For women who met your significant other outside of Dims (either in your current relationship or a previous one), or outside of a specifically fat-centric community, how do you feel about telling them about Dims, or giving them the link so they can browse around for themselves? Did you do it? Would you? Why or why not? Were their reactions what you expected? (Feel free to answer this hypothetically if it doesn't apply for whatever reason. 
)
This came up because even before we started dating, I had told my boyfriend about how there are some people I hang out with that I met through an internet forum where people talked about being fat, their various experiences going along with that, etc. (aka, Dimensions). I told him that since all of my friends were thin, I really needed to find some other women I could talk to about certain things related to being fat in the world, and things that my thin friends were very willing to listen to but couldn't fully understand - and that this internet forum was really helpful for developing some friendships and dialogue with other fat women. He said that was a beautiful thing.
He is not an FA exclusively, though he is certainly attracted to me and my body; but he has been extremely kind and caringly inquisitive about ways being fat shapes my daily life, my outlook, growing up, and experiences - just in terms of getting to know me and how I experience the world.
When I asked him if I could post a picture of us on the forum I post on (ie, here), he said that would be great, and asked if I would share the link with him. That's a totally normal request that I should have expected, but it really took me aback, and I had to think hard about whether I wanted him to see all aspects of the community here and/or be involved in some way (my instinctive gut reaction was: HELL NO). Eventually I decided I wasn't ready for him to be introduced to the various elements that comprise Dimensions, and we had a talk about my reasons for that, and he totally understood and was fine with it.
But it made me wonder how some of the rest of you feel about this issue...
ETA: There were a lot of things in the community here that I *would* want him to see, it's not like I think it's all bad, at all. It could be really educational (especially for a very skinny person). But there was a lot I just didn't feel ready for him to be exposed to at the same time.
)This came up because even before we started dating, I had told my boyfriend about how there are some people I hang out with that I met through an internet forum where people talked about being fat, their various experiences going along with that, etc. (aka, Dimensions). I told him that since all of my friends were thin, I really needed to find some other women I could talk to about certain things related to being fat in the world, and things that my thin friends were very willing to listen to but couldn't fully understand - and that this internet forum was really helpful for developing some friendships and dialogue with other fat women. He said that was a beautiful thing.
He is not an FA exclusively, though he is certainly attracted to me and my body; but he has been extremely kind and caringly inquisitive about ways being fat shapes my daily life, my outlook, growing up, and experiences - just in terms of getting to know me and how I experience the world.
When I asked him if I could post a picture of us on the forum I post on (ie, here), he said that would be great, and asked if I would share the link with him. That's a totally normal request that I should have expected, but it really took me aback, and I had to think hard about whether I wanted him to see all aspects of the community here and/or be involved in some way (my instinctive gut reaction was: HELL NO). Eventually I decided I wasn't ready for him to be introduced to the various elements that comprise Dimensions, and we had a talk about my reasons for that, and he totally understood and was fine with it.
But it made me wonder how some of the rest of you feel about this issue...
ETA: There were a lot of things in the community here that I *would* want him to see, it's not like I think it's all bad, at all. It could be really educational (especially for a very skinny person). But there was a lot I just didn't feel ready for him to be exposed to at the same time.
