Sundries, June 2015

Although it’s my intention for most of the posts on CPBS to be less about analyses of targeted fat characters and more about my experience as a viewer randomly coming across these characters as I watch films in a more organic fashion, I end up seeing a lot more fat people in film than those I […]

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Not a Civil Debate

I got a series of comments from someone who was suggesting that fat people should be forced to lose weight for the good of society. After I didn’t approve any of their 7 comments, they said: “You need to approve my comments.  Why won’t you engage in a civil debate?” Besides the absolutely ridiculous idea that […]

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On fat women in photographs

  To celebrate the Adipositivity Project’s 8th bday, naked fat women joined Patience and Fortitude for an afternoon. Jealous? I know I am! I’ve watched the video and flipped through the thumbnails, and I’m giddy. I’m hoping one of these pics will end up in the 2016 calendar. I’ve am HUGE fan of Substantia Jones’ […]

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Because Fat Bias Kills, That’s Why

Every once in a while someone asks why I bother fighting anti-fat bias an oppression, suggesting that it’s no big deal. That hasn’t been my experience, or the experience of people who have found themselves ostracized from family and friends, unable to access the world because of lack of accommodation, fired/not hired/paid less because they […]

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Lipedema, Part 5: Treatment Options

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Newly Published Paper says Social Media Campaigns Balloon Up Stereotypes and Stigma associated with Fatness

I’m pleased to share with you that my colleague Lily O’ Hara has recently co-authored a paper in the journal Media and Culture.  The article offers a critique of two major anti-obesity media campaigns that ran in Australia.  These campaigns include “Measure Up” and “Swap It, Don’t Stop It”.  The Measure Up campaign promotes health […]

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A Big Fat Fairytale

A reader sent me an article today that claiming that most fat people have no idea that we are fat. I’ve seen articles about how doctors don’t talk to their fat patients enough about weight loss, how fat people don’t know they are fat, that nobody is brave enough to talk about obesity. What the hell […]

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Domino Dollhouse’s Doll Parts collection is everything

You guys, Domino Dollhouse has a new collection inspired by ’90s female musicians. This is literally the best thing ever. Red plaid, leopard, daisy print, and lyrics from Garbage and Hole? Yessssssss. I’m also excited that most of the items are cotton, and they’re a bit cheaper than many of DD’s previous collections. Here are […]

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Fatshion Friday: Fierce and Casual

So, when we last left off, I showed y’all some of the awesome fashion that was shown at last weeks Full Figured Fashion Week Indie Show. For once, I actually got a chance to snag some pics of my own fashion. :D So, for the fashion show, I went with classic black. I know, I […]

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Movie review: Spy is freaking awesome

Hi everyone! I’ve been pretty deep into wedding planning lately and haven’t felt much like blogging, but I wanted to pop back in and tell you all about the movie I saw last night, because it was just so good. Spy features Melissa McCarthy as a desk-bound CIA agent who goes undercover to infiltrate the world […]

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Should We Be Fat Talk Free?

Thanks to reader Harmony for providing the inspiration for this post!  Part of it is a re-post from a past blog and part of it is new to address new questions. Reasonably often I see somebody – typically somebody well intentioned – suggest that we should stop using the word fat.  Recently I actually saw someone […]

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Who Looks Healthy

I saw a picture on Facebook comparing Marilyn Monroe to a very thin woman.  The picture was about their “beauty” but many people responded with some version of “Neither of them look healthy to me.”  I saw a piece about diversity in yoga criticized by people suggesting that we should be giving the participants attention because […]

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Shaun of the Dead; Hot Fuzz; The World’s End (2004, 2007, 2013; dir. Edgar Wright)

My article The Blind (Drunk) Leading the Blind (Drunk): Masculinities and Friendship in Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy is up on BitchFlicks as part of their theme week on masculinity.  The Cornetto Trilogy are three of my favorite films, and Andy Knightley (Nick Frost) in The World’s End is one of my favorite fat characters, […]

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Full Figured Fashion Week: Indie Fashion Show

So, last week was Full Figured Fashion Week (FFF Week hereafter), and while I didn’t get a chance to participate as fully as I did last year because of work, I still got a chance to enjoy one of my favorite parts of the week: the Indie Fashion Show. Not familiar with what an Indie […]

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Help Me Get to New York for BlogHer15!

Hi friends! I need your help to get to New York! I am a proud #BlogHer15: Experts Among Us Voices of the Year Honoree and have the opportunity to accept the award in person at the BlogHer15 conference in New York City! … Continue reading →

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Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones But Words Can Hurt You Forever

I was recently having lunch with a beautiful and talented young woman, one who was enrolled in a good school getting a professional degree at a good school, who had a wonderful boyfriend who adored her, who was working at a decent job to help pay her school bills and is kind.  I was somewhat […]

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Questions for Diet Companies

Besides the obvious question for the diet industry – How can you live with yourselves making 60 billion dollars  a year selling a product that hardly ever works? –  I have some other questions for the diets I’m seeing advertised.  Of course, health is complicated, multi-dimensional, not an obligation, barometer or worthiness, completely within our […]

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Get to: feelin’ yourself!

I am moving in just a few short days (OMZ!!!) and exhausted and just wanting it to all be done with already! I was on hold with the bank when I brushed my hand over my other arm and just kept sort of gently rubbing and feeling it and then switched to the other arm […]

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Tales From Retail: *Facepalm*

Y’all, sometimes the stuff I deal with at work doesn’t even warrant a full post of its own, just because it’s short and full of “what the actual hell?!” moments. So, I decided to compile the best of the best here. A lot of this is something that retail workers both former and current will […]

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I danced in a show called SWAGGA

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Fat People Claiming Our Place

People choose lots of different hobbies. for many fat people our choice of hobby can mean extra work and/or activism on our part. For those who knit or sew it can mean having to learn to make their own patterns since patterns in their size may not exist. For those who like to travel it […]

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Garcinia Cambogia - neither effective nor safe

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Tell the EEOC Not to Allow Workplace Discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (which had previously filed lawsuits on behalf of employees negatively affected by “voluntary” wellness programs that force them to either turn over personal health information that their “wellness” program can use to further penalize them, or pay thousands of dollars) is now considering changing their protections to allow employees to […]

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Lipedema, Part 3: Types of Fat Distribution and Diagnosis

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Nail Adventures: Smooches

So, I have been such a social butterfly these last couple of weeks. I’ve actually been venturing out on my days off and meeting people and brunching and so on. Who AM I? :D Not for nothing, it’s been quite enjoyable. As an introvert who is quite socially awkward, some of the situations I put […]

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Boy Was My Face Red–Exercise and Flushing

It can feel so embarrassing.  You’re just working out and minding your own business, and somebody or several somebodies stop by to ask if you’re okay.  When you look in the mirror after (or during) your workout,  you notice that your face is beet red and sweating.  Super awesome!  Combine a fat body with a […]

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Weight Loss as Revenge?

In response to my piece about those clickbait “nobody could believe what happened next” videos (where the only thing that happens is that a person who isn’t stereotypically beautiful is talented) I heard a lot of something that has now become a familiar refrain for people who want to find a way to bully me into weight […]

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Choosing the Upside

I dropped off my bff at the airport about 5am this morning. Too daisy-headed to think properly, I headed home nearly on auto-pilot (don’t worry, I’m a very safe driver). Almost instinctively I grabbed a drive-thru breakfast sandwich and orange juice on my way home. Odd thing for me, but especially at that hour. I […]

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Five Phrases for Size Acceptance Self Defense

In a world that is consumed with “thin” as the ideal of both beauty and health, and where many mistakenly believe that public health should be about making fat people’s bodies the public’s business, practicing Size Acceptance and/or Health at Every Size can mean dealing with conversations that are everything from irritating to downright insulting. […]

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Spy (2015, dir. Paul Feig); Tammy (2014, dir. Ben Falcone)

I was skeptical of at first, due to Melissa McCarthy’s last few films receiving mediocre ratings, but I’m happy to report that Spy gloriously exceeded my expectations.  Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is a smart, capable CIA agent who has spent her career at a computer, doing support work for her suave partner Bradley Fine (Jude […]

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SWAGGA week is here at last

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Everyone Should Have Expected What Happened Next

You’ve seen them.  Videos with clickbait titles that say things like “Nobody expected what happened next!”  or “Everyone was shocked by what happened next” when the only thing that happened is that a person who doesn’t meet people’s stereotypes of beauty is talented.  This hit home for me again when someone shared a video of one […]

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Fitness is for ALL of Us

Ragen Chastain and I are so  very pleased to release our first video on our brand new YouTube Channel: Fitness for All of Us.  We’ve released our fight song to announce our intention to create a safe space where bodies of all shapes and sizes, ages and abilities can rejoice in joyful movement.  Here’s our […]

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Kelly Clarkson and the Obesity Epi-Panic

In Touch Weekly is not a paragon of ethical, responsible journalism.  But their recent article about Kelly Clarkson is a prime example of the way that the obesity epi-panic plays out everyday in popular media. Body Positive Click Bait Title Check. The piece draws you in with a title that is makes it seem like it’s […]

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Health, Healing & Friendship

Balancing the schedules of my bff and dance show rehearsals has been tough, but it’s done! Yes, the bff who had fallen very ill ended up coming out to stay with my in the hopes that her condition would improve and she’d be able to be in her friend’s wedding (which was the point of […]

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Chocolate and Disillusionment

Recently it was revealed in i09 that a study on the health effects of chocolate was B.S. It wasn’t faked, but it was B.S., as it was designed to be, because the people doing it wanted to see how much … Continue reading →

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You Have No Power Over Me – On Shame, Empowerment and Telling Stories

Last night, I was at a body positive underwear party (hosted by the amazing Pleasure Pie), and one of the exercises we did was to pair up with someone and tell them our life story in six minutes or less with a focus on how we have viewed our bodies. Once upon a time, an […]

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Too Much Public in Our Public Health

A study looked at the public’s willingness to accept legal strategies when it comes to public health interventions found that: There was much support for strategies that enable people to exercise healthful choices—for example, menu labeling and improving access to nicotine patches—but considerably less for more coercive measures, such as insurance premium surcharges. These findings […]

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The HAES® files: From Dieter to Freedom

by Lara Frater Trigger warning: bullying and disordered eating  In 2003, when I started writing my book Fat Chicks Rule, I was very early in my anti-dieting journey. It had been less than a year since I ended 17 years of being on one diet or another. None of the diets were successful except to […]

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The Healthy Size Lie

I was in a waiting room reading a supposed health magazine full of “the best diet tips.”  I started to read them out of morbid curiosity and they spanned the gap from completely disproved, to ridiculous, to patently offensive. One that stuck out at me was “Buy an outfit in your healthiest size and put […]

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Lipedema, Part 2: Stages and Progression of Lipedema

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Wednesday Fa(t)shion Inspirations, 6/10/15

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Tales From Retail: Harassment

Picture it: NYC, 2011. It’s the beginning of rush hour, and I’m just finishing up a display. A man approaches me and asks me for some Clearasil. I think this is a normal, run of the mill customer with a normal, run of the mill question. Y’all, I can’t even begin to explain how not […]

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In your own time, at your own pace, if even at all.

When I read about this woman, I thought Oh EM GEE!  I have to tell you guys about this!  Here we have a woman who not only decided on and trained for but has actually embarked on a mission to row herself in a teeny-tiny boat, 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo to […]

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A Very Good Place to Start

One of the most common questions I’m asked is “Where do I start…?”  Sometimes it’s “where do I start to stop hating my body?”  Sometimes it’s “Where do I start to be a Size Acceptance Activst?”  To me one of the best places to start is with our own mouths:  Stop negative body talk, including […]

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Penn, part 2

Today I watched the live broadcast of Penn’s Sunday School, with Penn Jillette and others. I mentioned in an earlier post that he lost a lot of weight, and has been talking about it. Well, I think I’m fed up with the diet talk. The last straw today was that he mentioned the Framingham study, […]

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Abundant Bodies 2015 – Support Fat Community Projects

The Allied Media Conference will be happening June 19th – 21st and for the second year in a row the Abundant Bodies Media track will be part of the conference for the weekend. I’m one of the coordinators of the track for the year and we are currently fundraising to support our track, session presenters […]

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Say Something Sunday – Messed Up Media Edition

It’s “Say Something Sunday,” a day dedicated, at least on this blog, to personal Size Diversity activism. I did the math and if everyone who views the blog each week did one piece of Size Diversity Activism a week, it would add up to over 1.5 million body positive messages put out into the world […]

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Functional Fitness Means LOTS More Painting

I get asked a lot about functional fitness.  What does it mean?  How does it impact Quality of Life?  What is Quality of Life?  To me, Quality of Life, means the ability and energy you have available to do the things you love to do with the people you love.  Quality of life is not […]

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Fat Activism Is Not About Your Boner

I think I just got the most ridiculous email I have ever received in my life.  Here is a screen cap: Here’s my open letter to Matt: Dear Matt, I couldn’t give a flying fuck about your boner.  My value, and the value of other fat women on this earth, is not measured by whether […]

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Are Fat Kids Doing Worse In School?

Angela Meadows wrote a piece for The Conversation called “Why do heavier children do worse at school? It’s not their fault.” The piece takes a critical look at the research that suggests that larger students fare worse in schools, and the oft-drawn conclusion that if it’s true it must be directly attributable to the student’s fat. I’ll let […]

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the HAES® files: Don’t blame the fat-shaming Lilly Pulitzer employee. Blame the culture that supports our self-loathing. Then help change it.

by Harriet Brown They were the office decorations seen around the world. Or at least the internet. A New York Magazine slideshow of life behind the scenes at Lilly Pulitzer, a women’s fashion house known for its floral prints, included a shot of two cartoons hanging over an unnamed employee’s desk. Their captions read “Just another day […]

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Hometown Feels

If you told me even a month ago that I’d be moving back to my hometown I would have scoffed in your face and said something along the lines of, “As if!” (Just rewatched “Clueless” with my bf, my bad! Ha-ha!) But that’s the truth, I am moving back to my hometown at the end […]

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Weight (Stigma) Affects School Children’s Grades

My dear friend and colleague Angela Meadows recently penned this important article for The Conversation discussing the issues surrounding weight, school children and academic performance.  There have been  a number of studies over the years linking higher weights with lower performance in school–particularly among female pre-teens and teenagers.  Many of these studies have sought and […]

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Body, fat, memory and the massage table

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FOX New Host Andrea Tantaros Spreads the Body Shame

After the controversy surrounding Protein World’s body shaming ads, they found a defender in Fox New host Andrea Tantaros who said: “At this time of year, anyone with a functioning brain asks themselves that question, ‘Are you beach body ready? In fact, I ask myself that question every single day. And I bet you people who […]

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Lipedema, Part 1: Lipedema vs. Lymphedema

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Why do heavier children do worse at school? It’s not about their abilities

  Negative stereotypes towards heavier individuals starts to affect long-term life opportunities from a young age. A number of studies in recent years have suggested that bigger children fare less well in school than their slimmer peers. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children followed nearly 6,000 children in the south-west of England and…

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Not Just Bad Reporting, Dangerous Reporting

The Guardian ran the headline “Obesity ’causes one in five cancer deaths'” with the sub-headline “Heavier people are more at risk, warns cancer expert at Chicago conference.” So wait – the headline says that one in five cancer deaths (not just cases of cancer, but cancer deaths) is CAUSED by having a weight in pounds […]

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