International No Diet Day - May 6, 2010

Take the Pledge!




I Pledge:

* That I will not diet for one day, on May 6, International No Diet Day.

* Instead of trying to change my body to fit someone else's standards, I will accept myself just as I am.

* I will feed myself if I'm hungry.

* I will feel no shame or guilt about my size or about eating.

* I will think about whether dieting has improved my health and well-being or not.

* And I will try to do at least one thing I have been putting off "until I lose weight."

Signed,
Jean C

New documentary coming soon

"If fat is the new normal why is fat discrimination on the rise? Follow the lives of three women struggling with fat and fat hatred. Learn the hidden facts about fat, food and health. Experience straight and gay fat folks happy and healthy in their own skin."

For more info: WWW.FAT-FILM.COM"

Great article on Fat Studies

November 26, 2006
Big People on Campus

By ABBY ELLIN

ASK Sheana Director for a detailed description of herself, and chances are the word fat will come up. It is not uttered with shame or ire or any sense of embarrassment; it’s simply one of the things she is, fat.

“Why should I be ashamed?” said Ms. Director, 22, a graduate student in women’s studies at San Diego State University, who wields the word with both defiance and pride, the way the gay community uses queer. “I’m fat. So what?”

During her sophomore year at Smith College, Ms. Director attended a discussion on fat discrimination: the way the super-sized are marginalized, the way excessive girth is seen as a moral failing rather than the result of complicated factors. But the academic community, she felt, didn’t really give the topic proper consideration. She decided to do something about it.

In December 2004, she helped found the organization Size Matters, whose goal was to promote size acceptance and positive body image. In April, the group sponsored a conference called Fat and the Academy, a three-day event at Smith of panel discussions and performances by academics, researchers, activists and artists. Nearly 150 people attended.

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The site will probably require a login. If you don't have one already, try using BugMeNot to get one.

An activism opportunity

Stacy Bias, founder of FatGirl Speaks is putting together a book and is looking to interview fat women about their experiences.

The book "will consist of a series of monologues suitable for stage performance, all around the topic of fat. Bias intends to interview 150+ women of size, all across the United States, and in Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Samoa, Asia, India and South America."

So all you fat chicks out there, check out her site for more info on the project and how to contact her if you are interested in being interviewed for the project.

Fat & Choice: A Personal Essay

Fat & Choice: A Personal Essay
by Marilyn Wann

Plenty of people think that I choose to be fat. Currently, it's popular to believe that everyone's weight is a choice, readily influenced by eating and exercise. This is a big, fat lie.

Why would anyone (the government, doctors, advertisers, the media) lie? To make money. Fat hatred -- and fear of fat -- sells. Every year, Americans waste $50 billion on products that promise (and fail to deliver) lasting weight loss. In fact, the ongoing existence of weight-loss methods (plural) is proof that all of them conform to the medically documented 90 percent to 98 percent failure rate; i.e., if any one of them "worked," the rest would be out of business. (Failure is necessary for their business model. Repeat customers, and all.)

With the billions that Americans invest each year in hating our thighs and our abs and our butts (and our fat sisters and brothers), we could feed all of the hungry and food-insecure people in the US, we could build numerous houses for each homeless person in the US, or we could put more than a third of high school graduates through college for free.

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Fat and Proud

Fat and proud
Activist Heather MacAllister brings message of fat liberation to Ann Arbor
By Jason Michael
Originally printed 2/10/2005

ANN ARBOR - OK, let's start here: What is "fat liberation?" Admit it, you read the subhead and wondered, right? Well, worry not. Heather MacAllister has an answer for you.

"It is the radical concept that people can be healthy, happy and sexually attractive at every size, large or small," she said. "That's not to say that everyone is healthy. There are people who have health issues. But that's thin or fat. It's not inherently unhealthy and - more importantly - no one deserves to be discriminated against and fat liberation is about ending discrimination."

Now before you size threes out there throw this story down and move on, consider this:

"Ultimately, fat liberation helps everyone with any kind of body because it flies in the face of the billion dollar industry that supports people being dissatisfied with their bodies - the weight loss industries, cosmetic surgeries and fashion," said MacAllister. "I love fashion, but the industry holds up an ideal that very few people can obtain so we spend our time focused on how we look rather than how we feel."

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