Photos! Because I want people to face their fear...

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, and I think it's probably time... I'm going to drop the '-tacular' in my posts.

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.

Yet more thoughttacular, on discrimination

I think the top of my head's gotten burnt. Ow.

Anyway, this is something I've been musing on for a while, so I thought I would share it with y'all and see what you think.

Quite a while ago I posted a comment on Livejournal's Fatshionista community, and in it I made an observation on how fat discrimination is more socially acceptable than some of the more widely-recognised forms of discrimination (race, gender, sexual preference, social class, etc) because being fat is considered something within a person's control in general society. I woke up the next morning to find my inbox inundated with comment upon angry comment about how my observation was offensive, that people suffer more discrimination from being black than from being fat, that I am obviously extremely priveleged to have that sort of view on fat discrimination, etc etc. Unfortunately (and, yes, this is an unfortunate fault of mine) I'm the sort of person that does not like to offend other people or say anything offensive to other people, pretty much no matter what (exceptions are exclusive to when the person I'm talking to is a total and utter tosser). I proceeded to apologise to every single person that commented and was nearly late for my lesson because of it. I got a few replies, mostly angry, but at least one said that it must have been hard for me to apologise and admit fault and she commended me for that. I wasn't expecting a nice comment like that, so I treasured it.

I was admittedly at fault - my wording had been callous, and in saying what I said (something that I do still believe to be true) I had inadvertently trivialised other forms of discrimination. I learned a lot from my mistake, but unfortunately my mistake has made me forever afterwards somewhat petrified of receiving angry comments on LJ. No need to tell me to harden the fuck up, kids. I know it. :P

Why am I bringing this up? Because this experience also made me aware of something else. All too often in places of discussion you see a comment written by some thoughtless (and normally white) person that has the faintest rumour of racism towards blacks on it (and I do mean, the faintest rumour - like mentioning that the people wolf-whistling a person as she walks to work all happen to be black or latino, for some bizarre reason), and below that comment a litany of replies basically talking to said woman as though she has said the equivalent of "there's this black guy that keeps asking me out and I don't like that he does because he's black. If he was white I wouldn't mind, but I don't like black people at all and think of myself as above them". These angry responses include but are not limited to calling the person insensitive, calling the person ignorant, calling the person stupid, saying that the person is clearly privileged and how dare they voice their opinion or participate in the community at all, or just flat-out insulting them.

Trolling? Maybe, but I don't think so. I'd say that what is often going on here is that somebody has been hurt reading their comment, and is exercising their right to lash out at the offending party in an effort to make themselves feel justified in their hurt, as well as to make them feel better. Sometimes, however, this seems like a convenient excuse to bully somebody, and to use their privilege (which, can I just say, they can help just as much as the unprivileged person can help being unprivileged) as a weapon to foster their guilt and shame for being in a fortunate position.

I am somewhat uncomfortable talking about this in reference to race (although that is the most potent example I've observed, by far), so I'll switch to fat discrimination for the sake of this argument. Now, fat people get abused for being the way that we are. We are bullied in school, we are mishandled and negatively discriminated against by doctors, dieticians, recruiters, and other people that might have some bearing on how we live our lives. We are told time and time again by the world around us that we are not worthy of the same love, beauty, hope and happiness that thin people have, and the only way we can achieve that worth is to become thin. This is not bullshit people, and I've said it often enough on this blog. There are many other fantastic blogs out there that have explored the issue more cleverly and in far greater detail than I have managed as yet.

Understandably, fat people feel a lot of anger and hurt from this. I certainly feel it, and I hope that I continue feeling it for the sake of my humanity. As a result I think many would consider us perfectly justified in lashing out at thin people. I remember seeing something like this on the Fat Debate Dr. Phil episode (what of it I could manage to find, anyway), where this rather large woman addressed one of the thin people on the panel as "Skinny Minnie". You see it often. Thin people being referred to as "skinny bitches", or larger women being referred to as "real" women, or, as in that one Glee episode, Quinn being referred to by Mercedes as the "pretty blonde with the white girl ass" (yeah, not only is she thin, but she's both white and pretty as well. How dare she?).

I'd like to propose something here. It's not on. Seriously, it's not, and we should not go around, as fat people, and believe that harassing thin people, calling them names, referring to them as though they are somehow less "real" than us, making them feel guilt and shame for something that is beyond their control, is okay.

I say this for two very important reasons. One is the obvious one - it hurts their feelings. Boo hoo? You say? My response to you is to stop being an insensitive prick. I fully acknowledge that there are some thin people out there who are absolute sons-of-bitches to us. I will even acknowledge that such people could very well be the majority. But some thin people are not like that, at all. Bullying someone simply for being the way that they are is low, and it makes the person in question feel bad when they really shouldn't. I also argue that even if said thin person makes a comment that could be considered fat-hating if you turn it on its side and squint, that fighting back by mentioning their thinness and the subsequent difficulty they probably had/will have in bearing children is inhumane and unnecessarily insulting.

My other reason is that, in bullying thin people, or any people with some element of privilege, you are doing the exact same thing that they (or more likely people like them) have done in the past. Yep, the old "sinking down to their level" option. How are fat people supposed to claim that they have a legitimate right to other peoples' respect if we refuse to respect other people as well? Saying that we have the right to disrespect people because we are the disadvantaged party is a load of bullshit. That's like a non-white person saying that they have every right to call white people, I dunno, "stupid lazy white fuckers", or whatever else, because they are the disadvantaged party. I shall hesitantly dip my fingers into the racism bucket and say that I have heard the argument that racism is equal to prejudice + power, and that in that sense it is pretty much impossible for anybody who is not white to actually BE racist. I have so much trouble with that statement - more than I feel inclined to mention at this point in time. Everybody has the potential to be racist. Hell, everybody IS a little racist, at least on the inside. And in the same vain it is possible for fat people to be just as discriminatory in terms of size as it is for thin people to be. Thin people have JUST as much right to be respected and to feel as though they belong in this world and that they are "real" people, as fat people do. And to bully thin people is to, however inadvertently, claim otherwise, and that should not be acceptable.

One more important thing worth mentioning. Fat people, as a relative minority group, have certain stigmas attached to us. These include but are not limited to being rude, being stupid, and being mean. How are we supposed to be able to claim otherwise and say that we deserve not to have these stereotypes placed upon us if we, in wanting some sick, misguided revenge for the hurt that we've been through, continue to live up to these stereotypes?

Dessert-buffet-tacular! And why having a belly can be awesome.

Greetings, watchers! Have you all noticed the subtle change in my name? It seemed criminal of me to have a blog that talks primarily about fat acceptance stuff, and for it to have a title that doesn't reflect its content well. For this reason, I decided to add a T, thereby changing "Fashion" to "Fatshion"; a blend between "Fat" and "Fashion", because that is what this blog is. Or at least what it aims to be.

So, today was pretty fantastic, I have to say. You'll all be relieved to hear that I wore clothes:



I've GOT to start turning my light on before I take these shots. Anyway, my outfit today was admittedly not very interesting, but I wanted to show you all a picture of my purple skinny jeans. Unlike that sorry excuse for skinny jeans I presented a 'before' shot of in my sewing outfit, I can actually call these babies "skinny" without feeling the need to demand that they explain themselves. However, they are INCREDIBLY baggy on the top half. I won't be criticising Asos for this, because fatties are so diverse in their body proportions that it is impossible to make trousers that will fit correctly on each and every one of us. However, needless to say, these jeans require a makeover. And I'll be getting to that arduous task in a few days' time, hopefully.

Anyway, today I gathered up a group of merry men (myself and my friends B and R) and headed to a dessert buffet place in Shibuya, called Sweets Paradise. If anybody out there, anybody at all, is vaguely interested in the prospect of all-you-can-eat cake, this is the place for you.

Behold! Pictures!







And the remaining debris:



After licking our plates clean and thinking that we will quite possibly never have to eat again, we went to karaoke and ended up staying there for three hours. Some of the songs I showed considerably prowess in mimicking (ie. B and R's ears weren't bleeding after I was done with them) were "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani, "You're My Best Friend" by Queen, and "In My Life" by the Beatles. I wanted dearly to sing "On My Own" from Les Miserables, because the damn song has been in my head for the past three days, but they didn't have it in the song catalogue. We headed home afterwards, feeling full, happy, and as though we'd done something, if not necessarily worthwhile, certainly incredibly fun, today.


People appear to have arrived back here from an event that was taking place tonight at a nearby restaurant (an event I would have gone to, had it not cost 2,500 yen and only been for two hours). And of course, they aren't troubling to keep their voices down. Most considerate of them.

One thing I noticed while sitting in the karaoke room listening to B and R singing obscure K-pop songs, was how I was sitting. I was slouched on the couch, my feet resting on a footstool in front of me. My hands were clasped lightly together and resting on my stomach. And because of the shape and size of my stomach, my hands were able to rest there, quite comfortably, without any danger of falling off and lying to rest awkwardly by my sides.

This got me thinking. If I did not have a stomach that stuck out like mine does, I would not be able to attain such a comfortable yet non-threatening position. If I wanted to put my hands somewhere comfortable like that, but I didn't possess my sort of stomach, I'd probably have to fold my arms. Indeed, I do do this on occasion. But that is a very threatening-looking position, and probably the sort of position you want to avoid when you're out with friends. So instead you're stuck with putting your hands on your legs, or to your sides, which can be kind of awkward. I, however, seem to carry a personal "handstool" (as opposed to "footstool") with me wherever I go.

So amused was I by this discovery, that I decided the time was right for me to make a list of the advantages to having a protruding, squishy belly, flabby arms, a well-padded posterior and wide legs like mine. The disadvantages to having such appendages are plentiful, but I think we can all already name a great many of those so there's not much point in me repeating them. This angle, however, is pretty new. So, here we go:


Fatshion Hustlings' List of Awesome Advantages to Having Body Fat

1. The fat stomach's aforementioned "handstool" use. Very handy when your hands are bothering you and you want to put them somewhere vaguely accessible, so that they can be called on easily when you next need them.

2. Fat people make excellent cushions for other living creatures. So far the only living creatures that have utilised my body for this purpose are my brothers and a few past and present cats. But none of them have issued any complaints about the comfort of my body. In fact, one brother used to use my arm for a cushion, and he once said "It would be sad if you lost weight, in the sense that your arm wouldn't be so comfortable anymore." And I can vouch for that - I use my arms as cushions often. I think this is a particularly good point, however. Let's consider intimate relationships for a moment here. I'm admittedly no expert, but I think one of the great things (and certainly one of the things I'm looking forward to) about a romantic relationship is the ability to draw comfort from each other's bodies. At the moment when I want comfort, I will stroke a cat's fur. In an intimate relationship I can absolutely see myself stroking my lover's hair for comfort. I'll also breathe in the familiar (and really, really nice - don't ask me why) smell of my cat. You get the idea. There's comfort in the familiarity, the warmth, the affection, the uniqueness of it. And fat bodies, in my opinion, are so well-equipped at being a source of comfort for people. We are squishy everywhere, so our hugs are fantastic. We make excellent cushions, so leaning on us is wonderful. And we carry that squishiness with us everywhere. You can even squeeze our arms to relieve stress, if we permit it. I'm kind of happy to know that I can provide that sort of support to people, just by being me.

3. Our fat is kind of fascinating to watch. It jiggles when we move! You can press down on it for ages! It can be poked and prodded and played with! Come on!

4. It protects more vital organs. OK, not entirely sure if that's true. But if it is? Awesome!

Edit: A mate of mine, D, provided me with this link, which shows that, yes, this is in fact true. Or at least it was in the past. :P

5. It is a form of stored energy, so we could potentially live off it for a long while, should food ever become scarce. This is a weak point for a number of reasons, but I'm putting it up anyway. Admittedly, if our bodies were starving, they'd eat up muscle before going to the fat cells, and fat in itself is hardly nutritionally sound enough for humans to survive using their deposits up. But yeah, if I were to be in a famine-like situation (extremely unlikely of course, but for argument's sake let's say it happened) I would last for far longer than people without that sort of emergency storage.

6. It protects us from the cold. I don't really like wearing jumpers. Mainly because in the course of one day I have to wash my hands a few times, and I HATE how wet sleeves feel on my hands. As such I'll avoid wearing jumpers whenever possible. And because I'm fat, that's so much more doable than it would be for a thinner person. My brother is frequently cold.

7. It protects us from injury. An image of Homer Simpson being hit by a cannon ball comes to mind. But yeah, it's true. I rarely get badly injured, even though I'm pretty klutz-y. When I fall down (an event that in itself measures on the richter scale) I'm normally OK to jump right back up again, because it's rare that I'm going to directly hit some bone or joint or something. Most of me is surrounded by a layer of blubber, or the blubber sticks out enough to protect protruding bone in its wake. On the other hand, one very thin friend of mine has bruises down her spine. She says she gets them from lying down, because her spinal column has no protection from the ground, or whatever. Um, OUCH! That would MAJORLY suck. I can't imagine getting injured just from lying down. All around me is soft, reliable padding. You've got to feel sorry for people without it.


That's about all I've got for now. But I think it's a pretty good list so far. And I think that for all fatties it is worth bearing this stuff in mind. Fat acceptance is about "accepting" our fat (because people like things to be spelled out in titles, and all), and that's absolutely great. But maybe part of doing that is to figure out what about our fatness is actually BETTER than what other people have, so that when other people start talking about the disadvantages of being fat, you are able to turn around and say "touche, old boy, but we can ALSO..."

Just a thought.

Article-tacular. Some things make me worry about the ways of the world...

... and this is one of those things.

I'm going to be referring to the lovely lj community fatshionista a fair amount in this blog, as it is the source for a lot of the material I find on fat stigmatisation.

Also, as a general disclaimer, I'll be using the word "stigmatisation" to refer to a whole manner of things (including ignorance, unfairness, unprecedented judgements and unjustified opinions) that stem from a negative attitude towards fat people.

Amongst the many posts on fatshionista today was this one, which pointed us fashion-loving fatties towards a plus-sized model featured in the French version of Elle magazine. I've got to say, I was impressed by Elle's balls here. I mean, if fat stigmatisation in countries like England and America is bad, I can only imagine how much it's stigmatised in France, where obesity is not as prevalent. Certainly obesity is very stigmatised here in Japan, but only in reference to Japanese people - they're cool with us foreigners being fat. Double standards, huh?

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, this plus-sized model. She's a size 18 UK (so maybe about a 16 in American sizing), and she appears to be quite tall, but as I was not able to find out her height in 1 minute's worth of google searching, I deemed the task irrelevant (my laziness scares even me sometimes) and moved on. To say that she is pretty would be doing her an incredible injustice, I feel:



She's fucking GORGEOUS. I realise that this invites a whole wave of people to say that I must be one of those types who thinks that people are only beautiful if they have curves... rubbish. Cameron Diaz is one of the most beautiful women in the world and she has few curves to speak of. Keira Knightley has fewer still, and Anne Hathaway isn't the curviest of individuals. You don't have to have a body like Angelina Jolie or Anna Paquin to be gorgeous, and Tara Lynn here certainly seems to be doing her part to promote her side of the scale, as it were.

(This just in: she's 176cm. So yeah, pretty tall)

So there I was, enjoying the photos in the 20-page Tara-esque spread (worth checking out, btw. There are some nice photos there, including a nude shot that I didn't really see much point to, because it is, you know, a FASHION magazine, where fashion generally equals CLOTHING, but whatever, she looks fabulous in it as well), and I decided to go back to LJ and tell the fattie (that's what we call ourselves on fatshionista) thank you for the link. The other comments already on there talked about negative comments directed towards our heavy-set babe here.

Oh Lord, here we go, I thought to myself. Because I am a curious kitten, I obviously now absolutely HAD to have a look through the comments. Some of them upset me, I won't lie. It's amazing how ignorant people can be. But some of them made me raise a somewhat curious eyebrow. So I thought I'd post a few on here.

She's really pretty, but I'd like her a little thinner. Not twiggy, mind you, just about 20 pounds less.

If she was 20 lbs less she wouldn't have a job. She'd be too big for regular modeling and too thin for plus size modeling. I think 20 lbs less would be better for her health wise, but not career wise.

There were a lot of comments like this. "She's pretty, but she'd be prettier if she was thinner" sort of thing. A lot of them had the "not Twiggy!" angle, but I still think you're doing her an injustice by saying that she should lose any weight. This brings about the whole point a lot of people are trying to make in the FA movement: Why? Why would she look better if she was just a little thinner? Would she REALLY look better if she was just a little thinner? I don't think it would make very much difference at all, quite frankly. 20lb less would probably be bad for her career though, I'll accept that. In fact, I would have liked this comment if the poster had not posted "I think 20 lbs less would be better for her health wise". That makes me clutch the bridge of my nose between thumb and forefinger and think angry thoughts, before thinking "No, no, it's not their fault. It's just what society tells them." Fat vs. Health is an issue for another incredibly long blog post, I think.

She looks gorgeous. But she's the exception.

Sadly this person had 79 fans. I'd give them a well-placed "fuck off", but I think the person who commented on their comment summed it up pretty well:

Gorgeous skinny women are the exception, too.

This comment had 258 fans. AND they had correct grammar (that's right, I will become that petty for the sake of this argument)! In your face!

She is beautiful.­..a woman's body (shapely and curvy), self-confi­dence, and just plain hot! It's about time we started celebratin­g real women again! Thanks, Elle!

There were HEAPS of comments talking about Tara being a "real" woman. At this, I again feel the need to place thumb and finger on bridge of nose and pinch slightly. Isn't it about time that we stopped this, people? Don't all of you "real" women out there get sick and tired when the skinny-obsessed media labels you as "too fat"? Don't you think that, by insinuating that the willow-like people of the world are somehow "not real", that you're doing the same sort of negative categorising that the media does to you? I mean, I know skinny people, and most of them are pretty real-seeming to me. I think it's unfair to say that an ectomorph with about as much ability to become round and curvaceous as an endomorph has at becoming lean, is "not real". Don't get me wrong - it's wrong to put them on high pedestals as well - but I think we can be better than this. People are people. We come in all shapes and sizes, and THAT should be celebrated.

FANTASTIC - and I will be bookmarkin­g for motivation (or seeing if I can order a hard copy). She's probably 20-30 lbs heavier than I was in college, but [now] I'm up about 60 lbs. Pictures of the ridulously skinny are of no help - I couldn't get there when I was healthy and an athlete, so I certainly won't get there now. But maybe, just maybe -- if I can cut down ... -- I could achieve this and love it! Thanks, Elle, for showing beauty in a different size.

You're so not helping, dude. What's wrong with your current weight? The whole POINT (I thought!) about this was that it was showing beauty as achievable in a variety of sizes. Not just in skinny people and not just in people like Tara! You, too, are beautiful, with your 60lb more than Tara.
And I'm really starting to hate when people talk about "cutting down" on food intake, as though it's a really good thing. Most people are pretty bloody good at naturally eating, more or less, what their body requires. "Cutting down" means that your body is consuming LESS than what it requires. That is NOT a good thing!

Beautiful face but I'm sorry I don't want her body.

Only posting this one because I enjoyed the reply:

thanks so much for the same hackneyed "but you have such a pretty face" that we plus size woman have heard all our lives

You go girl.

How is a big roll of belly fat sexy or beautiful?

Dunno. Just is. How is being a jerk helping to extend your cock size?

I don't think women are sexy at that size.
I don't think women are sexy at a size 0, 2, 4 or 6 either.
I also think that the fashion media should show women of all sizes, shapes and colors.

I absolutely agree with the third line. I added the first two to show that nobody's perfect. :P

She has a pretty face but she is also overweight so this is really no better than featuring anorexic looking models. Thin women, athletic women, and average sized women are all "real" too you know. Shouldn't we be pressing for health instead, a happy medium between overweight and anorexic? All I know is this woman could not run a mile without stopping..­.

Oh piss off. You can't just look at a person's shape and immediately know whether they're healthy or unhealthy. I agree that in-betweeners need to be in these mags too, but that doesn't stop you from being a judgemental prick. I hope she CAN run a mile without stopping, just to show you up.
Love this reply to that comment:

You do not "know" that at all. You assume that. I'm "overweigh­t," "plus-size­," "fat," etc ., and I am healthier than most of the "skinny" people I know. I walk everywhere (don't own a car), bike, walk stairs for exercise, etc. Fat does not equal unhealthy, just as skinny doesn't mean healthy.
...
Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes...mo­st importantl­y, it comes from within. And all the haters here, regardless of how "healthy" they are, seem pretty ugly to me

What the dick does health have to do with any of this anyway? It's a FASHION magazine, ffs!

My mother use to say,some dog's like meat on there bone's LOL!!!!!

And MY mother used to say "Gillian, if you ever use an apostrophe on a plural I will kick you out of this house."

No thank you. Fat is not attractive­, nor is it healthy. And anyone that says "Yay, finally someone that looks like a real woman." needs to go on a diet.

This arsehole has a picture of Quagmire as his avatar. I think it suits, although Quagmire occasionally, you know, has a heart.
Believe me, buddy. There are PLENTY of skinny people out there who prefer their women (and men!) chunky, and even, occasionally, fat. And I would quite honestly fear for these skinny peoples' lives if they decided to go on diets. There are plenty out there who think that fat is VERY attractive, and if you want to go into the purely perverted side of it, check out some of the porn out there featuring overweight people. There are actual humans out there whacking off to that shit, because they think it's HOT. Truly the world has gone topsy-turvy.

As a woman on the lighter scale of normal, I don't understand the obsession with weight. She is beautiful for who she is whether skinny or overweight­. There are beautiful women who are overweight­, there are beautiful women who are skinny. This woman would be beautiful if she were 20 pounds lighter too. Trying to say that women have to be round to be womanly is the other extreme of the scale where you have to be skinny to be beautiful. It's just the same kind of thinking with a different vocabulary­. Stop obsessing with weight, then the true beauty will show.

This. ... So. Much. This.

And I'm quoting it last because I think it sums up my beliefs really well. I think this person has pretty much hit the nail on the head. Letting beauty be controlled by your size and shape is a bad way to go about doing things, because nobody is able to absolutely 100% perfectly sculpt themselves into any shape that is out there. It is cold, hard, unchangeable, undeniable genetics that dictates, for the most part, how we look. And it's sad when people spend so much of their time trying to deny the body that has been sculpted for them through billions of years of evolution, rather than trying to use the features that they've been given to make themselves look and feel both beautiful and unique.

Updatetacular.

Gorsh, how long has it been? A year? Bit less? I do apologise for that, all... none of you or so who follow this and were, clearly, waiting with baited breath for my next post. I feel that I've let you down in a big way.

I've got a few fabulous things that I'd like to post on here, and this shall be done in the space of a few blogs. I thought I might take Fashion Hustlings in a different direction, and use this blog as a place to post about all things fat-related, as well as about my personal fashion choices.

The two issues are not completely dissimilar, at least as far as I'm concerned. As an overweight individual, when it comes to fashion, being fat is inevitably always going to be an issue. And that is totally fine - I think that when it comes to fashion and trying to dress oneself in a flattering way, everybody has issues that they need to think about - the colour of their skin/hair/eyes, their overall body shape, what they feel comfortable wearing, etc - and that's all good.

But I think that when it comes to fatness in general, another issue - the stigmatisation of fat people - needs to be recognised. There are, obviously, a LOT of reasons why fat stigmatisation is bad. And believe me, if I am able to keep this blog up and running, I will be addressing these issues in plentiful detail. But mainly I want to think about a well-known situation whereby any person who is fat cannot possibly be attractive or have much variety available to them when it comes to clothes. This is wrong, on so many levels, and I would like to, in some small way, help people to see this.

I'll hopefully also begin linking to other, far better (as in, older) blogs of a similar nature. There are some incredible fat activists out there, all with really poignant ideas and all doing amazing things for the Fat Acceptance and Health at Every Size movements. I think that, fat or not, these sorts of blogs are worth checking out. It's like with anything, really - knowledge is power. I would argue that in mainstream society the very idea of fat acceptance is kind of laughable. Surely fat is bad, after all? It's not healthy. Obesity is a leading cause for so many different diseases and ailments. It's not like other forms of stigmatisation, because people can control how much they weigh, easily (I mean, I control my weight. It's not that hard at all), and stigmatising might help them to become healthier, and surely that's in their best interest?

No. No no no. This is all wrong (yeah, even the diseases one), and I am, hopefully, going to slowly, methodically, show you why.

So, welcome back, everyone!