Big Thrifty OOTD #1: Igigi dress, two ways

I found so many awesome, cheap things at the Big Thrifty. This Igigi dress was one of my favorite finds.

I’ve always admired Igigi’s dresses from afar, but they’re pretty pricey–so it was awesome to get one for $10. And it has pockets!

I had gotten all dressed up for a party (necklace and earrings: So Good, bracelets: Torrid, headband: I Am Joolienn), when I stepped outside, realized how cold it was, and decided to modify the outfit for the weather. Inspired by my Domino Dollhouse leggings, I went full-out ’90s.

I wish I had awesome shoes to wear with the outfit (like the ones that the Domino Dollhouse models are wearing), but my feet have been acting up, and I just needed to be comfortable. If I’d had more time, I might have put on my metallic fake Docs for the pictures, but ah well.

Leggings: Domino Dollhouse, necklace: Kelsea Echo Studio, tiara: Kmart, bangle and earrings: So Good, wristband: Macy’s

Frolicking :-)

It’s rainy and gray right now, but last week, the weather was lovely. My friend Mary and I celebrated by frolicking among flowering trees!

Flowering-tree-season here in New England is short, but it’s gorgeous while it lasts.

And they smell so good.

I hope you’ve all been enjoying your spring (or fall, for my Southern hemisphere readers)!

Friday Links, 5/10/13

Exciting discovery I made recently: sushi comes in pink!

Here are some of the interesting things I’ve read this week. Feel free to share anything good you’ve read–or written–in the comments!

Fa(t)shion
-This is a really interesting idea: organic, vintage-inspired kids’ clothing that fits for three years.
–Bridging the gap: straddling between standard and plus sizes.
-I really should learn to knit, because these steampunk knitting projects look awesome.
–19 fabulous style tips from senior citizens.
-Tips on fat thrifting.
-This fabulous fat couple has the best style ever!
-Aussie fatshionistas, check out this list of local places to buy imported clothes.

Fat Acceptance
–Haley writes about coming to love her stretchmarks.
–Yoga: not just for skinny white girls.
–Fat queer tells all: on fatness and gender flatness.
-On swimsuit bodies, shame, and nonsense.
-An open letter from Virgie Tovar to Kim Kardashian’s armpit fat.

Climate/Sustainability
–Carbon dioxide in atmosphere reaches 400 ppm for the first time in human history. Yikes.
–Indigenous resistance grows strong in Keystone XL battle.
–Thoreau’s radicalism and the fight against the fossil fuel industry.
-I’m proud to be part of the youth climate vote: a new force in electoral politics.
–Even in the best case scenario, climate change will kick our asses. Depressing as it is, the book described in this post looks really good, and I want to read it soon.
-Naomi Klein brings up something important: why aren’t environmental groups divesting from fossil fuels?

Everything Else
-You’ve probably seen it already, but if not, Hyperbole and a Half’s new comic about the author’s experience with depression is a must-read.
–To the queer black kids.
–Female purity is bullshit. Yes, yes, and yes.
-I love this post from Cliff: What I mean when I say I’m sex-positive.
–Butch, please: butch with a side of misogyny.
–How The Great Gatsby fears the flapper.
-A powerful essay on language, family, and being a person of color in academia: Majoring in English.
–Everything you’ve been told about radicalization is wrong.
–On Kiera Wilmot, and being a smart black girl.

Quote of the Day

“I asked [Naomi Klein] about her decision to have a baby, in spite of everything she knows.

She got quiet. ‘For a long time,’ she told me, ‘I just couldn’t see a future for a child that wasn’t some, like, Mad Max climate-warrior thing.’

Somehow, though, her engagement in the climate movement seems to have changed that. Another future seemed possible. She and Lewis decided to have a child, but struggled with infertility. Then, having given up, surprise: along came Toma.

If anything, the experience has made Klein all the more a fighter. She now believes that denying her desire to have a child, because of the mess being made by those willing to destroy the planet for profit, would be a form of surrender.

‘I guess what I want to say is, I don’t want to give them that power,’ she told me. “I’d rather fight like hell than give these evil motherfuckers the power to extinguish the desire to create life.'”

– ‘I’d rather fight like hell’: Naomi Klein’s fierce new resolve to fight for climate justice

Two exciting events: Fab Fatty Frolic and Three Big Fat Voices

Huzzah for fat hooping!

So, I went ahead and planned that Fab Fatties Frolic that I was thinking about.

It will be on June 2nd (rain date: June 23rd) at the Cambridge Common park.

I’ve created a Facebook event, which has a few more details:

Let’s enjoy our fabulous fat community out in the sun. 🙂

Fats and allies of all shapes/sizes/ages/backgrounds/genders/abilities/etc are welcome!

You can find me by my hot pink Hello Kitty blanket. I will also bring various frolicking implements such as a hula hoop, frisbee, and bubbles, as well as FA books to read (and possibly a few to swap). Feel free to bring any frolicking implements, books, snacks, whatever you want.

The Cambridge Common is near Harvard Square on the Red Line.

In even more Boston-area fatty excitingness, I just read about another awesome event that’s coming up: Three Big Fat Voices with Hanne Blank, Lesley Kinzel, and Susan Stinson.

From the event description:

Behold! Three fat superheroines in glorious eyeglasses swoop into Cambridge for one night to read from their own works. Let the skyline be illuminated by the brilliance of their cultural critique and honest words. Listen to their powerful fiction, memoir, and poetry pieces boom out. And be swept away on a cresting wave of fat activism, fat acceptance, and fat community.

Damn, I’m glad I live in Boston. This sounds amazing.

I’ll definitely be there. If you’re in the area, check it out!

Quote of the day

“Cycling home from work on a sweltering summer evening in August, I started to think about my scientific hero Richard Feynman and his reaction to the terrifying dawn of the nuclear era. Feynman had worked on the Manhattan Project, and when he returned to New York City to teach shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he began imagining the effect of the Hiroshima bomb on the island of Manhattan. Everywhere he looked, he saw rubble. He began to pity the people around him building bridges, skyscrapers, roads, and other monuments to an imagined future, as if we had a future worth imagining or building toward. He could now see only the smashed remains left by what he felt was inevitable—nuclear annihilation. The insanity of going on with ordinary life in the face of what he believed to be the closing chapter of humanity gnawed at him, left him possessed by dread.”

– Jonathan Golob, It’s Time to Freak Out About Climate Change.

Wednesday Fa(t)shion Inspirations, 5/8/13

Chubby Guy Swag

Style is Style

International No Diet Day links roundup, and delicious noms!

In (belated) honor of International No Diet Day, and in defiance of the ridiculous Canadian ass-milliner who thinks that Instagramming your food makes you fat, here are some pictures of tasty things I’ve eaten/drank lately.

Last week, my office had a meeting at which we got to decorate our own cupcakes. It was SO EXCITING.

Over the weekend, Steve and I went to a May Fair. It’s become somewhat of a tradition for me to eat Indian food at fairs/festivals, and this one was no exception.

The other day after frolicking, a few friends and I went out to eat. I had delicious sweet potato-apple-walnut-brie quesadillas with a side of cheesy fries and strawberry habanero sauce. I’m a little obsessed with strawberry habanero sauce–it’s pretty much the best thing ever.

And last but not least, an iced dark chocolate to celebrate the warm weather!

Now, here are a few of my favorite posts I’ve read about INDD:

-The Fat Chick Sings: International no longer dedicating my life to dieting day.
-Kyla the Great: International No Diet Day, May 6th, 2013.
-Fat Girl Posing: Happy International No Diet Day (content note: eating disorders and suicidality).
-Virgie Tovar: Remebering lost tiramisu on International No Diet Day.
-The Queer Fat Femme Guide to Life: Three ways to reclaim food awesomeness on International No Diet Day.

Enjoy the spring weather (if you’re in the Northern hemisphere), and the joy of eating and sharing food (anywhere)!

On fatshion and cultural appropriation: an open letter to Jes of the Militant Baker

Dear Jes,

Normally, I believe people should wear whatever they want, rules be damned.

But there are some things that make me really uncomfortable. And the use of religious iconography as kitschy fashion is one of them.

It smacks of hipster racism: taking a symbol that has serious meaning to many Catholics, mostly Latin@, and turning it into an ironic fashion statement.

Our Lady of Guadalupe isn’t just some cool-looking image to be paired with a sheer top and leopard heels.

She is a symbol of all Mexican Catholics.

She is an inspiration to the indigenous liberation group the Zapatistas.

She represents the fusion of indigenous American and European culture and religion, and all the complicated (and often bloody) history that entails.

Jes, I love your blog, and I admire the work you’ve done to break down fatphobia. So rest assured that I’m not saying this to attack you–I’m saying it because it hurts to see people who do anti-oppression work engaging in other forms of oppression. I’m saying it because I believe you can do better.

I’m not asking you to stop wearing the skirt. It’s your body; you can wear what you want.

But I am asking you to think.

Think about what you wear, why you wear it, and what it might mean to other people.

Think about the power structures that make it cool for white USians to appropriate cultural artifacts from the Global South. Think about whether you want to uphold those structures.

Please, just take a moment to consider it.

Yours in fat solidarity,
Laura

Must-read of the day

Tiffany of the More Cabaret blog has a beautiful, heart-wrenching essay about the death of her father–who ruined his health by literally starving himself in his quest to be thin.

Fatphobia kills. Full stop.

How many more people have to die (or almost die) before society realizes that there’s no wrong way to have a body?