Fat Superheroes?

Posted by Sarah on Oct 7, 2010 in Fat | 6 comments

I’ve been toying around on StumbleUpon today while I watch the House M.D. marathon (seriously, could my life BE anymore glamorous this week?) and I stumbled upon (HA! I didn’t even mean make a somewhat pun) these:

THE MORPHSUIT!

I don’t know how I didn’t find Morphsuits sooner. You can breathe and drink through them. They fit anyone because they are spandex – you just order by height. You can get premium morphsuits in LEOPARD and ZEBRA print! I COULD BE A FAT SUPERHERO! FIGHTING FAT INJUSTICES AROUND THE COUNTRY!  THE WORLD! (And I’ve decided I would wear Definatalie‘s “FAT” Necklace to completely my suit!) And I can also remain completely anonymous.

And sadly, I think that is what is so appealing to me. I can show off my body and dance and feel free – because no one would know who I was. I thought I’d moved away from that type of thinking with my involvement in fat acceptance and the fatshion community – but someone left a comment about Morphsuits on Facebook saying “You will be anonymous!” and I felt a surge of excitement. But you know what, I don’t really think it has anything to do with my body. I think it has to do with just wanting to be unknown sometimes. Just wanting to go do something and have someone have no idea who I am or what I look like. Isn’t that appealing to EVERYONE at some point? Argh, I am over thinking Morphsuits right now!

The real question is: How to you hide bra and panty lines in those things…or do you just go commando?

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Are you Hung?

Posted by Sarah on Aug 25, 2010 in Fat | 1 comment

During the summer, nearly all of my favorite TV shows are on. True Blood, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, Mad Men, and last but not least, Hung. What’s Hung? An HBO show about a male teacher who becomes a hooker. And he’s hung. Get it? But he isn’t my favorite character. His twin, outcast kids are.

Meet Darby (played by Sianoa Smit-McPhee). She dresses how she wants, she’s smart, she’s sassy, and she’s confident. Oh, and has a big mouth. So, I love her. But, guess what else? On a recent episode of Hung she baked a cake

for a Fat Acceptance Rally that was held in front of a gym. Which she hid from her very thing mother who watches her weight (Anne Heche). When her mother appears at the rally another FA’er tries to get her to have a slice of a cake and her mother is completely flustered and refuses. The conflict between her and her mother – the fact that her mother just doesnt “get it” is so reflective of mainstream media and the fat acceptance movement.

I was completely surprised by this move on on Hung – and incredibly happy. Everyone has been so hung up (PUN!) on Huge and what is going on there and debating the fat acceptance vs. weight loss/body shame there, that I think this episode of Hung was completely overlooked. This was a LEGIT shout out to Fat Acceptance! No debating about it! It was FABULOUS! I was so excited when I saw her with a bunch of fatties shouting,

“FAT?SO! FAT?SO!”

Yes! 2010 is the year of the fatties! After my interview with Marilyn Wann, and talking to her about how the fatosphere has changed (like she said, in 1998 there wasn’t a fatosphere!) and now 10 years later – FINALLY, some progress – some mainstream attention! Yet, it has still gone unnoticed. Check out this episode – I tried to find a clip online, but I couldn’t find it. It was “Tucson is the Way to Dick or This Is Not Sexy” (Season 2, Episode 2). Let me know what you think!

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FATTIES WITH HEADS: Marilyn Wann!

Posted by Sarah on Aug 13, 2010 in Fat | 6 comments

A few weeks ago, I heard my little Mac e-mail noise and went to check and saw that I had an e-mail from “Marilyn Wann.” And I thought:

Oh, that’s funny, a Marilyn Wann wrote FAT!SO?

So I opened the e-mail, and guess what? IT WAS THE MARILYN WANN! And I freaked out and started yelling to Carl that Marilyn Wann e-mailed me and after texting everyone I know, I finally tried to write an e-mail to her. She’d written to tell me she was a fan of my fatties with heads project. And since the Fatties with Heads project has floundered a bit, I thought, how better to relaunch it, than a fabulous interview with the one, the only, Marilyn Wann?

So, everyone, send me your pictures. It can be your body. Or just your head. But do it. This was one of my first endeavors as a blogger, and I’m proud of my small but fabulous gallery of Fatties with Heads, and would love for it to grow into 100s of people, proud of their faces and their bodies. Be brave, be proud! And more importantly, read this hilarious and fabulous interview with Miss Wann:

Tell me how you got started with Fat Acceptance.

I first encountered fat acceptance concepts when I came across a copy of Shadow On A Tightrope: Writings by Women on Fat Oppression, in 1991 or 1992. I bought it, took it home, barely even read it because it so spoke to me that I only needed to find certain words (liberation! stigma! pride!) to feel better. I flipped the pages in a giddy rush. I signed up for every resource in the back of the book, including NAAFA, attended a performance of Fat Lip Readers Theater, and attended a potluck party. I still highly recommend Shadow On a Tightrope to anyone who wants to confront fat oppression! (Thanks to Aunt Lute Press for keeping it in print!) Despite this introduction, I was more of an armchair size accepter until I had my Really Bad Day (in 1993), when I came out as a fat person (and never turned back!).

On my Really Bad Day, two things happened. First, I was hanging out with this guy I liked (who liked me, I’m pretty sure), and he told me he was embarrassed to introduce me to some of his friends because I was fat. Ouch! I was angry, hurt, in shock. I went home, opened the mail, and found a letter from Blue Cross telling me they refused to sell me health insurance at any price because I was “morbidly obese.” What a double whammy! I was being excluded on both social and institutional levels because of my weight alone. I decided that I did not agree. At all. I do not believe that any of us should be excluded from anything based on what we weigh!!! I was heartened by Audre Lorde’s statement,

“Your silence does not protect you.”

Until that Really Bad Day, I had been silent about fat oppression, hoping it wouldn’t get me, but it still did. I decided I had to speak publicly and disagree (otherwise my silence would indicate consent.)

In the mid-90s, riot grrl was an important movement and all sorts of people were publishing print ‘zines (short for magazine). I live in San Francisco, where some brilliant queer activists published “Diseased Pariah News—for people with AIDS who don’t want your pity.” DPN inspired many design aspects of my ‘zine and encouraged me to make it as sassy as possible. I started a print ‘zine called “FAT!SO? — for people who don’t apologize for their size!” I sent copies to feminist bookstores and queer bookstores and indie bookstores and Tower Records (remember them? Buy from locals every chance you get—they support outsiders!). They sold my ‘zine and I started hearing from people I didn’t know, who mailed me subscription checks (which was nice!) and also notes that told heartbreaking stories of fat oppression (which is what keeps me doing fat activism, to this day). I remember one note said,

“Your ‘zine is the first thing that ever made me feel okay.”

Wow! I also attended a gathering organized by Judy Freespirit for the fat feminist caucus of NAAFA. It was wonderful! People were excited about the ‘zine and I felt fat community space fully for the first time.

I realize now that although I felt heartbreakingly shut out from humanity on my Really Bad Day, in fact, I was having an experience that people both fat and thin face all the time.

I want us to talk about how cruelly, indelibly painful it is to be a social outcast, so that we can find each other and so that, eventually, fat oppression will stop.

I feel very lucky to have stumbled into doing FAT!SO?, because having a project to promote has been a great excuse/reason for me to do a lot of things I wouldn’t have considered doing just for myself, for my own liberation or amusement. I’ve gone to hundreds of in-person fat pride community events where it is always so powerful to be with other resisters, to have that mirroring and encouragement. I’ve become a public speaker, something I would have avoided with dread until I realized I just had to speak about this topic. (Fat children were committing suicide after being teased and bullied.) I’ve spoken up as a rad fatty on TV, in print media, and on radio, in the U.S. and even a few other countries. I got to perform with the Padded Lilies fat synchro swim troupe on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” I got to wave pompoms with the Bod Squad fat cheerleaders. (Such a power trip. When you ask for an F, people *GIVE* you an F!!!) I got to perform hiphop and modern dance with Big Moves and with the Phat Fly Girls. (Don’t miss out!: www.bigmoves.org)

I’ve given weight diversity talks to all people of all sizes and ages in all sorts of settings. I’ve learned over and over that I can’t estimate by looking at people how much pain they’re suffering related to our culture’s weight attitudes. All of these experiences and more have benefitted me personally in a big, fat way. Of course, I still carry internalized fat oppression. We all do! But I am now in practice to notice it and challenge it and divest from it, as much as possible, and in ways that I actually find fun. Of course, I still come across fat oppression in the world. We all do! But I feel ready to respond, even when it takes me by surprise. Whether or not I convince any haters to change their views, I feel good about the healthy boundary I maintain against fat hate in spaces where I live. I imagine that whenever any of us rejects fat hate, we expand the liveable space for all of us.

How did you feel about your body before you got into Fat Acceptance?

I carried a lot of the usual, fat-hating cultural beliefs, but I didn’t like them. I felt strong and active in my body. I trusted myself to be able to handle physical challenges. I hated the segregation of clothing shopping. I’m sure I wished that I weighed less (even when I was 155 pounds!). But I only did two weight-loss attempts and both were luckily brief. I’ve always eaten moderately and nutritiously. I’m lucky not to have issues with food or eating. I imagine that it’s difficult to divest from the false hope of weight-loss goals if you’ve repeatedly and for a long time self-inflicted that belief in thin supremacism. Somewhere inside, without having words for it, I knew that what was bothering me was not my body, but the way people treated me.

While I appreciate that most people in this community talk about fat acceptance, I’m not actually asking anyone to accept me. I want people to keep their weight-based stereotypes and prejudices out of my way! I’m interested in civil rights, human rights, liberation, pride, and celebrating weight diversity for people of all sizes.

What is your proudest fat-related accomplishment?

Wow. I guess I’m still proudest of my role in lobbying for passage of a height/weight anti-discrimination ordinance in San Francisco, which passed in 2000. I don’t expect legislation to change public attitudes about fat people, although it can help. I’m usually more interested in making it socially uncool to be fat-hating than I am in legislation or the political process. But this legislative chance came along, and the people I worked with were such a dream team! Sondra Solovay, Carole Cullum, Frances White. Eixpert witnesses like Deb Burgard. So many people showed up; it proved the power of community! Every time I see the big dome of San Francisco’s City Hall “like a big bald head poking up over the grocery store,” I feel a pang of pride.

What inspired you to write Fat!So?

I was quoted in USA Today for some cheesy article around Thanksgiving one year. I think I said that it’s okay to eat a piece of pumpkin pie. Pumpkins are quite nutritious and people shouldn’t live in fear of food or their own appetites! Some book agent saw that quote and asked me if I’d like to put together a book proposal. She thought books based on print ‘zines were selling at the time. I ended up getting an offer from one mid-size publisher, so I wrote the book. It helped that I felt like they came to me, in a way. I felt less desperate. When the publisher wanted to put fat-hating stuff in the book or make the cover ugly to camouflage its actual subject, I was able to stare them down until they did the right thing.

I’m grateful to all of the people who bought the FAT!SO? book and who keep buying it (that keeps it in print so more people can read it)! I’m grateful to readers who let me know how the FAT!SO? book has inspired and supported their self-liberation. I tried to put together the kind of book that I would have wanted, back when I didn’t have any know it was possible to question fat oppression. It does me huge amounts of good to know people find that first consciousness from the work that I did and that they go on to shed suffering and add their efforts to freeing all of us.

How has the fatosphere changed since you wrote Fat!So?  ?

I could be wrong, but I don’t think there was a fatosphere in 1998. I’ve not participated in online community spaces that use the term BBW; some of those may have existed back then. I was on some email lists that were wonderful community space! The Show Me The Data list that Deb Burgard started for people who believe in the Health At Every Size paradigm. Some email lists for San Francisco Bay Area fat community, like the Bay Area fat dykes email list. Shirley Sheffield maintained an email list called The Hub for local rad fatties (although we didn’t call ourselves that yet. I first heard that from Stacy Bias up in Portland when I was part of the second Fat Girl Speaks event). In most of these cases, I also knew people on these lists in person.

I think online fat pride community is fabulous, especially because it provides a fat-poz experience for people who don’t have much local community where they are. Computer-based interactions have been super important for me! I also hope that people who find fat pride consciousness online also participate in person. I don’t know how I would have been able to fully live my fat pride and Health At Every Size beliefs without interacting with other people who are doing the same thing.

What are your thoughts on the newly emerged “fatshion” community?

I haven’t participated very much in fatshion community. I know Amanda Piasecki from way back and I think that the discussion about the politics of fashion for fat people that she helped start on the LiveJournal fatshionista community is a crucial analysis for people to engage in. I adore people like Janelle at Love Your Peaches and Cathy who founded Big On Batik and Bertha from Size Queen! When I attended my first NAAFA convention, I had heard that the pool parties were a big deal. (It’s true! I’ve experienced some intense liberation and fun at NAAFA and NOLOSE pool events!) I wanted to wear a thong bikini for my first official fat community pool party. No one sold them in fat-people sizes at the time. I asked a member of the Fat Girl ‘zine collective, April Miller, to sew one for me. (She was a talented seamstress and corset maker.) She made me this awesome black bikini with a scuba-style crop top that could zip open to show the black fishnet halter top underneath. The top had fuchsia piping, a wetsuit-style collar, and cap sleeves. This was no belly-hiding tankini! It stopped just under my, uh, bosom. I felt totally fabulous in it! I wore it as a political act. Because I believe that what a person is allowed to wear in a society says a lot about who a person is allowed to be. I like to imagine that I broke some kind of thong barrier that night. Not long afterwards, Janelle founded Love Your Peaches and started by offering bikinis, with an optional thong bottom. The next year at the NAAFA convention, I didn’t have to bust out my thong bikini because there were so many other fabulous fat women wearing them at the pool. I met the longtime NAAFA member who years before had been the first to wear a bikini to a community pool party and we had a good laugh.

For the fatshionistas out there, where do you shop?

For everyday stuff, I buy very, very selectively from what I call the schmata-logues. For fabulous fuchsia fripperies, I love whatever Deb Malkin picks out for me, Bertha’s incredible design sense, a local boutique called Swankety Swank here in SF run by rad fatty Yabette Alfaro. I have found wonderful things at clothing swaps. At one fat feminist conference, people came running down the hall to tell me about an item of clothing that Laurie Avocado had donated and I treasure it to this day. I call it the Fringe-O-Tard. It’s fuchsia leggings that continue up into a tube top, covered in horizontal rows of long fuchsia fringe. Can you say, “Carwash?” In my mind, the Fringe-O-Tard is the garment farthest removed from trying to wear something “slimming.” I sew myself, when I want to punk up a fuchsia denim jacket or whip out a fuchsia fake-fur boa with satin lining. Not long ago, I got a sewing machine that can sew stretch fabric, so I’ve made a bikini prototype and plan to do both swimsuits and bras, because I’m annoyed with bras that give me mono-boob.

Hey! There are two, separate mammaries here!!!

With cleavage inbetween! And no, I’m not willing to have improperly contoured underwires poke me all day long. Where else do I shop? Sometimes I find stuff I enjoy at Torrid. I have a second wardrobe that’s all fuchsia because the amazing Heather MacAllister (founder of Big Burlesque & the Fat Bottom Revue) told me that whenever I’m doing fat activism I might as well use the color that symbolizes FAT!SO?. (The cover of the original ‘zine was bright fuchsia.) For a long time, I would dye my hair fuchsia once a year. Krissy Durden, who publishes the ‘zine Figure 8 and is a rad fatty in Portland, first suggested that I go fuchsia with my hair and she was so right. I find that the color fuchsia is a good symbol for fat pride because it’s difficult to try to hide if you’re wearing fuchsia and it’s also difficult to come across as anything other than happy and fabulous. If you see anything awesome in fuchsia in a 3x/4x, let me know; but I’m particular about the shade of fuchsia. It has to be vibrant!

It interests me that this conversation about fashion is usually about women’s clothing and usually it’s women talking about it. I’ve known a lot of fat men (or people who identify/present as fat men). They all seem to have really strong feelings and opinions about the clothing available to them and the stuff they choose to wear, but we don’t hear that conversation very much. It saddens me to notice that fat men have little space in which to discuss their particular experience. I recently started a Facebook group called Fat Club for Men, in the hope that people would gather there for mutual support and fabulousness. (In Fat Club for Men, you’re not just the president, you’re also a satisfied member!)

What drew you to Fatties with Head?

Someone posted a comment on my Facebook wall that got me to thinking about the moment when a media person points their camera at a fat person and frames the image to cut off their head. I came up with an idea for a t-shirt that says, in large letters, “Do not photograph or film my torso!” and in smaller letters, “for your stupid report on ‘obesity’!” On the back, it says in large letters, “My backside is not available for your camera, either!” Just now, I searched at www.zazzle.com to find the url for these shirts, which come in sizes up to 5x (although I hear they may run small). Here’s the link: http://www.zazzle.com/headless_fatties_fight_back_some_more_tshirt-235055410213881782

When I searched Zazzle, I just found a t-shirt from someone who says it way better: “Not a headless fatty. In real life, fat people have heads and minds and hearts. Stop fat hatred now!” Who created that t-shirt? They’re brilliant! They have others that are good, too!

So I had heard about your awesome project and I always thought it was super sassy and effective, but I hadn’t connected with you until I thought you might like to know about this silly t-shirt idea that I’d had. You were super kind to invite me to do an interview! Thanks tons!

What are you up to now?

Oh, my goodness. It’s a long list. What I accomplish any particular day is hard to predict. I just attended the NAAFA convention and was especially delighted to see the fat film festival and the Health At Every Size summit they put together. I’m starting to learn WordPress so I can redo the FAT!SO? website. I especially want to create a page where I can share the info on how to hack a Yay! Scale, stories of how people have made and used them, photos and videos and more. People who don’t want to fiddle with glue and pliers will still be able to buy the Yay! Scales that I make (and autograph!) thanks to Nomi Dekel’s shop online: www.voluptuart.com.

I’ve found that Yay! Scales are such a simple, direct way to show people of all sizes what it might be like to live without fat oppression. I take a Yay! Scale to some place where there’s lots of foot traffic, but where people aren’t rushed. So, not a subway station, but more likely a casual shopping district like the Haight/Ashbury or a park like Lake Merritt in Oakland. I invite people who pass by to get a free compliment from a scale with no numbers. The message has to be brief because people walk by in a few seconds and they have to absorb the idea, overcome resistance to someone shilling, confront whatever fear of scales they might have, etc. It always charms and reassures me just how many people step on the Yay! Scale and take in the positive vibe it offers! I sometimes make a wee handout with some suggested terms to Google. I don’t recommend spending more than 45 minutes or so at any given time doing Yay! Scale outreach but, wow, it’s exhilerating fun every time I do it! I’ve taken other local rad fatties along and they’ve had a great time, too. It’s also a good thing to do if some media person wants to see a fat activist in action. What else am I doing? Gardening. Swimming. Waiting for my new personal trampoline to arrive. (I want one both for fitness fun and for a fat-poz video I have in mind.)

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