It's a bit weird, since I set out to have all of my titles involve the suffix '-tacular' when I started this blog, and for once I was pretty good at sticking to the task I'd set. But I think the shtick is somewhat redundant, and I've been considering doing something a bit more 'regular' with this blog anyway. Updating it every day would be awesome, but failing that, having some sort of special segment every Friday, perhaps, thinking about what I've seen during the week involving FA and my general musings about things I see and hear.
Anyway, the purpose of my post today is to present photos. Of me! Yay!
I'll do that in a moment. But first I want to talk about fat chicks in magazines and newspapers. A few weeks ago Two Whole Cakes wrote this post about a bunch of fat chicks doing a photo shoot for well-known shittiest-newspaper-in-all-of-Britain, The Sun. Basically what happened was that former UK pop star, Claire Richards (no, I don't know who that is) went from a size 10 to a 16 relatively quickly, and posed naked for a photo. The Sun got three women to copy this pose, and I think they all look great. But one of these ladies "could not look at the picture of herself naked." This lady says:
"When I was posing for the photograph, I could feel my belly flopping on to the floor. I couldn't suck it in, so I know it is going to look awful.
"As I'm 5ft 9in, I carry my weight quite well, but my tummy is always a problem area. I always make sure I buy clothes that cover it well."
I've always enjoyed that phrase "carry my weight well". Because, I mean, who doesn't? I carry my weight very well, at 5'4" and 102kg. I never have to take a breather while carrying my weight, and I don't abuse it while I carry it, I don't drop it. Can I get some praise?
Anyway, this is hardly the first time I've seen a chick (or even a dude) be all like "Oh, no, my stomach's sticking out! How horrible!" or "I don't want to look at that photo of myself when I look all fat like that!" or whatever else. It's been long established that people are afraid of becoming fat, and I guess the problem with looking at photos of yourself is that that fear you have of being fat might be confirmed.
To which my question is: um, guys? What are you so afraid of? I mean yeah, the supposed health implications of being a Size Mammoth are probably a bit scary, but it's not as though a person looks at a photo and can see 30% of most common cancers, diabetes, erectile dysfunction, dementia, incontinence, heart disease... and all of that other crap. I really don't think it's the health aspect that terrifies many people, so much as it is the appearance aesthetic. Fat is ugly, of course. That's what our society believes. And I think that's the fear.
... it's actually not that bad, guys. Truly. I mean, yeah, I'll admit, I do often see myself in photos and go "eugh! THAT'S how fat I am?!" but believe me, I'm trying to stop that. Learning to love yourself after a lifetime of being told that you'd be so beautiful if only you lost weight, is difficult.
Anyway, to show you just how not-that-awful it is, I present photos of me and my fat! (no nudity, I promise)
Let's start off big. My fat fat gut, and my legs! Like the dress? I took this one from somewhere above my chest, I think.
Another shot of my legs. They're pretty thin for a fat person, so I'll not post any other photos of them. That's not what people are afraid of.
Here we go! Rotate your heads 90 degrees to the left, and you can see my knockers (again, small, for a fattie) and the majority of my fat, which I store on my front. C'mon, you wimps. Have a look-sie. If you're afraid of becoming fat, THIS is what you're afraid of. Seriously. This is it.
...I kind of think it looks like a beach ball, or something, from that angle.
I thought this one was kind of funny. I took it holding the camera somewhere above my... never mind. Anyway, I dunno if this really shows much. Maybe you shouldn't be able to see any of my stomach from that angle?
This is similar to my third picture, but I'm sitting up a bit straighter.
So there you have it. That's my fat. Someday I might post an underwear shot, but I'm not holding my breath on that front and neither should you.
All joking aside, I feel that this fear says something else - something that I think needs to be addressed. I find that I'm weirdly reminded of the second season of Glee, which featured a homophobe being scared (or violent towards) Kurt, because he's gay. The very definition of a homophobe is "somebody who is afraid of gay people". Most people in society agree that being afraid of a homophobe is utterly ridiculous and downright insulting towards gay people. And I'd like to make the same argument here. We are NOTHING to be afraid of. It is not like hanging out with us is going to make you fat (despite what morons like Mimi Roth will have you believe). It is utterly ridiculous of people to be afraid of what we represent. We're not evil. We're not pathetic. We're not going to fall down dead as soon as you turn your heads. We're just fat. That is really, truly, honestly, all we are. And if you're so afraid of becoming like us that you're sacrificing health, happiness, time, relationships, and whatever else people sacrifice, in order to hypothetically one day be able to guarantee that you will never, ever be like us... that makes me kind of sad.
I thought this one was kind of funny. I took it holding the camera somewhere above my... never mind. Anyway, I dunno if this really shows much. Maybe you shouldn't be able to see any of my stomach from that angle?
This is similar to my third picture, but I'm sitting up a bit straighter.
So there you have it. That's my fat. Someday I might post an underwear shot, but I'm not holding my breath on that front and neither should you.
All joking aside, I feel that this fear says something else - something that I think needs to be addressed. I find that I'm weirdly reminded of the second season of Glee, which featured a homophobe being scared (or violent towards) Kurt, because he's gay. The very definition of a homophobe is "somebody who is afraid of gay people". Most people in society agree that being afraid of a homophobe is utterly ridiculous and downright insulting towards gay people. And I'd like to make the same argument here. We are NOTHING to be afraid of. It is not like hanging out with us is going to make you fat (despite what morons like Mimi Roth will have you believe). It is utterly ridiculous of people to be afraid of what we represent. We're not evil. We're not pathetic. We're not going to fall down dead as soon as you turn your heads. We're just fat. That is really, truly, honestly, all we are. And if you're so afraid of becoming like us that you're sacrificing health, happiness, time, relationships, and whatever else people sacrifice, in order to hypothetically one day be able to guarantee that you will never, ever be like us... that makes me kind of sad.
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