photos of fat feminine folk with short hairstyles.  It’s also hard to find photos where the fat subject isn’t angled to make their face look slimmer, or just tends to have a slimmer face to begin with.  (Not saying I’m not guilty of this.)  

I get very irked with myself when I let my insecurity dictate my decisions.

redefiningbodyimage:

Rebloggable by request.

thisisthinprivilege:

You touched on this in your last response and I just wanted to follow up with some more information on the subject. Thinness vs. Fatness in society is an extension of the evolution of fashion, in a way. Fashion (in clothing, architecture, activities, furniture, etc.) is a way for upper classes to keep lower classes in check. The upper classes will choose to live a certain way because they can afford to and it sets them apart from others(this is known as conspicuous consumption). When the lower classes find a way to emulate this way of life within their means, the upper classes change the rules. (When farming women realized they could get a crinoline look by putting reeds in their skirt hems instead of wearing a whalebone cage under their skirts, the rules suddenly changed and that style crinoline wasn’t fashionable anymore.)
As you mentioned, historically wealthier classes were heavier because they could afford to be and did not need to do their own manual labor to make a living. This is also why it was typically more fashionable to have a completely pale complexion, since it meant never having to work in the sun. After the industrial revolution, most jobs moved indoors and were repetitive tasks at a machine or at a desk, which was the start of the more sedentary working class lifestyle we have today. This was also the start of cheaply made, mass-produced, widely available food (that really wasn’t all that good for you but it was a way to stretch a budget. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle describes this system well) which meant that people with sedentary jobs were eating terrible food because it was what they could afford. (Sound familiar? Times really haven’t changed all that much.)
On the other side of this, the wealthier classes were able to lead lives of leisure. They were able to take trips away to the country, which was now fashionable since most people lived in smoggy cities, and take in leisurely activities like cycling and tennis (this is also when having a tan became fashionable. If the wealthy ones are the only ones who get free time in the sun, the effects of that time are going to be considered a benefit worthy of emulation. They were also able to have meals prepared for them, which were often much healthier than prepackaged alternatives.
Around this time was the beginning of the dynamic we see today. Our wealthier classes today are still able to indulge but with more free-time for physical activity, more money for the super-healthy organic trendy superfoods (or at least not having to settle for off-brand mac & cheese because you can get a couple of meals out of that $1.29), and maybe even being able to hire a dietician or physical trainer, they are able to push the boundaries of fashion to frequently unattainable “standards”. This keeps the upper-most classes at a level above everyone else, which is the whole point. Were everyone suddenly able to look like a Kardashian tomorrow, the standard of beauty would be changed to something else entirely.
It’s a vicious cycle that has been going on since literally the start of fashion.

-submitted by rampaigehalseyface

(via fatanarchy)

bumsquash:

Taking a look at practical tips on how to exit learned fat hate, inspired by a post (at fat anarchy).

Start off by remembering that this is about other people’s identity, being imposed on you. See it as a bit like internal foreign occupation.

You’re aiming to go from there to a state of internal independence and self determination, which has been repressed underneath.

Taking from my own experience, I’d start with desensitization. You’ve become highly negatively sensitized to fatness your own and the idea of it.

That is on a similar pathway to a phobia, like being afraid of spiders. So you need to focus some on calming your mental reactions to this.

Look at yourself fully clothed and then naked, learning to just observe without judgement. In between that, learn to calm yourself whenever you think of your body.

STOP all the everyday cycle of fat hating that goes around in your mind. Literally when you notice it, tell your mind to stop, plus any conscious fat hating talk. When catch yourself saying “fat bitch/stupid”  and so on, whatever things go even slightly wrong, learn to tell your mind STOP. Abruptly, like that. Learn to change course and say something to immediately counter any insult.

At some point, insults become linked to compliments, or just remembering what you like about yourself.

Write it down. My mind used to go totally blank at this point, so I had to be patient about it. Carry it around on a piece of paper  or notebook, take it out to read it when you are caught up in the cut and thrust of life.

See this as a holistic process. You are not just healing your feelings about fatness, you are healing your sense of personhood and autonomy. This is very important, in fact, if you find your reactions to fatness are too strong-a possibility for many.

———->Start here. Healing yourself as a whole not focusing on fat at all if necessary. Taking the pressure off other areas of your mind frees up energy which then flows to where it is needed more.

Take up something that relaxes you mentally and physically such as meditation (you can lay down with your legs bent at the knee to stop yourself dropping off if you prefer-pick a spot on the ceiling to focus on), guided relaxation.

If you like to move, try a walking form of meditation-aiming to clear your mind and merge it with your movement as one (I wouldn’t clasp my hands). Things like yogic breathing and Tai Chi encourages the process of reconnection with your own body and mind as one. Most fat people need that.

Relaxing your body physically helps to free healing energy for your mind.

It’s like a lot of profound change of mind, both nearer and further away than you expect. When you get to a more neutral attitude towards yourself and your body, you’ll be able to see another more positive vista to aim at, sometimes that happens automatically. Often, there are pauses in between progress, so don’t worry about that.

(via fatanarchy)

(via Watch Video: Editorial: Jennifer)

YES

redefiningbodyimage:

truthforsooth:

Remember that time in a tv show where a character got really thin and her story arc revolved around how she needed to gain weight? Everything she did connected to her goals of weight gain?

Yeah me neither. Fuck you Mad Men writers. I found Betty Draper to be shallow, self absorbed, and spoiled, but the solution to that is to give her a story arc where she grows, or where she tries to grow and falls flat on her face. Have her volunteer, have her work (YES women did work, even housewives). Have her go back to school. Have her have another affair. Weight Watchers? That’s the best you can come up with?

Also, I’d love to see a thin character in a show trying to gain weight to be healthy because it happens! Maybe not as much as women trying to lose weight, or sick thin women being praised for being thin as they suffer, but still. Some woman out there is wondering why there’s never anyone recovering from an ED on television, or trying to feed herself while going through chemo. Writers are so fucking lazy.

Edited to add: If they’re going for another season, I hope Betty has an affair while still fat because the attention makes her feel sexy and desirable, and it helps her reconnect to Henry because she can finally see herself through his eyes. That, writers, is real fucking life.

As a massive Mad Men fanatic who was greatly disappointed by where they chose to go with Betty’s character and her fatness, I very much agree. Though I loved the rest of the character developments and how their stories have been progressing. Last season was the fucking shit.

Also, a thin character trying to gain weight? What? *annoyingly loud and over-emphasised gasp of sarcastic indignation*

The only character I can recall with an eating disorder actively making an effort to eat more whilst overcoming a lot of serious psychological shit is Cassie from Skins UK. But I can not think of any more. I’m sure they exist, but these stories need to be made more prevalent.

(Source: fimbulvetr-is-coming)

chubstr:

Jim Pellegrine showed you that big guys can surf, now meet 70’s ski champion, John Truden. Learn more about him at Chubstr. 

(via fatanarchy)

fatanarchy:

stupiduglyfatcunt:

fatanarchy:

I WILL NOT PLACATE THE POWERFUL.

Totally with you there. I think some people do feel threatened that we are anti-diet because so much of their self-worth comes from dieting. They hate that there are people who eat whatever and still manage to feel good about themselves. They’re bitter. Also food deprivation does a number on the brain, which demands an extremely high load of glucose. Oh man everyone knows one (or many) of those annoying dieters that tells everyone exactly what they’ve deprived themselves of like it’s a big accomplishment to not eat a cupcake, and gets all judgmental towards other people for what they choose to eat.

I really feel that this is a lot of where the vitriol toward fat people comes from, at least in capitalistic countries, and especially the U.S. There is this glorification of independence, of bootstrapping… this mindset that regardless of if it’s your child’s birthday or there is ten feet of snow outside you’d-better-get-your-ass-to-work-or-your-fired which implies that sacrifice gives you the moral high ground.

So if you starve yourself, you must be the capitalistic ideal. Certainly it means you are morally better than everyone else; that you are strong, powerful, independent and admirable. Those around you are weaker and should look up to you. That’s really the crux isn’t it? They believe thin=strong and fat=weak.

The more you don’t eat, the more you prove to yourself and everyone else that you are strong. You have self-discipline. And those fatties, they are weak. They have no self-discipline. Lack of self-discipline, weakness are to be hated, deeply, with severe violence.

And so when we accept ourselves as we are, and they see we are not weak, it threatens their belief system about what is morally good and what is not. If there is even the slightest possibility that one can be fat and morally strong, then all their sacrifice and pain and suffering have been for nothing. If one can be fat and unwilling to relinquish the moral high ground, they must immediately be torn down.

(Source: fresafresca)

bumsquash:

From an article;

Half the world is starving the other half ‘obese’.

If you want to refer to that, why not;

Half the world is starving, the other half trying to?

Fatness is not going to stand in for consumerist excess. Collective guilt is not going to be fat people’s shame.

(via fatanarchy)

It’s funny to knock people with an unwarranted sense of self-esteem down a peg, isn’t it? You probably think the only place I belong is wherever you can’t see me, ideally in the dark, behind closed doors. You need protection from having my big old fat self out there polluting your visual landscape, like I think I have a right to go anyplace I want, like I think I have a right to force people who find my body offensive to look at me. How you must suffer. Allow me to break out the world’s fattest violin.

nerdpoet:

nerdpoet:

At least, I looked cute today.

so this picture has been making the rounds on some thinspo & other fat-hating/generally hateful blogs.  With the exception of the person who announced that I am her thinspo, none of these blogs have made any comments. There just seems to be this tacit agreement that my face in and of itself is deserving of ridicule, that anyone seeing it should automatically want to laugh.

So I’ve been watching silently as it is reblogged over and over, feeling a mix of annoyance and confusion. The funny thing is that the one thing I have not  felt during this time is ugly. I keep coming back to the picture trying to understand what there is to mock about it and each time I find nothing. Each time I look,  I feel exactly the way I felt when I first posted it, cute. That is a victory for me because in the not too distant past, I would have been devastated by this.

It’s intense… the idea that 50 or so strangers would so thoroughly agree that my face is laughable that they feel no need to comment. In the past, I would have thought “who am I to disagree?” but all I can  think now is… Why would I let their opinion have so much power over me?

 You can call me ugly if you want to. Just don’t expect me to agree with you. 

This whole thing just confirms the truth of this quote…

“Fat people who love themselves scare the shit out of people who don’t love themselves. Even fat people who are TRYING to love themselves scare the shit out of people who can’t do the same. We force people to have to look at why they hate their bodies because we are “supposed” to hate ours and we don’t. And sometimes they have no idea what to do with that, so they act like assholes.” - Tigress Osborn

(via feministfitness)

fattyforever:

Unf. Unf. Unf.

(Source: prettyplussize, via redefiningbodyimage)

fatandtheivy:

fresafresca:

I think one of the hardest things to overcome in fat activism for Latin@s is that the promise of being thin is often held out as a promise of assimilation, of acceptance, of being upwardly mobile and “making it” especially in the U.S. Being fat is held out as an example of being a bad representation of your community i.e. you are being a bad Chican@ for being fat, don’t you want to help “your people” by being a good example and being “healthy”? It’s insidious.

ICYMI I wrote about this in response to the icky NYT article Why Black Women Are Fat. 

I’m white, but not. My dad is Cuban, and I have been aware that I’m not white for as long as it matters. But just about everyone assumes I’m white. My experiences with fat are informed by my dad’s experiences. He has achieved the American Dream, from poor immigrant to the quintessential middle class suburban family, and he is firmly invested in maintaining this status. In elementary school, I remember trying to go to school in clothes that were wrinkled, and my dad forbade it. He wouldn’t let me because I would look “poor.” Having his daughter go to school looking sloppy is not part of the picket-fenced ideal.

This is but one example from my childhood, but it sticks out in my memory because it shows how tied my dad’s identity was to my appearance. It’s striking because it’s still relevant. I’m fat, and my fatness affects the ways in which people read my class status and, by extension, the class status of my family. Regardless of what I’m wearing, fatness can always be seen as sloppy because fat is read as downwardly mobile. I’m Ivy League educated, shop at Trader Joe’s, and vote liberal—I ought be upwardly mobile! But diet culture has constructed fatness as a problem with poor people. (The subject of why poor people are fat is worthy of inquiry far beyond the scope of this article.)

Read the whole piece here. 

(via fatsmartandpretty)

redefiningbodyimage:

infinitetransit:

1. Realise all aesthetic choices are subjective.
2. Realise that they might think they look sexy as fuck.
3. Remove yourself from the vicinity until you’ve learned to get over your fatphobia/transphobia/misogyny/racism or combination of those.

Yes yes yes.