STFU Sizists

itgetsfatter:

Hi Tumblr!

The It Gets Fatter Project, a body-positivity project started by queer fat people of color for fat people of color, is now offering workshops in Toronto & Montreal!!*

We know that there are so many young people in our cities who access community services, attend after-school programs and other community groups that would benefit from a Body Positivity workshop. Most people today have never even been told that being fat is okay. The main goal of these workshops is to begin to destigmatize the word “fat,” deconstruct the messages and images that teach us to be ashamed of our bodies, to discuss our own experiences with fatness and to talk about ways we can build a healthier model of body positivity and self love. If you run and/or are a part of a group that you think could benefit from the work that we do, we encourage you to book a workshop with the It Gets Fatter Project!!

We are currently offering Body Positivity 101 workshops, but are also looking to develop workshops on more complicated issues like fat desire, fat trauma, and the relationship between queerness/race/class/ableism and fat bodies.

We organize all of our work within an anti-oppressive and anti-racist framework. If you’re interested, please contact us to discuss fees!

If you are interested in booking a workshop, please email us at itgetsfatterproject@gmail.com.

Big Big Love,

Jackie, Sara & Asam

XOXOXO IGF

_________________________________

*Of course, we would love to come to your city and present these workshops for you (NYC, anyone?!?!?). If you have the budget for such things, talk to us and maybe we can make it work!!

Big Fat List of Myth-Defying Health Resources

redefiningbodyimage:

This is Redefining Body Image’s go-to list of resources, articles, research, videos, etc. providing facts and information regarding health and body image, especially dedicated to debunking the everyone’s favorite myth that fat = unhealthy.

If I referred you to this page and this way of thinking about fat and fat health is new to you, I encourage you to have an open mind.

If you have something to add, please submit! The more this list grows, the more ammo we have to back us up in our fight against the body positive nay-sayers.

Let the facts come marching in.

• Big Fat Facts: The truth about fat, obesity, gastric bypass, and weight loss. Focuses on many aspects of fat health that are widely accepted but never challenged, targets the claims, points out the faults, and highlights the truth.
• Articles and Evidence by the Fat Nutritionist that go into some of the controversies around dieting, weight, and eating.
• A massive list of resources discussing the truth behind fat health can be found over at Big Liberty Blog, titled Truth Behind Fat: References. 
• One of my staple resources, Kate Harding answers the ever popular question directed at fat activists: “But Don’t You Realize Fat Is Unhealthy?”
• Some more from the lovely Kate Harding: “Reality vs. Relativism“ and ”Diets Don’t Work”.
• A scientific study helping to prove how diets really work by, Junkfood Science - How We’ve Come to Believe that Overeating Causes Obesity
  
• More of Me to Love discusses fat health, fitness, and health at every size.
• Everyone Knows Obesity Is Hurting Us, But Is the Fight Against Obesity the Problem? - Linda Bacon, Ph.D.
• The Health At Every Size® Manifesto.
• Heart Surgeon Speaks Out Against What Really Causes Heart Disease - A very interesting and informative piece that details new studies on heart disease.
• Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift
• Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer.
• The TRUE Cost of Fatties - Looking closely at how obesity impacts gas costs and health care, which is to say not at all. 
• More on Obesity and Healthcare Costs here.
• Stereotype Management Skills by Deb Burgard, PhD. discusses how to refute fat shaming propaganda, among other helpful things.
• Uncommon Knowledge About Changes in Body Weight by Lily O’Hara
• Things Obesity is Not by Ragen Chastain
• ‘Everyone knows’ obesity kills, but is weight loss the answer? by Lydia Turner
• Above-Normal Weight Alone Does Not Necessarily Increase Short-Term Risk of Death, U.S. Data Suggest - Science Daily, July 2012
• Among diabetes patients, the obese outlive the trim - a study that cracks fat health stereotypes about type 2 diabetes
• ‘Fitness and Fatness’: Not All Obese People Have the Same Prognosis; Second Study Sheds Light On ‘Obesity Paradox’ - People can be obese but metabolically healthy and fit, with no greater risk of developing or dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer than normal weight people, according to the largest study ever to have investigated this seeming paradox.
• This TED talk by Julie Rochefort called “Shift the Focus” discusses and displays a lot of really important data based around the fact that health is possible at EVERY size. A short 8 minute video that covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time.
• This extensive article by Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D. called Obesity, Health, and Metabolic Fitness debunks a number of myths regarding fat health. Many important topics are covered, from “thinner is not necessarily healthier” to “emphasis on weight loss” being “misdirected and hazardous”, to challenging the link between obesity and heart disease. A very comprehensive and informative resource.
• Fear Mongering for the Nation by Fat Body Politics - A critical look at the HBO documentary Weight of the Nation.

Fat Acceptance/Size Discrimination Related Resources (WIP)

• Ever wanted to learn more about Fat Acceptance? Check out the Fat Acceptance FAQ over at Spilt Milk, complete with a list of links to some great health-related info.
• 5 Fat Acceptance Myths Debunked - Debunking myths such as “Fat acceptance demands complete confidence and self-love at all times.”
• NAAFA Official Website
• The Association for Size Diversity and Health // Research Articles

Body Positivity Resources (WIP)

• Body Positivity 101 by The Ellipses Project

Thank you.

sugaredvenom:

OK, so I’ve been putting this off for as long as I can, but shit has got real recently. 

Basically, my flatmate and I are totally financially screwed at the moment. She’s not got any money coming in, and I make £2.60 an hour at my apprenticeship. The amount I make just about covers my travel, but we’ve been surviving so far.

The problem is paying rent. My flatmate is the landlord after her mother transferred the mortgage to her after moving out due to disability problems and between us we have nowhere near enough- there is no asking the landlord for an extension, by not having the money we face eviction and she faces losing the house she’s always lived in. Obviously we’d like to avoid this.

I’m selling a bunch of stuff on eBay- I have a lot of clothes that I’ve never worn and are new, or are old and just too fabulous to throw out despite not fitting anymore. There will also be a bunch of handmade jewellery and art being added over the next few days along with the rest of the clothes we have.

Please have a look and see if there’s anything you like- we have sizes from 8 to 22 going up in a bunch of styles, and anything you buy goes directly towards supporting us.

eBay link is here!

I’ll also be adding a donate button for anyone who doesn’t see anything to buy but wants to help. 

Thank you in advance guys. I’m finally at a place where I’m happy with what I’m doing (despite the poverty)and I don’t want to give it up.

Signal boost on behalf of a mod here- some nice plus size clothes here!

thisisthinprivilege:

strangestwords:

pinkhairedneko:

redonkbadonk:

thisisthinprivilege:

Thin privilege is reading (or writing) a book and having your body type be the default image in your head for the protagonist.

It is really hard knowing that my body type is only used for villains or unimportant characters to be killed off.

The image of the character in your head can look how ever you want it to. If you want a curvy female protagonist in your story then make one. Seriously. This is absurd. The only thing that you can’t control is who is cast in a movie, assuming they make a movie after the book. But ‘your’ character can look how ever the fuck you want it to whether it matches what Hollywood picks or not.

What kind of books are people reading? Usually the only books I read that actually spell out what a person’s body looks like are like, shitty romance novels where the babe is either curvy and sexy or thin as a reed or some bullshit like that. Imagine the main character however you want to. 

And now that I think about it, I’ve read plenty of books with characters that aren’t described as being thin. I’ve read tons with “pleasantly plump” ladies as main characters, or at the very least vital secondary characters. 

Maybe the solution isn’t to make everyone else feel bad about how they look. Maybe the solution is to read some better freaking books.

Name four fat female protagonists in mainstream not-shitty fiction whose character isn’t defined by their weight somehow (as attribute, obstacle, etc). I’d really like to know. Considering there are thousands of good books out there with female protags, this shouldn’t be a difficult task. Right?

 And yes, they’ve got to be actually fat, not the coded ‘curvy’ which in fictionland usually means ‘thin-waisted with biggish boobs/butt’. 

For more hilarious conversations about how crazy us fatties must be to believe that people with our bodies aren’t represented in the vast majority of movies and books, please check out these posts (and comments!): The Fatty Bechdel Test and Fat Heroes in Science Fiction.

Study finds fat acceptance blogs can improve health outcomes

jentheturk:

fuckyeahsexeducation:

re-cover-ed:

“Fat acceptance” blogs urging overweight people to shed negative feelings about their body image can lead to healthier diet and exercise choices, a study has found.

The fat acceptance movement, which seeks to foster a support network among overweight people, has inspired a plethora of blogs and web forums such as Corpulent, Fat Heffalump and The Rotund — an online community that’s become known as the “fatosphere”.

In a study published in the journal Qualitative Health Research, researchers from Monash University, the University of New England and the University of Canberra interviewed 44 fatosphere bloggers from Australia, the US and the UK about how their involvement in the movement had changed them.

“There’s been a lot of criticism of the movement that it promotes obesity and encourages people to give up on weight loss and makes their health worse,” said one of the researchers, Dr Samantha Thomas, a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Department of Marketing.

“We saw there was a lot of opinion about the movement but very few people had actually studied it.”

Interviews with the respondents revealed many had experienced feelings of worthlessness, shame, crash diets, cycles of starvation and binge eating and laxative abuse before discovering the fatosphere.

“Having that support and feeling empowered, people slowly found that their health behaviours began to change dramatically. For example, many people suddenly felt confident to do swimming, something they would not have done before,” she said.

“People shifted their focus away from weight loss and more toward health. A lot of people started to take part in physical activity not as a way to lose weight but because they enjoyed it. Instead of pounding it out on the treadmill they start playing with their kids. It’s actually a massive shift in the way they looked at things.”

Shifting the focus away from restricting food and toward listening to the body’s needs could also lead to better food choices, said Dr Thomas.

“There are actually a lot of lessons for public health here,” she said.

“The term fat acceptance is really confronting for people. That’s why we have seen a lot of blame and criticism. Society tells us it’s not OK to be fat for a whole bunch of moral and medical reasons,” she said.

“This study shows that far from promoting obesity and promoting negative health behaviours, the movement is really positive for some people’s health.”

EAT THAT CONCERN TROLLS.

You mean people are generally healthier when you tell them to appreciate themselves for who they are? SHOCKING.

No, but seriously, it’s amazing to see this have validation finally.

(Source: theconversation.edu.au)