CastingPearls
Go Big Or Go Home
There are a great many fat people who are not looking for acceptance or authorization but respect including self-respect. Maybe it's terminology-word games. One man's respect is another man's acceptance....There are many worthy issues going on at once but two at the heart are health and self-esteem (tied into the latter is social acceptance, social pressure, etc., ad nauseum because how others view/behave towards us ties into our own self-perception--no man is an island blah blah)
For example, I am very fat. I also have a rare genetic disorder (yes they exist) that causes obesity (or fatness for anyone offended by the 'O' word.) Any fluctuation in my weight, gaining or losing will affect the disease and possibly have catastrophic results. I lost over 300 lbs. through diet after another diagnosis (misdiagnosis, actually) in which weight loss had a very high chance of extending my life, before I knew I had the disease,which as mentioned above caused very very bad things to happen. I was hospitalized with severe malnutrition and had stopped producing blood. I weighed 350 lbs. so I was literally a malnourished fat person, in fact, wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until I could demonstrate I could eat an entire meal but that's another story. You haven't seen violence until you've seen a fatty in a too small hospital gown having a plastic butter knife fight with a nutritionist over a goddamn fruit plate.
Point is, is that I did love myself and my fat, but it was killing me literally and I needed to lose some. My own personal cause had to take a backseat to my LIFE. As I saw it, what is the value of the cause if you are dead?
I lost weight and the misdiagnosis was identified, the disease properly identified and I remain...a fat woman.
The intention of this thread is not in advocating dieting or WLS but to ask where does the individual who chooses to do so fit in and by the same token, it can be asked, where does the gainer and feeder fit in since because they are choosing to change their body an argument can be made that they are not fully 'accepting' of their bodies in their present state. What is your perception?
Not everyone loses, some have to, some desire to, some want to be more comfy in their clothes. If you ask fat people in a poll if they could be thin miraculously would they, (and I've been a participant in many of those polls--many conducted by fatties themselves) many choose thinness, and yet they still love themselves.
Are some dieters self hating fatties? Yes, of course, as there are thin people who hate their bodies--no surprise there, but those fatties are still part of the fat community. Maybe not so much in the forefront but they serve a place. And we are all at different points on our journeys, are we not? They will not be marching in the front of the parade because they're dealing with their own issues so how much of a threat are they to those of us who are at different levels of self-awareness?
Many can argue that they have no desire to fit in anywhere. They live their lives doing the same things any thin person does. Hundreds of thousands of fat people don't know our lingo or any of the fat sites and resources available and get by just fine. They're content or they deal and it ends there, which is fine but I'm addressing this to those to whom it DOES matter.
I have read posts and been reminded in my short time here that Dimensions is an FA centered site where fat people are secondary or at least that was the idea in the beginning. I've also seen posts that say Dimensions as an entity advocates and encourages activism in the size acceptance community. It's always been my view that size acceptance means all sizes, fat or thin and all points in between, with Dimensions emphasizing appreciation of the fat.
Where in the myriad fat-centric communities do we fit in then? Where do I fit in? What is the slogan, motto, or lifestyle I must prescribe to without shunning or condemnation? Who is the good fatty? Who is the bad fatty? Do we decide by general consensus or do we let admirers, advocates and activists whom we may not totally agree with but still 'get' and appreciate-do they decide for us?
For example, I am very fat. I also have a rare genetic disorder (yes they exist) that causes obesity (or fatness for anyone offended by the 'O' word.) Any fluctuation in my weight, gaining or losing will affect the disease and possibly have catastrophic results. I lost over 300 lbs. through diet after another diagnosis (misdiagnosis, actually) in which weight loss had a very high chance of extending my life, before I knew I had the disease,which as mentioned above caused very very bad things to happen. I was hospitalized with severe malnutrition and had stopped producing blood. I weighed 350 lbs. so I was literally a malnourished fat person, in fact, wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until I could demonstrate I could eat an entire meal but that's another story. You haven't seen violence until you've seen a fatty in a too small hospital gown having a plastic butter knife fight with a nutritionist over a goddamn fruit plate.
Point is, is that I did love myself and my fat, but it was killing me literally and I needed to lose some. My own personal cause had to take a backseat to my LIFE. As I saw it, what is the value of the cause if you are dead?
I lost weight and the misdiagnosis was identified, the disease properly identified and I remain...a fat woman.
The intention of this thread is not in advocating dieting or WLS but to ask where does the individual who chooses to do so fit in and by the same token, it can be asked, where does the gainer and feeder fit in since because they are choosing to change their body an argument can be made that they are not fully 'accepting' of their bodies in their present state. What is your perception?
Not everyone loses, some have to, some desire to, some want to be more comfy in their clothes. If you ask fat people in a poll if they could be thin miraculously would they, (and I've been a participant in many of those polls--many conducted by fatties themselves) many choose thinness, and yet they still love themselves.
Are some dieters self hating fatties? Yes, of course, as there are thin people who hate their bodies--no surprise there, but those fatties are still part of the fat community. Maybe not so much in the forefront but they serve a place. And we are all at different points on our journeys, are we not? They will not be marching in the front of the parade because they're dealing with their own issues so how much of a threat are they to those of us who are at different levels of self-awareness?
Many can argue that they have no desire to fit in anywhere. They live their lives doing the same things any thin person does. Hundreds of thousands of fat people don't know our lingo or any of the fat sites and resources available and get by just fine. They're content or they deal and it ends there, which is fine but I'm addressing this to those to whom it DOES matter.
I have read posts and been reminded in my short time here that Dimensions is an FA centered site where fat people are secondary or at least that was the idea in the beginning. I've also seen posts that say Dimensions as an entity advocates and encourages activism in the size acceptance community. It's always been my view that size acceptance means all sizes, fat or thin and all points in between, with Dimensions emphasizing appreciation of the fat.
Where in the myriad fat-centric communities do we fit in then? Where do I fit in? What is the slogan, motto, or lifestyle I must prescribe to without shunning or condemnation? Who is the good fatty? Who is the bad fatty? Do we decide by general consensus or do we let admirers, advocates and activists whom we may not totally agree with but still 'get' and appreciate-do they decide for us?
