Merry Xmas Fat-sionistas

CDC wages war on BBW via WWW etc

Clearly there aren’t any real problems needing money in this country. As evidence: a government sponsored multimedia hatefest going by the name “Weight of the Nation”. If you want to read all about it there’s a complete and brilliant article by the magnificent Marilyn Wann.

http://fatattitude.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/marilynwanndishesback/

 

Here are the some great requoteables from the article.

 

I attended the first, government-sponsored Weight of the Nation conference in 2009. I didn’t pay or anything self-defeating like that. I just walked in (with a brave friend or two) and delivered plastic-wrapped fortune cookies to the fancy luncheon tables where major stakeholders were about to chew on the alleged “obesity” problem. If the professional food scolds took a cookie, they got messages like these:

• The war on “obesity” is a war on PEOPLE!
• The No. 1 threat to fat people? Your unexamined prejudice.
• What’s the word for science that serves bigotry? Hint: It starts with “you.”
• If you can’t imagine fat people being healthy…that’s YOUR pathology!
• Tell people to lose weight if you want to endanger public health AND civil rights!
• How many fat people must you starve, poison, slice up? Celebrate weight diversity now!

And the Orwellian:

• Weight ≠ Health. Diversity ≠ Disease. Hate ≠ Help.

…and more

When the initial frenzy of Weight of the Nation has calmed down — after everyone has enjoyed this round of hating fat people and there’s been a healthy boost to budgets, profits, viewership, and ad revenue — I predict we’ll hit the same wall that every dieter encounters: the return to reality.

I suggest that reality is not so bad. To keep a grip, ask yourself:

1. Would you question the motives behind any other national PR campaign designed “for your own good” by major media, corporations, and the government?
2. If it were any topic other than weight (where you might feel vulnerable), would you be so quick to believe the numbers they cite to justify a “War on [Whatever]“? (Most egregious exaggerations: “Fat people cost ‘us’ billions!” “Everyone’s going to be really fat!” “Our children won’t live as long!”)
3. Would you rather trust your own judgment about what’s good for you or get swept along by the latest fruitless panic?
4. Do you want to connect with other people who are saying, “WTF” about Weight of the Nation?

Here are some:

Debate the Weight is a suite of data-supported arguments from the Association for Size Diversity and Health that controvert what they call “one of the most misleading and misguided public health campaigns — ever.”

Nutrition professor Linda Bacon compares Weight of the Nation to bear-baiting in ancient Rome’s coliseum in HuffPo. She writes, “Proponents may think they mean well by deploring the size of roughly half our nation, but it’s easier to rail about fat than examine the commercial and class motives that create the real health and wellness divides we live (and die) with.”

Jezebel editor Lindy West says “being mean to fat people is pointless.” And elaborates: “The assumption that you have a right to legislate another person’s body ‘for their own good,’ or ‘for the children,’ or even ‘because they’re gross,’ is its own kind of crazy — but to inflate that assumption to apocalyptic proportions, railing against the nation-obliterating medical bills of nebulous future straw-fatties, is fucking bonkers.”

Michele Simon, public health lawyer, gives great reasons why she is not attending or watching Weight of the Nation Including this one: “Scientific evidence shows that fat people have enough problems dealing with discrimination, bullying, etc., and the last thing they need is more fearmongering brought to you by the federal government and cable television.”

Slink magazine calls out weight-shaming as wholly unhelpful to health. Its rallying cry: “Because obesity, BMI, and all the other fad words you throw at plus-size women don’t stick or mean anything, and the moment we manage to hold off ridiculing women and our bodies long enough and alter the way we talk about plus size, fat, and our bodies to talking about healthy diet and exercise, the better off we will be.”

What’s your secret agent name?

The following was posted on the blog Red No. 3 in response to some fat-hating drivel which included the phrase “agent of obesity”. The self-loving fat-accepting blogger behind Red No. 3 envisioned  O.B.E.S.I.T.Y. (Operatives Built with Exceptional Size Imperiling Thinness’ Yoke)

The official seal of O.B.E.S.I.T.Y. (Operatives Built with Exceptional Size, Imperiling Thinness’ Yoke). You call us whales. We call ourselves Killer Whales.

…In scanning the comments, one thing jumped out at me. One commenter had praised New York’s fat shaming, saying “I’m glad to see a move against an agent of obesity.” The continued on with some boiler-plate liberal fat hate about consumeristic culture of over-consumption, blah, blah, blah, but that phrase struck me as kind of funny. Soda is an “agent of obesity”? Fat people have agents now? Out servicing our agenda? Obviously, this was a person who prefers their fat shaming with a big dose of dehumanization, regarding “obesity” only as some nebulous concept and forgetting about the actual fat people that exist that they are trashing, but I couldn’t help giggling at the concept of being an “agent of obesity”. Like a spy organization? We have secret agents in service of OBESITY…

And off I went. I went over to Twitter and made a joke about the remark. Then created a hashtag. Then saw a bunch of other people joining in the fun, imagining our secret agent code names. Mine is Nick Fatty, Agent of O.B.E.S.I.T.Y. I even came up with acronym for that! Operatives Built with Exceptional Size Imperiling Thinness’ Yoke. And from there I expanded to Tumblr and created my secret agent portrait and even an official seal for O.B.E.S.I.T.Y. (Which I’ve now typed enough times to wish I wasn’t amused by the periods denoting the acronym). And eventually portraits of a whole lot of other O.B.E.S.I.T.Y. agents having fun with this as well. Heck, there are even t-shirts!

Big Sexy

Today’s random Internet score is this beauty!

I’m so enchanted by full figure entertainment and the delicious BBW model search you can expect to see more of these big-bootie-full divas in this blog in the future.

http://www.fullfigureentertainment.com/ffe-model-search-2011/5242-2/magnolia-black/

Magnolia Black – Glam, Neo-burlesque, Vintage

Why do you want to represent FFE?

I want to create positive change and promote self acceptance. I want to add my voice to the chorus of women singing , “We are beautiful, we are worthy, we are intelligent, we are powerful , my dress size does not define me, I design my own possibilities.”

Why are you a role model for other plus-sized women?

Gandhi said, “Be the change you would like to see in the world,” and I am. From burlesque to blogging, I have the ovaries and intestinal fortitude to live my dream unapologetically in my present size and body. I love to encourage others towards the same.

If you could tell FFE fans one more thing about yourself, what would you want them to know?

I went through “it”. From sneak eating to starving, I’d binge and purge on self hate. I believed what “they” told me. Now I know differently. I refuse to let anyone suppress my sensuality, my personality and neither should you. I became free, I became fierce. Let me share all this sexy saucy freedom and fierceness with you .

What is your theme song?

 

Click here to visit this finalist’s official page on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150455927389988&set=a.10150455925359988.463746.19402074987&type=1&theater