Fat bias in medicine maims and kills. #DiagnosisFat

Tuesday night, Lesley Kinzel started the hashtag #DiagnosisFat to talk about the ways doctors mistreat and misdiagnose fat people due to their assumptions about weight. People have been telling these stories in FA spaces for years, and some of them have been collected on the blog First, Do No Harm and on the “Bad Doctors” tag of This Is Thin Privilege. But seeing so many stories pour out so quickly, all in one place, was powerful and horrifying.

They range from the merely shitty to the breathtakingly cruel:

Friday links, 7/26/13

Fa(t)shion
–Erin tries out BeauCoo, a body-positive outfit-sharing app, and finds it promising but problematic in many ways.
-I love the kids’ clothing in this Etsy shop! They even have a TARDIS skirt and a tuxedo dress.
-A new Tumblr dedicated to alt-fatshion: Plus Size Goth.
–This dog is so stylish!
-I so wish this sharkini came in plus sizes.
-Somebody, please, buy this size XXL skull lace dress with red trim so I can enjoy it vicariously.
-Canadian readers, check out Lucy Clothing!
-Kriss, a Swedish brand that goes up to size 2XL, now has an online shop that ships worldwide! It’s expensive, but they have some really cute stuff.
-Karyn takes down fashion “rules.”
-Another recent find: the Bargain Catalog Outlet, which has super-cheap clothes from various plus size catalogs.
–Adventures in summer style with Harvey Guillen.

Friday links, 6/21/13

An awesomely geeky car I saw recently.

Happy Friday! As usual, feel free to link to anything interesting you’ve read or written this week in the comments.

Fa(t)shion
-Lesley rounds up some cute floral print stuff.
–Elegance for all: can ModCloth change plus size fashion for good?
-Advanced Style’s photoshoot in Vogue Australia is gorgeous.
–We’re here, we’re queer, and we look real cute: indie designers challenging gender norms.
-There’s now a blog for fatshionable apples!
–This dress. Oh, this dress! It’s like a giant cupcake and I want one just like it.

Fat Activism
–A great interview with Virgie Tovar in both English and German.
–This protest outside of a Victoria’s Secret in California, including both Virgie Tovar and Marilyn Wann, is awesome! You can see more pictures here on About-Face’s Facebook page.
-Melissa at Shakesville has yet another addition to the Fatstronauts 101 series, this time taking down the myth that fat people are stupid.
-Are you looking for a part-time internship doing fat activism? Check out the Militant Baker’s call for interns.
–Public health does not make me public property.
–Death is always a shock: on James Gandolfini and the rush to explain an unexpected loss.
-Two more good analyses of the AMA’s decision, from the Fat Nutritionist and Feed Me, I’m Cranky.

A great takedown of the idea that fat women shouldn’t cosplay thinner characters:

Climate and Sustainability
-The Climate Justice Hub here in Somerville is now open, and it’s an awesome space for community-building and action. If you live in the area, check out their calendar of events.
-Through an event at the CJ Hub, I met Bethany, an amazing writer who blogs about making the world a better place at Granite Bunny. I highly recommend everything she writes, but here are a few places to start: Bicknell’s thrush, Yoga and Montana’s Tongue River Valley, and We’re gonna win.
–Local, self-sufficient, optimistic: are transition towns the way forward?

Everything Else
-I recently came across anthropologist Sarah Kendzior‘s writing, and I love all of it. I wish more people were deconstructing our economic system the way she does. A few of my favorite recent pieces: In defense of complaining, The moral bankruptcy of the internship economy, and The unaffordable Baby Boomer dream.
–On being a “good” black man, from the perspective of a transgender man who started to face a different kind of racism once he transitioned.
-I love these answers from students about why they need feminism.
–On invisible health issues, and the complex space between “healthy” and “disabled.”
–Enforcing poverty to access health care.
–Why cops don’t believe rape victims, and how brain science can help solve the problem.

#IAmNotADisease roundup, part 3

There’s been so much good writing on the internet in response to the AMA’s decision to label “obesity” a disease.

1.) Lesley Kinzel, as usual, has a great analysis.

The point I like best actually comes from one of her comments:

The metabolic issues that the AMA is so eager to attribute to ALL obese people are not, in fact, exclusive to the fat. They happen to people of different sizes, and plenty of fat people never develop them. If we want to name a disease, maybe we should be researching how metabolic syndrome evolves and how it influences and is influenced by body size, rather than pointing at a group of people and based on their size, diagnose them all with issues they may well not even have?

2.) Marilyn Wann has a good piece that incorporates FA and HAES 101 at the Daily Kos. She is even brave enough to engage with the many commenters who just don’t get it, and I admire her so much for that. Not everyone has the Sanity Watchers points to do stuff like that–I certainly don’t!–and no one should have to, but it’s an important way of getting the message across to people who might never have heard it before. And even if they can’t wrap their minds around it now, there’s a good chance it will sink in eventually for some of them.

3.) Charlotte Cooper has a different viewpoint, which is also important.

Although the AMA news is terrible, I think it’s worth remembering that fat activists are moving away from the values that underpin obesity discourse, and have been doing so for a long time. A new cohort of politicised fat scholars are moving through the ranks and are threatening the parameters of traditional obesity research. Beyond the academy, our networks are gaining in strength, breadth and momentum. How long will it be until we have our own models for fat community health provision? Therapy practices like mine are only the beginning.

I understand the panic and upset about being labelled as a disease, it is utterly dehumanising. At the same time, the AMA is not the authority of me or my experience as a fat person. In many ways, I do feel like a treatment-resistant disease; one that is attacking the values that the AMA upholds like a virus in its system.

I’m really glad to see multiple types of activism springing up around the AMA’s decision. A diversity of activist tactics makes a strong movement, and increases our potential to reach people.

“Fat church”: Three Big Fat Voices

About a month ago, there was an awesome fat event here in Cambridge: Three Big Fat Voices, a reading with Lesley Kinzel, Susan Stinson, and Hanne Blank.

It was AMAZING. All three of them were fierce and brilliant.

Lesley, Hanne, and Susan during the Q&A

And the sense of community was wonderful. Despite near-torrential rain, an army of fabulous fatties in colorful attire turned up to listen, ask questions, and bask in the glow of fat solidarity.

I even met two other Lauras and a Lauren!

The Lauren is on the right.

And Lesley liked my dress, which gave me much fangirl joy. (The dress was a lucky Big Thrifty find, and it deserves its own post, so I’ll have an OOTD post coming soon.)

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!

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.

Updates on online fat communities

A little while ago, I wrote about where we’re going as an online fat community–especially the troublesome-ness of having a lot of important FA discussions in a non-FA space, XOJane.

Lesley and Marianne have been on fire over there. You only have to look at my Friday links posts to see how much amazing writing comes out of that site, week after week. (There’s also some shitty writing, but obviously I’m not linking to it.) And there’s a great community in the comments, as long as you avoid certain posts.

But then Jane posts something like this. And just ew, ew, ewwww. Asking people to click on the site so that the writers can get bonuses feels so wrong and squicky and manipulative. What the hell kind of business model is that?

This is one of the many reasons why I feel torn about reading great writing on a site that, at its core, is about profit. I’m not going to stop reading Marianne, Lesley, s.e., Somer, Kate Conway, or any of the other authors I really like, but I do have issues with the kind of stuff that get done in the name of profit–from things that are merely gross like Jane begging for clicks, to things that are really awful and harmful like promoting Hugo Schwyzer, or cross-posting rape apologism from the Good Men Project. (No, I’m not going to link to either debacle. You can Google if you really want to know more.)

In other words, blargh. I have mixed feelings about XOJane.

But there have been a bunch of promising developments in the fat-o-sphere.

Issa from Love Live Grow is working on a site called Glorify, which will be a basecamp for the fat acceptance web. It’s going to have resources, message boards, a blog, and much more–and I’m going to be writing over there! It’s going to launch on February 14th, so stay tuned, and make sure sign up for the email list.

Also, Redefining Body Image has added a bunch of moderators, and they’ve been posting great stuff. They briefly had Facebook comments, which then disappeared, but I’m hoping they’ll add Disqus or some other way for non-Tumblr-ites to comment soon. There’s definitely a lot of fat acceptance happening on Tumblr, and it’s worth checking out even if you, like me, don’t have an account.

Another blog to keep an eye on is the Nearsighted Owl. Rachele has been posting amazing parodies of weight-loss ads called Shame-Less Ads, and all sorts of other goodness.

There’s been such an explosion of fat activism and fatshion all over the internet lately, and it’s awesome. I miss having a centralized place like Shapely Prose, and I feel kind of queasy about XOJane, but I’m glad to discover new blogs every day.

Friday Links 12/28/12

I hope you all have been enjoying the holidays, and have fun things planned for New Year’s! Steve and I will be going to a small dinner party, which should be fun. It’s hard to believe it’s already almost 2013–I still remember when 2000 seemed futuristic.

A uterus and a moose chilling in a gift shop

Fa(t)shion
-Alison has a great True Fashionista year end recap. My favorites are Denisio, Desiree, and Meagan.
-Similarly, Alissa has a roundup of 2012’s Stylish Curves of the Day.
–100 coolest Harajuku looks of 2012, straight from Tokyo.
–Burning Man gets dressed up.
–Going rogue: on the cultural implications of “alternative” beauty.
-I love this piece about pillbox hats. I feel similarly about fascinators, and now I’m tempted to branch out. Also, I didn’t know you could pin pillbox hats on with bobby pins, which is really good to know.
-On a similarly hat-related note: In defense of the “nice guy” fedora. I really like this piece as well. I love fedoras on both men and women, and I hate how they’ve become a symbol of jackassery. I especially agree with this comment:

[A] few years ago and ongoing, black plastic glasses (which I wear because they are so super-cheap. $35 bucks at wal-mart, jabronis!) were the thing to hate because they were hipsterish.
Now it’s fedoras.

Why are we picking arbitrary clothing items and giving them inalienable human characteristics? Why are clothing items getting personified?

WHATEVER! It sort of makes me want to get a fedora with tiny plastic black-framed glasses pinned all over it.

Fat Activism
–Debunking the myth that there were no fat people until recently.
–Fat and jolly? Not so much.
–Some jerks want to put Santa Claus on a diet “for the children.”

Yeah, pretty much.

Friday Links, 12/14/12

Last weekend, Steve and I checked out a bunch of local craft fairs. At one of them, we ran into Joolie of I Am Joolienn. She’s been reading my blog, and she even made a headband inspired by my constant giant-bow-wearing! 😀

It’s made from the bow on the back of an ’80s prom dress–how cool is that?

Fat Activism
-A really important read: Why I will never advocate weight loss surgery.
–Every single woman in America is now “curvy.”
–Aren’t you uncomfortable? The things we assume about fat people.

Fa(t)shion
–What if you’re too big for Lane Bryant? A resource list for people who are sized out of many plus size stores.
-How to make DIY googly eye bows.
–Boutique to know: LUCY. I especially like the black and white damask dress!

Another highlight of our arts/crafts-event hopping: a giant jellyfish crocheted out of both yarn and plastic:

Other
–Serena Williams is not a costume.
–Where is Sage Smith, a missing transgender teenager of color?
–The top ten relationship words that aren’t translatable into English.
–PSY and the acceptable Asian man.
-This post isn’t recent, but it makes some points that need to be said over and over again: The distress of the privileged.
-Why food challenges are problematic.
-On a related note, Kate Harding makes a very good point about the way people respond to such challenges.
-Roxane Gay has a diverse list of book recommendations, in contrast to the many all-white book lists out there.
-As a grammar nerd myself, I love Marianne’s post about grammar and language.