In this episode of the Right Now Show, we talk about “fit-lanthropy”–my term for combining fitness with raising money or otherwise helping other people. I also unveil a brand new video highlighting some of the fit-lanthropy programs available.
As promised, here’s some more links to get you started.
To get $5 off my book, “The Fat Chick Works Out!” simply follow this link, and enter “fit-lanthropy” in the discount code box.
To learn about how to join the Hot Flash Mobs for Menopause Awareness Month, follow this link.
And here are some great charity fitness training programs:
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that I haven’t done this blog post yet. After all, when the meany, meany, MacMeanersons start taunting the fat folks, this name is definitely in the top ten. Nevertheless, I’ve never done a post about the awesome and most wonderful manatee.
The manatee (also known as the sea cow) comprises three of the four living species in the order Sirenia. The fourth species is the dugong (which can be distinguished from the manatee by its longer snout and fluked tail.) This vegetarian mammal is born big, typically weighing over 60 pounds at birth! Manatees spend half their time sleeping in the water, typically surfacing for air once every 20 minutes or so. They have a number of other unique features including:
Teeth that are replaced continually throughout the life of the creature. Typically there are no more than six teeth its mouth at any given time.
A vascularized cornea
Eyelids that close in a circular manner
A simple stomach with a particularly large cecum (similar to that of a horse). The manatee’s intestines are very large for their size, typically measuring over 45 meters.
Of course one of the primary features of the manatee is its size. Here’s the stats:
Length: Averaging 9.2 to 9.8 ft. in length, the manatee can measure as much as 12 ft.
Mass: 880 to 1,200 pounds.
Conclusion, the massive and magnificent manatee weighs more than me.
I recently came across this blog post about a young woman who dared to go to Comic Con and participate in a portfolio review to share some of her drawings of female superheroes. Among the drawings she submitted was this picture:
Apparently, the reviews of the above drawing were rather brutal, not because the drawing wasn’t good, but because the woman in the drawing didn’t represent the proper proportions necessary for saving the world. The artist reported that one reviewer said:
“Her breasts are much too small and do not have the lift that superhero women should have. Her jawline is fat and her neck much too long. The style of her hair is clunky and does not flow in a sense that a super human would. Her hips, waist and thighs are too big and she honestly looks fat. No one is going to want to read a comic with a fat female protagonist. I honestly recommend looking at issues of Sport’s Illustrated to get the right anatomy. Those women are the peak of human perfection, and that is what we want in this industry.”
Okay. So what we want is the “peak of human perfection”–which for women, means perky breasts, thin hips, waist and thighs and flowing hair. So while she’s saving the world, she can do promotional spots for hair conditioners and late night infomercials for fitness gimmicks? Because the real superpower of a woman is boosting the economy with multifarious credit cards–assuaging her insecurity with extremely expensive but patently useless products, right? Right?
It’s perhaps not too surprising that a lot of people are starting to find this notion of female superhero as supermodel kind of frustrating. And naturally, it has spawned some delicious and highly creative backlash. (Yay, Internetz!) There’s this contest created on DeviantART inviting artists to submit their interpretations of a a fat female superhero. The creator of the contest shares her delight at both the incredible diversity of the drawings submitted and the fact that cartoonists are willing to step out of their comfort zone to draw body diversity. There are so many cool pictures on there, it’s worth a look. Seriously.
Then there’s this recent project, where Alexandria Law takes pictures of little girls dressed up like superheroes and draws them. The photos of the kids are so cool. These kids are clearly are having fun while demonstrating some well needed “girl power”. I also love how the resultant drawings are powerful without being hypersexualized. (Is that a real word? If not, it should be.)
By the way, any kid that pairs a tutu and body armor wins super extra bonus points in my book. And, I was heartened to see some movement towards recognizing that superheroes don’t all come in Sports Illustrated packages.
Which leads us to the origin of the picture on the top of this post. It was created by Chicago artist twin sisters Sarah and Catherine Satrun. They created this piece for sale at C2E2 (Chicago Comic Entertainment Expo in part as a response to those recent ads by Dove. (More on that tomorrow). And this image has started to go super, mega, viral. Which is curious in light of the reviewers statement that “nobody is interested in a comic with a fat female protagonist”.
So, my dear readers. Here’s to the understanding that we are ALL Wonderwomen. We all have the power to fly. If not on stubby little wings like this fat chick, or an invisible plane, maybe with your very own superhero cape!
I recently came across this lecture from Jill Kilbourne and wanted to share it with you. In one of the classes I’ve been teaching we’ve been talking extensively about media’s role in women’s self esteem. I think it’s so very important to understand with Ms. Kilbourne has to say here. That we often find ourselves viewing magazines or television ads or billboards, and feeling inadequate because we don’t look like the women in the pictures. But, hello, even the women in the pictures don’t look like the women in the pictures. With Photoshop, no woman need ever have flaws. And I’ve heard through back channels that some actresses have right in their contract that their image on television must be slightly vertically stretched to make them appear taller and thinner.
Couple this with the fact that hardly anyone approaching average size appears on television or in advertising. The average American woman is a size 12 on the top and a 14 on the bottom. Most women on television or in advertising are a size 2, 0 or even 00. To give you a frame of reference, when Cameryn Manheim was on The Practice she was about a size 14 and quite tall. When I met her in person, I was struck by how average her size looked in real life. But on TV she seemed pretty large. Now some say that the camera adds 15 pounds, but I don’t really think that’s what’s at work here. What is at work here is that she was surrounded by a whole cast of people that were very, very significantly smaller than average. So by contrast, she seemed bigger.
I sometimes wish I could have a special Photoshop tool or television/video filter that would allow me to make everybody on TV and in ads look a little more average or a little more normal. I think it would help the rest of us gain some perspective on how other people look. But when I get really down, I go do a little “field work”. I go to a mall, or a gym or a public pool, I sit on a bench or in a chair and I just look at people. I regain my sense of how real people look. People all looking SO different from one another. People with tattoos and scars and stretch marks. People of all different shapes and sizes and colors. All different kinds of hair in all different places. Smiles shining out of faces not lit for the cameras, but rather lit from within, from lives well lived. I regain my perspective. It really feels great. Maybe you’d like to try it and report back? I’d love to hear how it went!
If you’re having a craving for tea, I’ve got just the thing! If you go to the corner of Court and Tremont Streets in Boston and look up, you’re likely to see this huge teapot steaming away. Built by Hicks & Badger in 1873, this giant kettle has been a Boston tourist attraction for many years. The teapot has an apparatus inside that makes it “steam” year round. Locals say the steam is much more pronounced in the colder months.
The “Big Teapot” is perhaps best known for its part in a major publicity stunt held in 1875, when a contest was held to guess the exact capacity of the giant kettle. Over 13,000 guesses were submitted and more than 10,000 spectators filled the square on the day the capacity of the kettle was measured. It took over an hour for Boston’s Sealer of Weights and Measures to fill the kettle and learn exactly how much it would hold. At 1:05 the total was announced: 227 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint and 3 gills.
We don’t know the actual weight of the teapot itself, so I’m just going to calculate the weight of the tea that would fit in the pot:
227 gallons=1890.91 pounds
2 quarts= 4.165 pounds
1 pint=1.04375 pounds (at room temperature and sea level)
3 gills (each of which is about 5 oz.)= 0.978 pounds (at room temperature and sea level)
For a grand total of 1897.09675 lbs.
Conclusion: This pot of tea weighs more than me.
Love,
The Fat Chick
By the way, here’s a few ways to satisfy some other things you might be craving:
Sorry for the schedule change kids. But look at it this way, you’re not just getting the newest episode of “The Right Now Show” late, you’re also getting “Stuff that Weighs More than Me” early. So look on the bright side.
And once again, for your viewing and imagining pleasure, I bring you a truly massive chocolate sculpture. I bring you, the world’s largest chocolate bunny! This guy was created in South Africa by artist Harry Johnson. Apparently this sculptor is well known for creating sculptures really, really fast, so he was pretty excited about working in chocolate.
Harry says, “This was the first time I have ever worked with chocolate. I would do it again in a heartbeat! Having worked with so many different materials, I was truly amazed as to what you can actually do with chocolate.”
Me too, Harry. I am consistently amazed by chocolate. Which possibly explains why chocolate has made such a frequent appearance on this blog, notably the world’s largest chocolate egg, the world’s largest chocolate kiss, and the world’s largest box of chocolates. Actually maybe such a large amount of chocolate could turn me off. World’s Largest Chocolate Bunny (WLCB) co-creator Mark Fruhauf admits:
“At the moment, I don’t like chocolate at all. After that sweetness and working so intimately with chocolate for three days and that smell, no. I’ve got to say I have a chocolate lying on my desk and I don’t want to touch it.”
So perhaps there is help for my unbridled desire for chocolate after all…
The world’s largest chocolate bunny was created in three days. It contained an inner structure of powder-coated steel. And here’s the stats:
Height: 12 feet, 5 inches (3.82 meters)
Weight: Over 3 tons
Conclusion: The World’s Largest Chocolate Bunny weighs more than me.
In the category of “not necessarily new, but new to me” I ran across this article about a doctor who claims that he can make you thin by sewing a patch on to your tongue. Not surprisingly, the product is called the “miracle patch”. The procedure seems simple enough. A patch is sewn onto the tongue that makes it extremely uncomfortable, if not impossible to swallow solid food. Now you might get concerned upon reading this that without solid food the patient might starve to death. But never fear! The same doctor also sells a nutritional liquid supplement that “meets all nutritional needs” while “maximizing weight loss results”.
“It’s cheaper and faster and more attractive than wiring your jaw shut!” say the doctors. “It is safer and cheaper than gastric bypass surgery.” Of course, the doctors are altering the function of yet another perfectly normal organ and making it impossible for you to eat anything other than our prepackaged pap. But hey, you’ll be (at least temporarily) thin!
This procedure is still listed on the site of the cosmetic surgeon interviewed for the article. So while it’s not being touted much in the news any more, the surgery is apparently still being performed. This is horrifying to me on so many levels. It’s yet another example of the current spate of “we’ll do anything to make you temporarily thin and us permanently rich” school of medical procedures. And I have to admit, that I was struck by the symbolism. During this procedure, the docs are literally holding your tongue. And it seems to me that this is precisely what society is continually asking us fat people to do. Don’t taste. And for heaven’s sake, DON’T TALK! The web site assures us that for people who have undergone this procedure, “speech typically returns to baseline within 48 hours.” I guess this means that physiological barriers to speaking normalize in a short time after surgery. But what about the psychological barriers? Isn’t this just another way to say that people who aren’t perfectly thin are without worth and that people who don’t have perfect bodies shouldn’t be allowed to eat or even taste? Isn’t this just another striking example of how people without socially-mandated “perfect bodies” are told to hold their tongues?
Well you can just forget about that! I’ve written nearly 400 blog posts on Fat Chick Sings, and I really have no intention of shutting up any time soon. I’m going to continue to talk and sing and whistle and shout! So how about you, my loyal readers? Does the proverbial, societal cat got your tongue? Or would you like to join me in a size accepting, bigotry smashing, virtual primal scream? What do you say? Shall we free our tongues to taste and savor all of the amazing things this world has to offer? I will use my patch free, pliant and liberated tongue to whisper, shout, sing, and simply say, “Yes.”
Love,
The Fat Chick
P.S. Hey all you Fit Fatties out there! Don’t forget to enter your miles so we can reach Seal Beach for our Virtual Trek across the USA this Saturday!
P.S.S. Interested in joining me for my training programs? I’m offering a one-month free trial period for any of my training programs for just $25. Offer ends soon, so join now!
Long before the final statuettes have been given out, the awards for who looks best (and worst) in a dress are being decided. From the moment these film actors and actresses stop onto the red carpet, the world is frantically deciding, do they look good? Isn’t it interesting that the Oscar is almost a secondary award to the main award–the best and worst dress lists? These lists begin to come out before the first Academy Award envelope is opened and before the stars and starlets have even had a chance to find a drink or have their first, post-red-carpet pee.
Anybody who has any doubts about the priorities of our culture need look no further than this night. Winning for being the best actor or actress often simply takes second place to who wore the best dress, had the right hair, and managed to score the most exclusive awards night jewelry. Even the directors, producers, costume designers, writers, set designers, sound designers and more are meticulously dissected based on hem length, cleavage, tux tailoring, strappy shoe wearing and bling.
I can’t help thinking that it all feels so “High School”. The pecking order for the most prestigious film awards in the world seems to share more than a little in common with your average High School prom evening. You have the popular kids, the AV nerds, the smart kids, the jocks, the goth kids and others. You have limo rides that are probably more awkward than fun. You have folks who have poured more money into one evening that anyone ever thought prudent or even possible. And at the end of the day, it seems all anyone cares, is how they looked in the dress.
Meh.
Maybe that’s why, despite multiple invitations to various Oscar parties, I opted to simply go to the pub with my sweetie. I ate sliders. I wore jeans. I drank wine. Life is good.
So maybe I won’t win the award for best at wearing a dress. But at least I had a good time. Oh, and I didn’t have to wait three hours to pee either.
In honor of Wednesday’s post, I present the H2: a not so very fuel efficient ve-hic-le that I feel fairly confident weighs more than me. This bad boy gets less than 10 MPG and decidedly does NOT belong in the compact parking spots in the lot because friends, it is one big brute of a SUV.
Here’s the stats:
Engine: 6.2 Liter V8
Wheelbase: 122.8 inches
Height: 79 inches
Width: 83.1 inches
Length: 203.5 inches
Curb Weight: 6614 pounds
Conclusion: The H2 weighs more than a ton more than me.
Are you coping with diabetes? Is your doctor shaming you because of your weight? Do you wish you had some body-positive advice for coping with this disease? I’m pleased to share with you episode 004 of The Right Now Show. In this episode, I answer a viewer’s question about dealing with Type 2 diabetes. Tune in for helpful hints for taking a Health At Every Size (R) approach to coping with this challenging disease. I offer tips for integrating exercise (even when coping with chronic pain), managing stress, and how to keep loving the skin you’re in through it all.
There are more tips available about coping with diabetes in a special article I wrote for the Association for Size Diversity And Health available here.
And there’s a really fun music video I did with Ragen Chastain all about managing family boundaries during the holidays available HERE.
You can learn a lot more about The Fat Chick on my website.
And you can buy Jeanette’s progressive workout DVD (with that 10 minute beginning workout) on the shopping page or at Amazon.com HERE.
Thanks so much for watching and don’t forget to subscribe!
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