Dear Fatphobes: Eat Shit!

Actually, it's "supposed" to be the other way around: Elaine Yu, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, is conducting a clinical trial to see whether swallowing pills made of thin people's freeze-dried fecal matter will make fat people thin.

You read that right. Fecal matter. Poop. Fatphobes have basically been telling fat people to "eat shit" for years, and now they want to make us literally eat shit. For science. For our own good.

I call bullshit. There's so much wrong with this. It's a joke!

For starters: There's a shit ton (sorry) of bacteria in feces. There's a reason we wash our hands after going to the bathroom. Can you imagine licking your hands after flushing the toilet? Ew. I hope you have health insurance.

And then there's the fact that long term weight loss is "almost impossible". If a risky crash diet or a deadly eating disorder or just not eating for a couple weeks probably has the same efficacy as swallowing a stranger's excrement, why not try one of the former? Less yucky, just as useless.

What concerns me most about this study, though, is that there are actually people who are invested in this. You can bet your ass (sorry again) Elaine Yu is being paid big bucks for this. Massachusetts General must be hoping for a miracle here. And countless women are wistfully daydreaming about how they'll actually be treated like human beings if they can just find a damn diet pill that works.

They're shit out of luck. 

I'm convinced that one day, we'll all come around and realize Health At Every Size is the way to go. Until then, let's enjoy this shit show.

Does Obesity Make Kids Do Worse In School?

"You don't like that I'm fat, so you're calling me stupid?"

Does Obesity Make Kids Do Worse In School? I recently read this article, and predictably, it was maddening.

The article starts, "Puberty is hard enough on kids. It's worse for those [who] don't conform to whatever beauty standards pre-teens are aggressively marketed these days". Already, from the second sentence, a there is a tone of casual victim-blaming. Of course school is harder for those to whom a stigma is attached-- life is harder when you're part of a group which is systematically oppressed.

Apparently a new study has found that "for 11-year-old girls, obesity likely affects educational test scores throughout adolescence. For boys, the evidence remains unclear". To which I say: of course (again). Of course girls are more affected by societal pressure to be thin than boys are. This is male privilege.

Further: of course it's likelier that a girl of size (rather than her thinner peer) will not fare well at school. This has nothing to do with how smart, hard-working or capable she is, and everything to do with:

-Fat shaming. 

-Eating disorders.

-Anxiety and depression.

-Bullying.

All of which a person of size is likelier to be affected by.

Instead of digging for reasons why fat people are worth less than our thin peers (hint: we're not!), let's focus on fighting the stigma attached to obesity.

Fat Girl Takes On the Mall

Summer is the perfect time to rock a cute crop top or fun short shorts that show off your great legs. I always look forward to this season of barbecues and beach days and (fashionable) fun in the sun.

But this year has started out a little different.

"My shorts don't fit."
"Neither does this pair."
"All my skirts are too small,"

I complained to my mom, tossing item after item out of my closet. That's when I realized it: my endocrinologist had said PCOS can cause continued weight gain, even during treatment. I'm still gaining weight. Fuck!

Don't get me wrong: I love being fat. I love my body. And I consider myself a fat activist. Learning to love myself means accepting myself at any size, whether it's a 2 or a 32. But growing out of your clothes at a rate that feels unhealthy and puts a dent in your (already half-empty) wallet? It's hard to cope.

So off I go to the mall. The biggest mall in the biggest city in Canada. I have limited funds, since my disability means I can't work as much as I'd like to, but I'm sure I'll find something.

Wrong.

With multiple floors and hundreds of stores, you'd think there'd be at least a hundred that carry sizes over 16.

Nope. Not even 10.

Let's count them:
1 Forever 21
2 Reitmans
3 Sears

Three stores. In an entire mall. The scary thing is that I have more luck at the Eaton Centre than I do at other malls in Toronto.

I'm fortunate that I can sometimes fit into a 16 or XXL, the largest straight size available, so stores like Old Navy and the Disney Store are not entirely off limits. Still, who wants to squeeze into t-shirts and cotton dresses, crying "I'm so lucky this blouse is cut big!"? And as a fat woman, I'm already not taken seriously in the office, so do I really want Tinkerbell's face on everything I own?

I'm glad the three fatshion- friendly stores above exist. But... why aren't their plus sizes mixed in with their "normal" clothes? Why is the fabric quality superb in straight sizes and so-so at best, ghastly at worst in plus? Why should fat girls wear low quality clothes that cost more, just because they're bigger? And why are the few stores in Canada that specialize in plus sizes extravagantly priced and rarely in malls?

We're being punished for our size. We're being punished for eating 'too much', for having illnesses like PCOS, for our genetics, for happening to have double chins.

Do I begrudge my slenderer friends their fast fashion, their hundreds of stores, the breeze that shopping is for them? Not at all. I just want my experience to be as good as theirs.

Image source: Reitmans (one of the few stores at Eaton Centre which caters to plus size shoppers).

"Why do we hate the overweight?"

The Gloss writer Jennifer Wright's recent article, "Why Do We Hate the Overweight?", is very insightful.

She confesses, "there is not a day of my life when I do not worry about my weight". From that line, I knew this article was not just another piece of 'fat people suck' drivel. This was personal.

Jennifer shares this anecdote: "I just spent ten minutes debating whether or not to eat a piece of ice cream cake... [but I can't, because] if my weight goes over a certain amount I feel a real and true fury at myself [because] I realize that the skinnier I am, the nicer people are to me".

After 3 pages discussing why society hates fat people (and how irrational this is), she finishes, "Incidentally, I ate the ice cream cake... I ate it and it tasted as good as skinny feels".

Brilliant!

Photo Source

Duchess of Alba Wears a Bikini; Internet Freaks Out

The Duchess of Alba & her husband

Body shaming continues to run rampant, especially online.

I've written before about fatphobia, why bashing skinny girls is bad too, general body shaming & the importance of being body positive... the list goes on.

I haven't tackled ageism yet, though... So here goes!

What prompted this post was the flurry of discussion concerning the (gorgeous) Duchess of Alba, who flaunted a floral bikini on a recent vacation.

Usually 'bikini bodies' aren't much of a news item, other than on tabloid covers or celebrity gossip websites, but the Duchess garnered a lot of attention. Because she's 86.

Countless horrifying comments litter the web, such as, "she's flabby", "she looks like death", and "if I ever get that old and gross I hope someone shoots me". I haven't even included the worst of them.

Our society believes there's a very slim window, between 18 and 28 or so, when a woman 'can' wear a bikini-- and that's if she's tall and thin, with curves 'in all the right places'. Otherwise, she should be hidden beneath a too-big cover-up, if she's allowed by the pool at all.

Looks like the Duchess gave society a royal fuck you, in the classiest way possible. You go, girl!

Image Source