It’s triple-twelve! Huzzah!
This dress is amazing, and the scenery is even more so. I want to go to New Zealand someday so badly.
Lace and bows, so fabulous!
OOTD: All glammed up for date night
On Saturday night, Steve and I went out to Max Brenner, a chocolate-centric restaurant in Boston. I had vaguely heard of it, but didn’t have a burning urge to go there until I saw both Natalie’s post and someone else’s Twitter picture of a martini topped with marshmallows.
How cool is it that we have the same restaurant in both Australia and the US?
Here I am, glamming it up in the T (subway) station on the way there.
Dress: Dress Barn via eBay, petticoat: Domino Dollhouse, snow boots: gift from my mom, leggings: American Apparel, sequined jacket: Kohl’s, tiny hat and earrings: So Good, pearl necklace and rose bangle: H&M, silver bangles: Deb and Torrid, rhinestone bracelet: Forever 21
Gratuitous kitten pictures
My friends Daniel and Mary just adopted two ridiculously adorable kittens, Mango and Ninja.
Me and Ninja 🙂
Mango admires herself in the mirror
Kitty snuggles!
Kitten yawn! Look at the tiny teeth!
More fun with Lisa Frank
Liked the Lisa Frank pictures in my Friday Links post? Here are a few more!
My packrat tendencies come in handy when it comes to digging up nostalgic things that have suddenly come back in style. I hadn’t looked at any of this stuff in years, but I’m so glad I saved it all!
Club Lisa Frank. Oh man, remember that? I always wanted to join, but my parents didn’t want to pay for it.
Plus size options still suck: a study in pictures
Thanks to Domino Dollhouse, women who wear plus sizes can get galaxy leggings. (They’re currently sold out, but should be back in 3-4 weeks. The picture is from DD’s Facebook page.) And that’s awesome!
But women who wear straight sizes get HELLO KITTY GALAXY LEGGINGS.
HELLO KITTY. GALAXY. LEGGINGS.
I have a new barometer for social progress.
I won’t rest until I, too, can adorn my legs with both outer space and this planet’s most beloved feline.
Friday Links, 12/7/12
So…I dug up some Lisa Frank stuff when I went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving.
FA
-Lesley takes on the ridiculousness of a Kickstarter project aimed at…ending discrimination toward thin people? She’s so much more coherent than I could be about something so WTF-inducing.
–Get thin or die trying: you know, for your health! An important post about the intersection of fat shaming and disability.
-From the Fat Nutritionist: Stuff people assume I believe, vs. stuff I actually believe.
-I love seeing pictures of adorable, happy chubby couples!
Fa(t)shion
-An interview with Tracy Broxterman of Domino Dollhouse.
-How to take style inspiration from the Eleventh Doctor.
–Really effing festive headgear: 10 oversized, sparkly ridiculous choices. Don’t read the comments if you don’t want to be subjected to a ton of judging, irrational fascinator-hatred, and general nastiness, though. It sucks how much some people just hate to see other people having fun with style.
–A great response to the whole “leggings are not pants” bullshit.
-Check out Fourteen, a new line of ready-to-wear suits and accessories especially for lesbian, queer, and trans weddings and events, in sizes 0-24.
–Queer fashion guide to buying a stylish hat.
Unicorn carousel!
Other
–You can stop saying “I’m not a feminist but” now. I highly recommend reading this, as well as pretty much everything Roxane Gay writes.
–Why I’m not down with food stamp challenges.
–Co-opting the co-op: what’s the real cost of homesteading’s new hipness?
-The hidden ways microfinance hurts women. This is just…unfortunate and depressing. It’s painful to find out that a movement that seems so positive and empowering can actually hurt women, especially without any suggestions on how to change it. I’m going to have to do more thinking and researching.
–Living in the shadow of Iran: I just learned my grandmother’s name. This is beautiful.
Book review and matching OOTD: Hot & Heavy
How awesome is Steve? He got me Virgie Tovar’s new anthology, Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love, & Fashion, for Hanukkah!
Dress: Sealed With a Kiss Designs, leggings: American Apparel, shoes: Naot, bangles: Torrid and Deb, necklace: I Am Joolienn, earrings and headband: So Good
The dress is sort of a Hanukkah present to myself. I’d been eyeing it for a long time, and couldn’t resist when it went on sale half-off for Black Friday.
OOTD: Stretchy belts FTW
I’ve always liked the look of belts worn with dresses, but when I tried it with regular belts (i.e., the kind I use to keep my pants up), it always felt constricting and uncomfortable.
And then I discovered Re/Dress‘ stretchy belts. I got one in pink, and it’s amazing: comfortable and fabulous at the same time. I’ll be creating a lot of new looks with it!
Dress: Pop Up Plus NY, belt: Re/Dress Online, leggings: American Apparel, cardigan: thrifted, shoes: Naot, bangles: Deb, pearls: So Good, earrings: Faces, fascinator: Michael’s, sunglasses: Sweet and Lovely
These sunglasses make me feel so glamourous. 🙂 My last pair was black with rhinestones, from CVS, and broke within a month. These are much prettier, and I’m hoping they’ll last much longer as well.
Online fat communities: where are we going?
A few recent conversations have got me thinking about the state of fat activist spaces on the internet today.
Unfortunately, a lot of the most interesting thinking in FA is happening in a space that’s not explicitly fat-positive: XOJane.
It comes closest to filling the gap left by the late, great Shapely Prose. Although there are a decent number of fat activist blogs out there, and even more personal blogs that sometimes write about FA, those aren’t quite communities the way Shapely Prose was. There’s a lot of FA work taking place on Tumblr, but most of the blogs don’t even have comments enabled, so only other Tumblr-ites can interact with them. And then there are communities that are fat-positive, but have a different overall focus, such as Shakesville and Captain Awkward.
My feelings about XOJane in general are…mixed. They publish a lot of great, thoughtful writing on everything from disability rights to living on food stamps. But they also publish a lot of poorly-written, inflammatory linkbait. And don’t even get me started on the whole Hugo Schwyzer debacle. (No, literally, don’t get me started. It was gross and I don’t want to think about it.)
It’s definitely possible to skip over the shitty stuff, especially if you stick to reading the regular authors you know are awesome: Lesley, Marianne, s.e., Kate Conway, Somer, anything Lindy West cross-posts from Jezebel…but not everyone wants to do that, nor should they have to. Some people don’t want to read the site at all after it published HS, and while I don’t feel that way myself, I can understand why they do.
And when it comes to FA, well. There are a lot of fat-positive pieces, both by fat-o-sphere fixtures Lesley and Marianne, and by other, less established authors. There are important internal critiques like Natalie Perkins’ piece on the commercialization of fatshion blogging. And there’s a significant community of fat-positive commenters who both go deep into the nitty-gritty nuances, and joke about starting fat girl gangs a la West Side Story. (Read the thread starting here, and prepare to sing along!). There’s a definite sense of solidarity topped with rainbow sprinkles of humor.
BUT it’s impossible to avoid the reminders that this is not, actually, a fat-positive space.
Reading the comments on fat-related pieces can be frustrating. The majority of them are on board with fat acceptance, but there’s always one or two people who derail the whole thing with their trolling about the Dangers of Obesity. Depending on how many Sanity Watchers points you have to spare, it can be annoying, or it can be triggering.
Personally, I read the comments anyway, and try my best to skip over any derails. But sometimes I get sucked into reading them and wish I hadn’t. And I can understand why some people don’t want to read the comments at all, which means they get left out of the discussion–and that really sucks.
What does it mean for a movement when its strongest voices are 1.) getting paid by a site that does some pretty shitty stuff in the name of page views and 2.) writing in a space that can’t be declared explicitly fat-positive?
What does it mean when a community takes root in a space that 1.) could disappear if it stops making a profit and 2.) contains a decent number of members opposed to that very community’s existence?
What does it mean when so many of our discussions are happening in a space that isn’t ours?
I don’t have answers, really. I don’t begrudge any of the XOJane authors what they do–and it seems like they have a lot of editorial freedom, which is awesome. I don’t begrudge anyone for not taking on the work of building a new Shapely Prose. Moderating a site like that must be exhausting.
But I do wonder about the path we’re heading down.
I wonder about how to forge a different path.
The Project for Awesome
It’s that time of year again–time for awesome!
The Project for Awesome is an annual event on YouTube in which thousands of video creators make videos supporting their favorite charity. Anybody is allowed to participate – simply make a video about a charity you support and post it on YouTube on December 17th. Then tune into the livestream and join in the commenting and donating fun. DFTBA!
You can find out more in John’s video about the project:
It’s a really cool idea, and I’m looking forward to voting for my favorite charities. I was not yet a nerdfighter last December, so this will be my first time!
Tutus And Tiny Hats 