Tag Archives: Ragen Chastain

Up Hill Both Ways: 30th Anniversary of Shadow on a Tightrope

A new generation is introduced to Shadow on a Tightrope. Photo Credit: Substantia Jones

I have to confess. I recently re-read Shadow on a Tightrope in honor of this blog carnival. I tore through the book at warp speed, reveling in the sheer, unadulterated, radical awesomeness of it. I was moved by the rawness and honesty found in so much of the writing. And I felt a deep sense of gratitude for the women who came before me in this amazing movement of size acceptance.

I felt all of these things, but more than any of these things, I felt a sense of awe. These women blazed a trail across this far-flung land. They build a bridge to one another through their written words. And they did it with pencils and typewriters.

Now I understand that there’s a real danger here that I will tell the activism equivalent of walking to school and back, in the snow, and that it was uphill both ways. But isn’t that sort of what we are talking about here?

In reading these stories, I was struck by how hard it was for size activists simply to find one another. I was fascinated by the level of manual work they did, collecting checks to cover the costs of photocopying medical journal articles and studies, copying them and mailing them out to one another.

I was also struck by how often a writer in the anthology refers to years or even decades in isolation–believing they were the only one to feel the way they did. And I was moved by the joy expressed in finding even one like-minded soul with whom to have dinner, swap letters or share late-night phone calls.

It’s hard to speak of size acceptance today, even with the myriad of online research resources and the powerful forums and channels that bring like minded activists to the distance of just one click from one another. While it’s true that modern life brings a different set of headaches (like moderating yet another absolutely vile YouTube comment) it also brings us comfort and tremendous support. Often, within seconds of writing a blog post or sharing a thought on Facebook, I’ll have a word or two of support or encouragement. I can debate difficult questions about the nature of size acceptance in real time, with scholars throughout the world. But even so, it can be hard to stand aside from the mainstream on notions of weight, weight loss, fat acceptance, and Health At Every Size.

But how much more difficult was it back in 1983 or even earlier? Shadow on a Tightrope, was created in a time when writers put their stake in the sand, said their piece and then waited weeks or months or even years to see what the world had to say about it. Yet it’s astonishing, how many stakes were planted, and just how much ground was covered by this early work.

We owe a debt of gratitude to these early pioneers. That’s why I am so excited to see projects like this one, celebrating the 30-year anniversary of a seminal work in the Size Acceptance cannon, or the history project initiated by Barbara Altman Bruno on behalf of ASDAH, and the tremendous work being done by Ragen Chastain to document the stories of the founders of this movement in their own wordsl

I am proud and honored to share in some small way, my heartfelt thanks to those who not only added to the scholarship side of the size acceptance movement, but also paved the way for me to step off the diet/body hatred merry-go-round and learn to love my body far, far earlier than I would have done without their guidance. For helping me reclaim weeks, months, years and even decades for body love, self acceptance and even joy, I’m very, very grateful.

Perhaps 30 years from now, the young upstarts will be rolling their eyes and wondering how we old farts ever built a movement without transporter beams and holographic recording. If at that point we are able to leave behind even a small fraction of work on par with that found in Shadow on a Tightrope, I will count us successful indeed!

Love,

Jeanette DePatie

AKA The Fat Chick

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Skin

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Well a few weeks back, I issued a nudity challenge to y’all and I thought I’d check back with you to see the results. As promised, I spent 15 minutes per day in the buff, and I’d have to say, after getting over the initial discomfort, I enjoyed it! It proved a challenge at times. I had to really do some careful scheduling when we headed out for the Church Choir summit for 2 days. I also had to learn to keep a robe near by as my nakee time was when the front doorbell inevitably rang. Mailmen, neighbors, telephone book delivery people–you name it, they knocked. I was starting to suspect a conspiracy y’all.

Initially this was a challenge for me as I am still learning to love my body and also come from a Catholic, Midwestern upbringing which tends to discourage nudity for any reason. But after a while, I learned to enjoy the experience of feeling the air conditioning on my skin as my body dried from the bath. And for the last two weeks with temperatures soaring well over 100 degrees, it was a time of welcome relief. I got to think of my body not as a sex object or a reason to be shamed, but simply a part of what made me, well, me. How about you? Did you try it? What did you learn about yourself?

You know, if you are in any way interested in skin, I would like to invite you to the More Cabaret Gimme More! Show this Sunday. Ragen Chastain and the More Cabaret girls will be showing some skin and performing a whole lot of hip shaking, toe tapping fun! They will be accompanied by a whole host of other performers. I’ll be singing a few songs. And guess what?! You can see it all online with our live streamed version. We’ll be live right HERE starting at about 6 PM PST tomorrow night.

Can’t wait to see you!

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Thanking Those Who Fight for Rights

First Interplanetary “Photobomb”–Geeks Celebrate Globally

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Mr and Ms. Geek Wave at Saturn during NASA's World's Largest Photobomb

Mr and Ms. Geek Celebrate NASA’s World’s Largest Photobomb

Last week Friday, my hubby and I confirmed our card-carrying geek status by participating in the first interplanetary photobomb. On Friday, July 19 between 14:27 and 14:42 PST, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took aim from its perch in the Saturn system and started taking pictures of our fair planet. Earthlings were given fair warning that the photos were to take place. We were encouraged to go outside during that magic fifteen minutes, look east and “wave at Saturn”. And when NASA calls, my husband and I are not about to shirk our duties. I put on some lipstick, we went outside, and we waved like mad people. We participated in the event that NASA has dubbed, the first interplanetary photobomb and “the day the earth smiled”.

Yup, I went and got the certificate…

Now given the fact the photo was taken from over 900 million miles away, I’m not sure the lipstick was strictly necessary. It will take a little bit longer for NASA to process the photos, but we’re told the Earth will likely only appear as small blue dot–probably one or two pixels wide. All of this got me to thinking about you my dear readers and how the world’s first interplanetary photobomb might be relevant to the size acceptance movement.

Simulated view of NASA photo. As you can see, I probably didn’t need to get a manicure first…

1. It’s more fun to do crazy things with other people. Yes, my neighbors thought we were crazy. But at least with my husband by my side I felt less likely to get hauled away to a rubber room. Heck at JPL hundreds of people gathered to wave at the ringed planet. (I think those with hula hoops were particularly inspired.) But I think that’s an important lesson for our size acceptance community. Whether it’s doing a flesh mob in bikinis at the beach, staging a “kiss-in” on the steps of a major New York publication, or exercising on the street to protest a 24-Hour Fitness billboard we can do amazing, powerful, fun and crazy things as long as we do them together.

Hundreds of folks gathered at the JPL mall to “wave at Saturn”

2. There’s a lot of perspective to be had out there. Of course we all have problems. And of course they seem like the biggest thing in the world out there. But it pays to look at the bigger picture. (And as big pictures go, the “Wave at Saturn” one is likely to be pretty darn huge.) It’s easier to cope with the next stupid pseudo-science death fat article and the next Joan Rivers celebrity fat bashing gaffe if we can take it into perspective.

3. Framing is important. It is unclear at this point how many people participated in the first “interplanetary photo bomb”. However, I think it’s fair to say that more people participated in “Wave at Saturn” or “The World’s Largest Photo Bomb” than would have participated in the “wave at the sky and look like an idiot” project. That’s not to say that every aspect of what we do needs to be reduced to a sound byte or a photo opp or a social networking stunt. But I do think it’s important to use all of those tools from time to time to create connection points for our community. I think it is important to think about how we can be welcoming, how we can create on-ramps for people to find size acceptance and how we can create opportunities for people to feel how great it is to be part of our group. And I think what we name these things and how we present them are important as well.

So what do you think? I’m looking forward to seeing our “solar system group portrait” when it comes out. But in the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about some other fun things we can do to connect our size diversity community to the wider universe. Just hit me in the comments section below.

Love,

The Fat Chick

UPDATE: Somebody has created a RAD FATTY MAP. Go here to enter your deets!

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Boy Scouts, BMI and Managing Risk

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Would the BSOA deem Russell “too fat” to go to camp?

Yesterday, I read Ragen Chastain’s amazing post on the new policies implemented by the Boy Scouts of America regarding participation in events and BMI. In order for any Boy Scout to participate in a “high adventure” activity which includes a duration of over 72 hours and being over 30 minutes drive from emergency medical services, his parents and doctors must fill out a group of forms including Part C which has a whole lot of questions about BMI. In fact questions about height and weight are the first things listed on the form before listing any pre-existing conditions or other information about disease or wellness. Any scout with a BMI over 40 will be forbidden from participating in these high adventure activities (including the Jamboree). And according to the site:

The Jamboree Medical Staff will review all applicants with a BMI of 32.0–39.9 and consider jamboree participation based on 1) health history, 2) submitted health data, and 3) recommendation of the applicant’s personal health care provider. For applicants with a BMI >31.9, a recommendation of “no contraindications for participation” by the applicant’s personal health care provider does not necessarily guarantee full jamboree participation. The jamboree medical staff will have final determination of full jamboree participation.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSOA) site, lists these reasons for the new restrictions:

“Anyone who is obese and has multiple risk factors for cardiovascular/cardiopulmonary disease would be at much greater risk of an acute cardiovascular/cardiopulmonary event imposed on them by the environmental stresses of the Summit. Our goal is to prevent any serious health-related event from occurring, and ensuring that all of our participants and staff are “physically strong.”

And frankly, all of this sent me scrambling for my manuals and training information about exercise in children. One question I had right away was, “Are they using data for all-cause mortality in adults and extrapolating that information for children?” Because, the data I’ve reviewed indicate that mortality among exercising children and teens comes from different sources that that of adults.

According to the Youth Sports Safety Alliance, the number one cause of death among exercising young athletes is Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). During my fitness certification training, I learned that the number one cause for SCA is a heart defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other heart conditions likely to lead to SCA are often virtually undetectable from a standard physical exam. This is why many schools are starting to recommend and a few are beginning to require a EKG for participation in strenuous school sports. When SCA occurs, death often follows. Being close to a hospital only helps so much as mortality risk increases by 10 percent for every minute it takes to get to medical care. This is why there is a greater focus on CPR and Automatic External Defibrillators for helping to protect student athletes these days.

I am not aware of any research indicating that SCA is more frequent among overweight or obese young athletes. I am also unaware of any efforts on the part of the BSOA to ask that participants in high adventure activities be screened for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or be given an EKG as part of the Part C form. Now, I understand that an EKG can be expensive to administer and read, but if the concern is really about the safety of the participants, it would seem that this is a more important test than BMI.

Another important risk for kids and strenuous exercise is heat stroke. And there is some research that indicates that heat illness is more frequent among overweight and obese football players than “normal weight” players. But many experts stress that exertional heat illness is 100 percent preventable. Most experts strongly recommend an acclimation process to help get student athletes ready for physical exertion. The super punishing, first day of practice workouts in full pads and gear is now frowned upon. I wonder if the Jamboree and other “high adventure” scouting activities really do enough to help scouts of all sizes acclimate to higher temperatures and altitudes or if they simply assume that as long as the kids are skinny, they will be safe.

Which makes me wonder. Where is the data? Show me the data that BMI has a serious impact on safety for children and youth who wish to participate in strenuous physical activity. Do not simply show me studies from adults and extrapolate down to kids. And if the health and safety of your scouts is of primary importance, why are you not requiring adequate screening for the leading cause of death among young exercisers? Are you building adequate acclimation days to make the camp safe for participants? Or again, are you assuming skinny = safe and healthy? And why are you making your most important event so strenuous that you have to worry so much about health and safety in the first place?

To borrow from a famous phrase from the film Jerry Maguire, “Show me the data!”

Love,

TFC

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See Fatty Run: Designer Sweat and Supermodel Athletes

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It’s enough to make you crazy. People of size are constantly asked to exercise, but are criticized for neglecting to look like supermodels while they are doing it. Sometimes in the same article we are told not only that we need to get off the couch and exercise but also, please, for the love of all that is holy do it somewhere in private where there is positively no chance the “enlightened author” will have to look at us. Is it any wonder some of us get fed up with exercise?

It seems that even for those in the highest and most prestigious positions in the land are especially vulnerable to attack while exercising. I’m not talking about physical attack. Those secret service dudes are serious business. I’m talking about emotional attacks that play out in traditional and social media. I was struck by this recent piece in the Telegraph entitled George Osborne horror pic: Why do Fat Politicians go Jogging in Public. Seriously. For realz. A major paper published an opinion piece by one of the EDITOR of their blogs complaining that politicians who don’t sport a perfectly toned and tanned body need to exercise in a gym, far away from they prying eyes of the public.

And this is by no means a new development. Bill Clinton was ribbed endlessly for his public jogging pictures–and not just during his presidency. When new Bill Clinton and Al Gore jogging photos surfaced in 2011, it made NATIONAL NEWS for crying out loud.

Obsession with the weight of the president complete with the obligatory Bill Clinton jogging shot.

Even incredibly talented and extremely accomplished professional and Olympic athletes are expected to look like supermodels at all times. I mean when an African American gymnast wins one of the most highly coveted medals of the 2012 Olympics we still feel the need to spend news cycles talking about her hair being a little bit messy. Because as we all know, Olympic athletes are all about teh sexy. And as the inimitable Ragen Chastain points out, even winning Wimbledon doesn’t prevent snarky newscasters from expressing their disappointment that the winning tennis star doesn’t meet their personal standards for personal attractiveness.

I blame Sports Illustrated. Not only do they have a swimsuit edition, which requires the featured women to have exactly enough athletic prowess to pose nearly naked on a beach for a few hours.

Is it any wonder that so many of us feel so very intimidated by the notion of going out to exercise in public? Is it any wonder that many of us who can’t afford designer workout wear, fake tans, liposuction and a secret service team feel like we can’t be seen on public streets working up a sweat. And once we get up the courage to get out there and stumble along, yet find ourselves facing some stupid kid hollering insults or making animal noises out the window at us, will we do it again? Will we lace up our sneakers, head out the door and face more abuse?

With all the outcry about lack of physical activity in this country, I think we need to spend less time idealizing “athletes” who have their own hair and makeup people and personal stylists and spend more time making fitness safe for the rest of us. We need to make more places that are physically safe for us to walk the dogs, ride our bikes and even run our untanned, unretouched chubby legs down the street. And we need to create a culture that makes exercise emotionally safe for people who don’t happen to look like supermodels.

Love,

The Fat Chick

P.S. Dear friends, starting tomorrow at 10 AM Pacific Time, we will be streaming live from the Size Diversity Task Force Big Fat Flea Market in Los Angeles. YOU CAN PARTICIPATE EVEN IF YOU ARE NOWHERE NEAR CALIFORNIA. You can buy raffle tickets online and you could win one of over fifty prizes with a total value of over $1,000. You can also use our live streaming feature to connect virtually with one of our personal shoppers. They will hand select clothing just for you and send it out via priority mail. This all happens TOMORROW, and you so DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS!

The Tyrrany of Jolly

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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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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

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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

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How to Dress When You’re a Fatty

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I was so excited this week to see this piece outlining some “fashion rules” from Beth Ditto. Now here’s a woman who has created her own fierce style and is not going to let anybody else dictate how she should look.

But everywhere you look, there are people out there lining up to give fat people advice about what to wear (and not wear.) Don’t wear horizontal stripes. Wear black. Wear Spanx. Don’t forget your high heels. Wear A-line dresses. Don’t wear halter dresses. There are so many thin people eager to tell us fatties how to “camouflage” our bumps and rolls to make us look “more acceptable” and at least “three sizes smaller”. Well, I call bull cookies on that nonsense. We don’t have to camouflage a single thing, baby. You know what we fat people should actually wear? We should wear whatever on earth we want. We should wear big horizontal red stripes and mini skirts and tube tops and sequins and blue jeans and white cotton–whatever makes us feel good. Because I believe that an important part of “being the boss of our own underpants” as Ragen Chastain so wonderfully describes it, is deciding which underpants we want to wear. Cotton granny panties. Fine. Hipsters, bikinis, french cuts, tangas and thongs? Yes, of course! You get to choose whatever panties make your fanny happy.

That’s not to say fat fashion isn’t challenging sometimes. This week, I also ran across this delightful tumbler feed called “WTF Plus Size Clothing Manufacturers” that calls out clothing retailers and fashion designers for some of the more disastrous offerings hung on the plus-size clothing racks. This wonderful site allows you to laugh through your tears as you contemplate some of the desperately ugly things that make up the limited choices available in plus-sized clothing. There’s no question that us larger folks have fewer choices when it comes to fashion. And we are usually asked to pay more. Sometimes we are asked to pay a LOT more.

So yes, it can be challenging to pull together a look that expresses your own unique and personal style without creating a credit card bill that arrives like the angel of death at the end of the month. Sometimes it can be a real challenge to find just the right outfit to fill your heart with glee. Maybe you’re just a person who doesn’t care that much about clothes and shoes and jewelry and hats and purses and stuff–which is also totally cool.

Just remember, that at the end of the day, the only rules of style that need concern you are the rules that you create for yourself. Oh, and if you’re going to be the boss of your own underpants, make sure they are FABULOUS!

Love,

The Fat Chick

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