I copied this from the clubhouse!
In light of the recent posts on the boards I thought I would post
this article from the big fat blog, in the interest of opening a
discussion on the topic. Personally, I found some truth in it!
The Revolution Will Not Be Organized?
By now we've all gotten used to the way the fat acceptance/fat rights movement works. We read stories in the media, true injustices against fat people, and blog about them. We comment about them. We might write letters, or complain to the appropriate folks. And at least some of us hope, hope, that something pro-fat will get a mention in another article or rebuttal. Not a platform, not a soapbox, but just a mention. Like it's great that a BBW dance gets press in an article about, say, how fat is going to kill every American and fat kids will be dead by 30 and fat is bad.
I think we can all agree that this system is really broken. We don't have a fat leadership that we can really count on. We don't have media liaisons or lobbyists on our side in any appreciable numbers. We don't have a clear cut path on what needs to be done and when.
There have been a lot of positive spurts here and there. You're looking at one of them. But nothing that any single community nor person has done has made an earth-shattering impact. Again, I'm not dismissing the progress we have made - spreading the message of fat rights and discrimination is vital, and blogs are the best way to do it hands-down.
But I think it's time for us to set our sights much, much higher. We live in a society where parents are essentially forced into weight loss surgery to keep their kids, where it's legal to fire fat people, and we don't have equal access to public spaces. It's 2007, by the way. How is this in any way acceptable?
The first step in this process is organizing. And this has historically been the hardest thing for us to do. I'd like to hazard a few guesses as to why this is.
The big thing that all of us need to remember is that we pretty much have the movement in our hands. It's not a good idea to look to other people for everything; we should be willing to fill the gaps of the movement ourselves. This means meeting in person, coming up with real action plans (not just suggesting what needs to be done - but doing it), and working to truly get things done.
At this point in BFB's history I will admit that I'm tired of just pointing out all of the anti-fat crap in the media. It's getting old. I'd rather focus on the pro-fat stuff out there and talk about what we can do to fix these problems rather than just point them out.
Look. We're smart people. We have a broad sense of what we want. We should use our creativity and intelligence to come up with ways to combat fat hatred and fat discrimination that go beyond the blog. It's time for us to push this quiet movement over the edge and become the beacon of justice for fat people everywhere.
In light of the recent posts on the boards I thought I would post
this article from the big fat blog, in the interest of opening a
discussion on the topic. Personally, I found some truth in it!
The Revolution Will Not Be Organized?
By now we've all gotten used to the way the fat acceptance/fat rights movement works. We read stories in the media, true injustices against fat people, and blog about them. We comment about them. We might write letters, or complain to the appropriate folks. And at least some of us hope, hope, that something pro-fat will get a mention in another article or rebuttal. Not a platform, not a soapbox, but just a mention. Like it's great that a BBW dance gets press in an article about, say, how fat is going to kill every American and fat kids will be dead by 30 and fat is bad.
I think we can all agree that this system is really broken. We don't have a fat leadership that we can really count on. We don't have media liaisons or lobbyists on our side in any appreciable numbers. We don't have a clear cut path on what needs to be done and when.
There have been a lot of positive spurts here and there. You're looking at one of them. But nothing that any single community nor person has done has made an earth-shattering impact. Again, I'm not dismissing the progress we have made - spreading the message of fat rights and discrimination is vital, and blogs are the best way to do it hands-down.
But I think it's time for us to set our sights much, much higher. We live in a society where parents are essentially forced into weight loss surgery to keep their kids, where it's legal to fire fat people, and we don't have equal access to public spaces. It's 2007, by the way. How is this in any way acceptable?
The first step in this process is organizing. And this has historically been the hardest thing for us to do. I'd like to hazard a few guesses as to why this is.
- There's a stigma. The number of fat people who don't support weight loss dieting and don't want to lose weight is still relatively small. Thus, it's still a radical idea - no matter how much we talk about it and make it a part of our normal everyday lives - and should be treated as such. Coming out as a positive fat person is difficult because you're not repenting nor apologizing for your fat. But fat people who are interested in dieting are still on the fence somewhere, and that's detrimental to our movement. Worse, since this is a radical idea it's something that can put our professional and personal lives into disarray.
- Our goals aren't clearly established. We want equal rights for fat people, sure. But how? Why? When? These questions haven't really been answered by anyone. We kind of aren't sure what to do, collectively; or rather we know what needs to be done but aren't sure how to get there. That's something we need to work out and hammer out.
- It pays terribly. There is next to no money in this. It takes time. It takes effort. There is no guarantee of any payment whatsoever. But, hey, it'd be great to think that future generations could grow up fat and not mutilate their bodies in order to fit a societal norm, wouldn't it?
- The anti-diet thing is polarizing. Lots of people who are brand new to the idea of fat acceptance may be dieting to lose weight, or dieting because they've dieted before, or may love pooping their pants. The good news is that this means new people are interested in the idea. The bad news is that because we're collectively wishy-washy on dieting (when is it "okay", if ever? why does it fuck you up? etc.) there are a lot of people who are immediately disenfranchised by the movement and want a pro-fat stance with diet talk, too.
- Our focus needs to be tighter. There are a lot of battlefronts. We're talking about dieting, weight loss surgery, dysfunctional food relationships, HAES, HAAS, stereotypes, discrimination, hatred, lack of accessibility, ignorance, and misunderstanding. That's a lot to fight for, isn't it? These things do all interact with each other, but it seems to me it'd benefit us to whittle this list down quite a bit.
The big thing that all of us need to remember is that we pretty much have the movement in our hands. It's not a good idea to look to other people for everything; we should be willing to fill the gaps of the movement ourselves. This means meeting in person, coming up with real action plans (not just suggesting what needs to be done - but doing it), and working to truly get things done.
At this point in BFB's history I will admit that I'm tired of just pointing out all of the anti-fat crap in the media. It's getting old. I'd rather focus on the pro-fat stuff out there and talk about what we can do to fix these problems rather than just point them out.
Look. We're smart people. We have a broad sense of what we want. We should use our creativity and intelligence to come up with ways to combat fat hatred and fat discrimination that go beyond the blog. It's time for us to push this quiet movement over the edge and become the beacon of justice for fat people everywhere.
