Tag Archives: Health At Every Size

The Tyrrany of Jolly

Canadian doc crew interviews the Size Diversity Task Force

Recently, I hosted a Size Diversity Task Force meeting and a Canadian documentary film crew at our house. They were interviewing us regarding our Paper Mache in a Big, Big Way project and also about size stigma in general. One of the questions that came up really struck me. The question was, “Do you also feel pressure to fulfill what some might consider to be a “positive” association with being fat. For example, do you feel pressure to be jolly? And if so, is this a bad thing?”

I’ve given a lot of thought to this question over the years. And at least for me, the answers in order are, “Yes, yes and often times.” I would say that over the years, I have felt pressure to present myself as a “good fatty”. This means presenting myself as somebody who exercises and eats well. This means presenting myself as somebody who is happy and well dressed and tastefully accessorized, and frankly, not too much trouble to anyone.

And yes, I’ve felt pressured to present myself as jolly. In the past this meant carefully avoiding the expression of anger and the assiduous avoidance of the “angry fat woman” stereotype. It also meant feeling the need to be entertaining. If you look at the few fat people on TV and on the stage, if you look for the role that the world asks us to play, you will see many of us in the role of comic relief. It seems that we are allowed a small toe-hold, a small part to play as long as we are funny–as long as we are entertaining.

So for many years, I found myself playing the role of the funny fatty. It was as if I was apologizing for not being pretty to look at and compensating by at least being fun to be around. I learned to tell a good story. I learned self-deprecating humor. I learned to make people laugh.

And in many ways, this is a good thing. It is a good thing to be entertaining. It is good to laugh. It is good to be able to make people laugh.

But it also became a way that I experienced oppression. While it is wonderful to make people laugh, it is not so wonderful to feel like you must make people laugh. I often found myself calculating my worth based on whether or not I was entertaining. I felt like being funny was my job, my justification for being, the shield that would protect me, and the platform from which it was okay for my fat body to be in the world.

It was exhausting.

And this is why the expectation of jolliness is sometimes bad. Sure it’s great to have the option to be jolly. But once there is an obligation to be jolly there is a problem. Because nobody feels jolly all the time. And everybody should be allowed to express a full range of emotions including happy and sad and angry and tired and everything else. Every BODY has a right to exist whether they are funny or not. And I think sometimes, this pressure to be jolly is about not wanting to address the stigma and the pain fat people face in our society. Because it’s difficult to express just how angry you are about being called names, or not getting good health care or not being able to find nice clothes or not getting a good job when you are under a societal mandate to be jolly.

So, my dear friends, if you feel jolly, by all means, be jolly. If you feel sad, feel sad. If you’re mad as hell and don’t want to take it any more, then stand up sister, rise up brother, and be heard! Because big, little, fat, skinny, tall or small, your feelings are important. You are important. So please feel free, to simply be…you.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Your Big Fat ASSumptions: The Right Now Show Episode 014

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Molto, Molto Venti Coffee!

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This week’s entry for stuff that weighs more than me was inspired by the picture above which was submitted by the most amazing and awesome Bev Whittington. According to Bev, the giant pot above can be found in West Australia in Swan Valley. However, after extensive digging, I wasn’t able to find out much about it. Please feel free to chime in with more info if you like Bev. Or if anybody else knows about this thing I’d love to hear about it.

In fact if you have any other pictures of giant things that weigh more than me, I’d love to see them! Please post them to my timeline or email them to jeanette@thefatchick.com. The more detail, the better. I’d love to feature YOU in my blog!

While I’m quite confident that Bev’s giant espresso pot weighs more than me, I am unable to say exactly how much more than me. So I decided to look for other giant coffee pots and coffee cups. And my goodness, folks do love their coffee. I found a huge number of giant java sources all around the world. I was literally spoiled for choice.

For this week I settled on the world’s largest cup of coffee. This was created by De’Longhi of Italy and was unveiled in London on November 5, 2012. This huge coffee cup was actually filled with gallon upon gallon of coffee (black). In fact, this super, molto, giantico, venti caffee was the equivalent of over 216,000 shots of espresso.

All that wake up juice was probably required for the four designers who labored for 504 hours to put it together. Here’s the stats:

Height: 9 ft. 6 in. (When somebody asked for a “tall” they weren’t kidding…)

Width: 8 ft. 8 in.

Volume: 3487.1 gallons (US)

Weight: Over 12 tons

Conclusion: Both the World’s Largest Cup of Coffee and the giant espresso pot in West Valley Australia weigh more than me. And can somebody get me some decaf?

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

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Once upon a body…Comparing Ourselves to Pretend People

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Melissa McCarthy is almost unrecognizable in these American and UK posters for the movie “The Heat”.

In popular culture it can be pretty difficult to find examples of bodies that represent how most people in our world actually appear. While the average American woman is a US size 12 on the top and a US size 14 on the bottom, the average American actress, pop music icon or model is closer to a size 0 or even a size 00. Both of these sizes are quite a distance from what most of us see in the mirror every day. But even these sizes often prove too large for film studios and record labels and fashion magazines. Even the size zero girls are likely to be “shopped”.

By “shopped” of course I mean digitally retouched in an image editing software package like Adobe Photoshop(R). And sometimes this digital retouching is done without the will of the original actress, model or performer.

Just today, I’ve run across two amazing examples of Photoshop culture. Apparently, one of the few plus-sized actresses in Hollywood, Melissa McCarthy was significantly “shopped” in both the American and UK version of the movie posters for her upcoming movie The Heat. In the American version her image is seriously washed out, and this over exposure seems to make both her signature dimples and her double chin disappear. The UK version is even more noticeably retouched. In fact the slimmed down face, redrawn chin and tiny head in relation to the body not only render her as unrecognizable, but also, not necessarily human. She just looks weird.

In other news, Beyonce was severely Photoshopped into a “model artists rendering” of herself in order to display a Roberto Cavalli dress. Not only does she not look like herself, but she also doesn’t look quite human with those impossible, stick-thin arms and legs and ludicrously elongated body. Which seems especially ludicrous when you compare these images with real images showing just how gorgeous she looks in this dress in real life.

Even Minnie Mouse is not immune to being “shopped” to sell a dress.

Check HERE for more Photoshop fun (and make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom…)

More and more often, stars are speaking out about the process of being digitally retouched against their will. They understand the impact that these impossible images are having on the way women, and especially young girls feel about themselves.

It’s no longer enough to compare ourselves against the very small, and elite number of actors and performers who happen to wear a size 0 or a size 00. Now we are expected to compare ourselves to artist renderings of impossible people.

Until we say “Basta!” or “That’s enough!” The only way for us to move beyond the tyranny of these images is to identify them as fictional constructs, and then refuse to buy products from companies that feel the need to display their wares on pretend people.

In other words, it is in our power to decide, “If it ain’t real, it don’t appeal”.

So what do you think? How do you feel when you see Photoshopped images? Are there any examples you’ve run across that are particularly misleading and damaging? Can you share them with us and let us know how you felt? Can you share stories about how you presented these images to your friends, your students and your kids? Or have you noted any amazingly and refreshingly honest images about how real people look? Please feel free to share those examples with us.

And in the meantime, you can resolve to stop comparing yourself to pretend people once and for all!

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

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Fat Hating German Gym Ad May Make You Stabby

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Warning, the bulk of this blog post (#450!) is likely to make you really, really mad. If you don’t want to be mad today, might I suggest you refer to fluffy kitty picture above. You can read his caption, “haters gonna hate,” and come to the same conclusion without needing to view a smug, stupid video ad from a smug stupid gym. You’ve been warned.

For those of you who are moving on, I was on a site featuring “funny ads” and I came across this gem:

Oh my goodness. He’s “fat” (but not really). His pants button popped off with SUCH FORCE it hit that poor, gorgeous woman in the head and killed her. Which, is like of course perfect, because you know, fat kills.

You see what I did there?

Do you think for one minute that this ad really cares about the fate of fat people? Because I sure don’t. I think this ad is for skinny people. It reminds them that fat people are the “punch line”, are the butt of the joke, are worthy of scorn. It reminds them that fat people are justifiable targets because, you know, health and stuff. It says, go to the gym and get skinny or we’ll target you next. And it will be okay, it won’t be morally reprehensible to target you, because, you know, health and stuff.

We know that shame doesn’t work. Shame does not get fat people to exercise, or eat well, or change their habits in any positive way. Even if fat people could statistically become thin people (which mostly they can’t) fat people wouldn’t do that because of this ad.

But this ad is not about shame. This ad is about fear. “Come join our elite gym so you can remain one of the ones with thin privilege. OMG you don’t want to become one of those icky fat people do you? Ewwww!”

What we know, is that in and of itself, fat doesn’t kill. Overweight people live statistically as long as thin people and obese people who engage in healthy behavior live statistically as long and about as well as thin people who engage in the same behaviors.

What we also know is that fat hatred kills. It kills because of the stress and the prejudice. It kills because fat people are afraid to go to the doctor. It kills because we are misdiagnosed when we get there.

The ad says, fat kills, kill fat. I think it’s not such a stretch to convert this to what is actually meant, “say fat kills, and you’ll kill fat people.” But the ad is okay, because you know, funny.

Not.

If you want to exercise, do that. Dance, hop, swing, play, skip and do whatever makes your heart happy! But I for one, don’t plan to give any money to an organization that teaches people how to hate me.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

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Fat and Bad Knees

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This ad for moisturizer suggests you use their body creme ” for sexy knees”.

One of the things I am constantly told as a fat person is that for fat people, knee pain is inevitable. And in fact, I am told, I can expect a lifetime of “bad knees”. Now, given my somewhat skewed view of the universe, rather than scaring me silly, the threat of “bad knees” usually make me think of an image like the one in the body cream ad above, or this silly image below:

But putting the silly pictures aside for a moment, I am an athlete who has had some problems with knee and leg pain my entire life. I have been lucky enough to have some doctors who are great, but have also run into the all-too-common problem of fat-phobic doctors diagnosing me with having knees while fat.

My feet and leg problems started at birth. When I was very young, and quite skinny, I was severely pigeon-toed. As a result, I wore a brace with bars connecting my feet to bed every night. It looked sort of like this:

Now I wore this brace to bed back when I was too young to untie and tie my own shoes. I’m fairly sure that the need to get in and out of bed to go potty while wearing these things has shaped my sardonic view of the world, but I digress.

When I was in high school, and I was going through one of my thin periods, I ran track. I ran the mile and the 2 mile races (mostly because nobody else wanted to…). When I first started running, I had severe problems with shin splints. Because I was thin, nobody thought that the solution was simply to tell me to lose weight. We tried a variety of things including elaborate taping, different icing regimens and a lot of aspirins before somebody figured out that I just needed tennis shoes with a different sort of arch support. For an investment of $25 the problem was solved.

Later in life, I suffered a few injuries. I had a fairly severe meniscus tear in my knee as a result of leaping onto a pile of mats to adjust some audio equipment at the gym. I also tore a ligament in my foot because I tripped on the front of my sandal and landed wrong. Each of those injuries netted me a month or two on crutches.

So when I got midway through my most recent jaunt of marathon training, it’s not surprising that I found myself coping with some knee pain. Luckily I had a great GP at the time who referred me to a sports medicine doctor. He confirmed that I had a whole lot going on in the lower-extremities department. He noted the flat feet (that I’ve had since birth) the fact that my feet pronate (also had since birth) and prescribed some custom shoe inserts and a few specific exercises I could do to strengthen my knee joint. Problem solved. Marathon finished. Cheap medal and sweaty finish line photos earned. And even though I was about the same weight then that I am now, neither my GP or my sports medicine guy gave me any flack about my weight.

I didn’t realize then just how lucky I was.

Since then, I have moved and changed insurance and have had other doctors. These doctors were not so great actually. One of them asked about knee pain (I didn’t bring it up). And I said, that yes, sometimes after a tough workout, my knees will be a little sore. “Aha!” the doctor cried. “This is proof positive you need to lose weight. If you lose weight, your knee pain will go away. If you stay this weight your knees will hurt all the time!”

Okay.

The fact that my knees function at all, given the foot problems I was born with as well as the athletic injuries I’ve suffered is pretty amazing. And at no point, did this doctor ask about any medical history regarding my feet, shoes, injuries, sports activities or anything else. He simply predicted that I would be in pain as long as I was fat and that the remedy was simply to lose weight and keep it off.

Never mind that I didn’t come in there asking about knee pain.

Never mind that there is no method, and I mean NONE that is proven to be successful for long-term weight loss in most people and that even if I was one of the 5-10 percent of people who are able to lose weight and keep it off, there is no guarantee that it will do anything at all to relieve knee pain.

Never mind that there are successful methods of coping with knee pain that are widely considered effective for people of all sizes and that these methods have nothing to do with losing weight.

Nope, once this doctor diagnoses you with fat knees, the treatment is a single piece of paper with a diet on it. According to Doctor Know-It-All, the way to fix your knee problems is, Breakfast: One egg (boiled), one piece of wheat toast (dry), one cup of coffee (black) and 4oz. orange juice, etc…

And my story is so mild compared to the other stories that I hear from folks about this subject. People who are suffering from knee pain and told that all they have to do is lose weight and their knee pain will go away. And they are told that their doctor won’t bother to try any other treatment for knee pain until after they lose weight.

It’s lazy and it’s unethical.

If you are coping with knee pain, there are some things you can do. Very often, knee pain can be improved by correcting underlying muscle imbalances. You can get help from a physical therapist or sports medicine specialist. You can supplement this therapy with simple at-home exercises like those offered by my colleague Cinder Ernst. Also, you may need to see a foot doctor to get custom inserts made for your shoes. Sometimes simply switching to a good sturdy shoe with good arch support can make all the difference.

You may also find help, as I did from somebody who teaches Alexander Technique and can help you figure out what you are doing in your every day life that exacerbates your knee pain.

Exercise can really help folks coping with knee pain, but it’s important to do it the right way. Make sure you get the help of an exercise instructor or personal trainer to make sure that you are working out in a way that strengthens and doesn’t threaten your knee joints. I offer a few simple tips in this video.

Not all fat people have knee pain. Not all thin people are free from knee pain. But whatever your size, there are things you can do to protect your knees and help you cope with knee pain should it arise. Make sure you get the help you need, and don’t let anybody scare, threaten or intimidate you by diagnosing you with having knees while fat.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

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Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Offshore Platform

California Gov. Health Organization “Photoshops” Kids Picture to Fight Childhood Obesity

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Good job California. So you passed Proposition 10 to collect a fifty-cent tax on every pack of cigarettes. You’ve used that money to create First 5 California, also known as the California Children and Families Commission which is:

dedicated to improving the lives of California’s young children and their families through a comprehensive system of education, health services, childcare, and other crucial programs.

And the commission you created with this money, chooses to use those resources to drastically retouch a picture of a little girl to make her look fat for an ad campaign designed to scare parents into limiting the amount of sugar they feed their kids.

Awesome!

Here’s the original photo, next to the retouched version:

First of all, whatever amount of state tax money that was used to do that image retouching is waaaay too much. I could get far better design work than that done on fiverr.com for $5 USD.

Next, I have to ask, why would we spend any amount of state tax money on shaming fat parents and fat kids in the face of the fact it just doesn’t work? In fact study after study shows that stigmatizing and bullying kids about their weight not only fails to create thinner kids, but also tends to trigger more participation in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, drinking, substance abuse, binge eating and other forms of disordered eating.

So why exactly are we spending state tax money to create ads aimed at preventing childhood obesity that are actually more likely to increase levels of childhood obesity while at the same time encouraging our kids to engage in higher levels of destructive behavior?

I’m sure that some of the fear-mongering, hand-wringing, head-shaking folks that created this glorious ad campaign will ask you to “think about the children”. They will cite statistics about childhood obesity and suggest that something must be done to protect the health of these poor kids.

To which I would reply, “Yes. All kids deserve to be healthy. So let’s focus on stuff that does that.” Shaming kids does not make them thinner or healthier. But there are some things we can do. In fact, in honor of First 5, I’ll give you five suggestions:

1. How about making sure kids have a safe place to play?

2. How about reinstating some of the physical education programs that have been cut from schools for lack of budget?

3. How about making sure that kids of all sizes have access to a variety of high-quality, nutritionally dense foods?

4. How about we help fat kids learn to accept and love themselves so that they are more likely to exercise and treat themselves well?

5. How about we add “body size” as a category for school anti-bullying programs.

Sure, these programs would be more difficult than cranking out a basic bus shelter advertisement. And undoubtedly some of these programs would cost more than hiring the world’s worst graphic designer to “fatten up” the image of an innocent kid. But given the fact that some of these programs might, I don’t know, help some kids live healthier lives, maybe we should just fund those instead.

As a final note, the folks at First 5 may find themselves facing some pretty well-organized and powerful opposition. It’s already started in the form of an awesome homemade protest flyer at the site of one of the bus shelters:

But as some folks in Georgia found out, folks can get pretty riled up and do some pretty amazing things when you shame and frighten their children.

So maybe we should take a step back and a deep breath and try again. I’m sure, upon some calm reflection, we can find better ways to promote good health for children of all sizes.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

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Prof with poor impulse control wishes he hadn’t tweeted about will power, part the second

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Cat Pause, who recently created a new tumbler feed featuring fat PhD’s. Nyah!

So, yeah. I’ve been continuing to follow the saga of Dr. Geoffrey Miller and day two of what just might be his worst week ever. In case you missed it, this whole thing started when Dr. Miller tweeted:

Dear obese PhD applicants: if you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth

Cue the poo storm of epic proportions. It’s enough to keep writers at Jezebel, HuffPo, Jane and Bitch magazines happily scribbling for weeks. I mean we are talking about worldwide calls for Game of Thrones-style retribution here. But amongst all the yelling, are some very interesting developments.

First, there’s this video response from Miller’s colleague and UNM Psychology Department Chairwoman, Prof. Jane Ellen Smith.

It is interesting to note that Professor Smith seems to take this whole tweeting business pretty darn seriously. But right in the middle of the video, she reveals the third-act-dramatic-twist! Professor Smith says that Dr. Miller is now claiming that the whole tweeting business was part of an “research study” he was running.

Riiiiight.

So were his initial support tweets of his original hate tweet followed by his hasty apology about his original hate tweet followed his frantic tweet declaring that of course neither he nor the university actually follow any practices that might be implied by his original hate tweet all part of the “social experiment” as well? Was it part of his experiment to close down his twitter feed to all outside viewers who are not confirmed followers part of the experiment? 140 characters isn’t a lot to work with, but somehow I think this dude still doth protest too much. I am encouraged that Prof. Smith says she’s going to look into the validity of his claim.

It’s amazing just how much passion has been stirred up over this whole thing. I am really, really excited to tell you about a new blog started by Dr. Cat Pausé called Fuck yeah! Fat PhDs all about being fatlicious in academia. In this blog she is posting images of fat people in academia, many of whom somehow managed to get accepted into a program, complete coursework, finish their dissertations and walk up to the platform to receive their diplomas all while sporting bodies above a BMI of 25. Imagine that!

Look, I don’t know Dr. Miller. I can only comment on the things that I see. And what I see is a guy that didn’t have enough will power to wait 30 seconds to consider his life, his career and his responsibilities as a human being before hitting the send button on a hateful one hundred odd characters all about, wait for it, will power. His apologies and the subsequent “social experiment” defense, seem a little suspect to me.

So, if Dr. Miller wants me to believe in his sincerity, he’s going to have to put some actions behind those hundred character mea culpa statements. Let me know that he’s read some of the brilliant writing about Fat Stigma from such visionary teachers, researchers and writers as:

Amy Erdman Farrell, Dickinson University, author of Fat Shame: Fat Stigma and the Body in American Culture

Abigail C. Saguy, UCLA, author of What’s Wrong with Fat?

Dr. Linda Bacon, UC Davis, author of Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About your Weight

of course, if he’s still confused about Health At Every Size or Fat Stigma, I would be happy to come and speak on the topic at any of the universities he’s affiliated with. Or they could hire any of my many amazing colleagues like Ragen Chastain, Golda Poretsky or Marilyn Wann to speak. If he actually makes some kind of attempt to learn from his mistake by spending just a little time listening to those of us who have spent decades doing actual, you know, science around this topic, I might be inclined to believe him.

Maybe.

Or maybe I’ll just tweet about it.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

Buy my DVD: The Fat Chick Works Out! (A Safe, Easy and Fun Workout for Klutzes, Wimps and Absolute Beginners!)

Buy a book or a DVD for a friend and save $5! Just enter FRIENDBLFT in the discount code box!

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Dear Dr. Terrible Your Bigotry is Showing…

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Ran across this in my facebook feed today and almost wanted to cry. This tweet from Evolutionary Psychology Professor at NYU & U. New Mexico Dr. Geoffrey Miller is really special. It states:

Dear obese PhD applicants: if you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth

Here’s somebody who is at least in theory, well educated and yet he felt that he needed to tweet that absolute garbage. Since the tweet has gone viral, he has taken it down and apologized. But in my opinion, that is way too little and way too late. Plus, I have to say, I find the apology a little bit suspect. Here, let me interpret for you.

Dr. Miller states:

My sincere apologies to all for that idiotic, impulsive, and badly judged tweet. It does not reflect my true views, values, or standards.

Which means, “Oh crap, I could possibly get fired for this. I’d better retract my statement ASAP. I’ll just say I didn’t really mean it. That will work, right?”

Dr. Miller goes on to state:

Obviously my previous tweet does not represent the selection policies of any university, or my own selection criteria.

Which means, “Upon further reflection (or after some very tense phone calls) I realize that some of the folks who were rejected for anything by me or any of the universities at which I teach may be somewhat upset. In fact, they may just sue us into financial oblivion.”

So hey Dr. Miller, here’s my tweet to you:

Nobody believes your stupid and transparently self serving apology. #Find a good lawyer

I can find no excuse for this sort of behavior. None. This guy is supposed to be a teacher. This guy is supposed to be a scientist. And he’s drawing this conclusion based on what evidence? None. He doesn’t like fat people, therefore they are lazy and incapable of doctoral level work. Oh except, not really. He didn’t really mean it.

The fact that this guy clearly gets to make decisions about who gets to apply for a PhD is utterly terrifying to me. And speaking of terrified, I hope that both Professor Prejudice and his university are currently shaking in their shoes. Even if an actual lawsuit from a student who was turned away from the university is not forthcoming, I think might just be the opening breezes of a PR poopmageddon about to go down. In fact, I think there needs to be a social media storm of biblical proportions over this tweet. Do you hear that my dear readers? Let’s start twittering and peeping and let our voices be heard! This is a rare opportunity to talk about bias at the highest levels of our learning institutions. This is an opportunity for us to educate the educators. Let’s get the conversation started and keep it rolling!

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

Buy my DVD: The Fat Chick Works Out! (A Safe, Easy and Fun Workout for Klutzes, Wimps and Absolute Beginners!)

Buy a book or a DVD for a friend and save $5! Just enter FRIENDBLFT in the discount code box!

Check out my Training Programs–both in person and via Skype (Starting at just $25!)

Book me to speak at your special event!