Fat-positive film review: Sipur Gadol (A Matter of Size)
It’s so, so refreshing to see a movie in which fat people are treated as three-dimensional characters rather than played for laughs.
A Matter of Size, an Israeli film about four fat men who become sumo wrestlers, is a sweet, silly, and somewhat predictable romantic comedy–and it’s full of radical fat-positivity.
Herzl (Itzhik Cohen), finds an alternative to dieting and body-hatred when he starts working in a Japanese restaurant and learns about sumo wrestling. He quits his weight loss group, and, along with three of his friends, learns the art of sumo. He also falls in love with Zehava (Irit Kaplan), whom he met in the weight loss group.
Everything about the movie feels real: the fat hatred and discrimination that the characters face in their everyday lives, their complicated relationships with their own bodies and their family members, and their bumpy journey to self-acceptance. There are a few size-related gags, but it’s clear the movie is laughing with, not at, the characters.
The film also makes it clear that fat people can be fit and strong. There are numerous montages of the men training in the woods with their coach, Kitano (Togo Igawa), and it’s wonderful to see so much fat athleticism. Herzl is so strong that, in one of my favorite scenes, he tips over the car of a man who messes with him.
It’s also wonderful to see a fat couple onscreen, treated as humans rather than objects of ridicule (unlike the awful TV show Mike and Molly). It’s incredibly powerful to see fat people living their lives, falling in love, loving each other’s bodies even as they struggle to love their own.
There’s also a lovely subplot in which one of Herzl’s friends, Gidi (Alon Dahan), comes out as gay upon realizing that fat men like himself have a place in the bear subculture.
I can’t recommend this movie highly enough. If you have the chance, you should definitely see it!
Of climate change and giant pancakes
From Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. (source)
In the comments of my last post, Desertification: Not As Much Fun as Dessertification, GaryW said:
I humbly request that your next posting is about the dessertification of the Global Climate.
Oceans becoming oceans of caramel. Mountains transforming into mountains of whipped cream. ALL THINGS ARE NOW PIE.
I started picturing the multitude of delicious desserts that could fall out of the sky…which, I realized, would just be a sugarier version of one of my favorite childhood books, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
It’s been almost six years since I was last in school, and I’m not sure when or if I’ll be in school again. But, deep down, I still dream of waking up to find that school’s been canceled on account of pancakes.
Desertification: not as much fun as dessertification
Mmmm, dessert.
But seriously, if you watch any video today, watch this one. It’s amazing, and has huge implications for how we can stop climate change.
If you can’t watch the video, a short summary: scarily large amounts of the world are turning into deserts, speeding up global warming and causing drought, famine, and conflict. There is a simple, low-tech solution to turn deserts back into grasslands: moving large herds of livestock across the area in patterns that mimic nature (i.e., the way large herds of wild animals used to roam). You can learn more at the Savory Institute’s website.
My latest post on Glorify
Check out my new post, Making Fatshion Accessible for All, Required for None.
Also, keep an eye on Trip Logic, where I will have a guest post going up soon about sustainable travel.
You can find a list of all my writing elsewhere on the internet on my About/Contact page.
Truly sustainable fashion: what would it look like, and how do we get there?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the need for durable, small-scale, community-based economies–because that’s the only way we’re going to survive in this age of climate change. And I’ve been wondering, what does that mean for fashion? What would a sustainable system of clothing production look like?
Clothing swaps and bargain shopping events are a major step in the right direction. But new clothing still has to come from somewhere.
I really like The Social Skin’s vision of a sustainable textile industry. In it, fibers are grown locally whenever possible, including from animals like sheep and rabbits; local fabric shops create various types of cloth while paying their workers a living wage; people sew simple items at home, and take fabric to tailors for more complicated garments; and people care for their clothing carefully, using it until it wears out or selling it at consignment stores. Also, hats come back in style, providing work for local milliners–an idea which I can get behind 100%!
A sustainable system involving hats? Sign me up!
The way clothing would get made sounds wonderful:
You collaborate with the dressmaker on your garment design and in choosing your trimming and notions. She contributes expertise in fabric drapery and cut, suggestions on styles she has seen work before, and information on current fashion trends or historic styles as appropriate. You contribute your preferences on the style, cut, colors and fabrics that work for you. You might bring in pictures of clothes you’ve seen to be copied, with whatever adjustments you want, or your favorite old dress to be recreated in fresh fabric. All of your clothes fit you perfectly, are exactly the right length, height, and width in every place. The colors are always flattering to your complexion, the cuts always flattering to your figure, the style always exactly what you feel most comfortable and lovely wearing. What a dream!
There would be so much more room for creativity, and people of all sizes could get clothing they love, rather than being left out by corporations that don’t want their clothing seen on fat people.
Tell Target, fatties like florals too!
I’m seriously in love with Target’s Prabal Gurung collection, but…it only goes up to a size 16. (Why am I not surprised?)
Dear Target, I want this in size fat!
So I used their contact form to send them the following letter:
Hi,
I love all the pieces in the Prabal Gurung clothing line. However, as a plus size fashion blogger who usually wears a size 22, I was disappointed to see that the line’s sizing ends at a 16.
These pieces are gorgeous, and I would absolutely buy them if they came in my size. Please consider expanding the collection’s size range so that plus size fashionistas can wear it as well!
Thanks,
Laura
If you also want to see amazing florals in sizes above 16, feel free to drop them a note as well! Target’s a big company, and I doubt they’re going to listen to a few fatshionistas, but it can’t hurt to try.
Friday links, 3/1/13
It’s March already–how did that happen?
Here’s a really cool video in which Tess Munster shares where she gets her clothing. I had to laugh when she described Torrid and SWAK as affordable, but…yeah.
Also awesome: an interview with Gabourey Sidibe on personal style! I love her.
Here are the links I’ve found interesting this week. Add your own recommendations in the comments, and feel free to self-promote!
Fa(t)shion
–20 plus size fashion bloggers who wear a size 24 or above.
-Domino Dollhouse has started shooting for their Spring ’13 collection, and you can see a few pictures on their Instagram!
–A look at the role of clothing in the struggle to shape one’s identity in the film Pariah.
-Advanced Style has a roundup of fabulous hats.
-Shannon at Nudemuse writes about more reasons why she’s not a famous fatshion blogger.
-Check out Glorify’s Tumblr fatshion outpost!
–An open letter to Lane Bryant.
–This is a really sweet story.
Thursday Tutu-spirations
A must-read: Bill McKibben on fossil fuel divestment
This gives me hope, and makes me so freaking proud of all the students who are working tirelessly to, quite literally, save the world.
If you’re a college student or an alum, and your school has a divestment campaign, I urge you to support them. Write letters, threaten not to donate any money to your alma mater until they divest from fossil fuel, do whatever else you can.
The logic of divestment couldn’t be simpler: if it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage. The fossil fuel industry, as I showed in Rolling Stone last summer, has five times as much carbon in its reserves as even the most conservative governments on earth say is safe to burn – but on the current course, it will be burned, tanking the planet. The hope is that divestment is one way to weaken those companies – financially, but even more politically. If institutions like colleges and churches turn them into pariahs, their two-decade old chokehold on politics in DC and other capitals will start to slip. Think about, for instance, the waning influence of the tobacco lobby – or the fact that the firm making Bushmaster rifles shut down within days of the Newtown massacre, after the California Teachers Pension Fund demanded the change. “Many of America’s leading institutions are dozing on the issue of climate,” says Robert Massie, head of the New Economics Institute. “The fossil fuel divestment campaign must become the early morning trumpet call that summons us all to our feet.”
Tutus And Tiny Hats 