Fat Activism Survey: Results, Part II

Be sure to start at Part I if you haven't already.

The survey's second big question asked you to rank what was and was not important about a fat acceptance organization. We provided a list of a number of activism-ish items and asked everyone to rank them from Very Important down to Not Important, on a 5 point scale.

No more of the ado:

Political Advocacy

• 59.2% Very Important
• 34.7% Important
• 4.2% Don't care
• 1.4% Not important
• 0.5% A little important

Legal Advocacy

• 60.6% Very Important
• 35.2% Important
• 1.9% Don't care
• 1.4% Not important
• 0.9% A little important

Social Events (outings)

• 39.4% Important
• 25.4% Don't care
• 14.6% Very Important
• 13.6% A little important
• 7.0% Not important

Regular Meetings

• 36.6% Important
• 32.4% Don't care
• 11.3% Very Important
• 10.3% A little important
• 9.4% Not important

Up-to-Date Website

• 70.0% Very Important
• 27.2% Important
• 0.9% Don't care
• 0.9% A little important
• 0.9% Not important

Podcasts

• 41.3% Don't care
• 23.0% Not important
• 18.8% Important
• 12.2% A little important
• 4.7% Very important

Printed Newsletter

• 34.7% Don't care
• 28.2% Important
• 15.5% Not important
• 13.6% A little important
• 8.0% Very important

Anti-Diet Policy

• 35.2% Important
• 31.9% Very important
• 15.0% Don't care
• 10.8% Not important
• 7.0% A little important

Members-Only Web Forums

• 31.9% Don't care
• 29.6% Important
• 14.1% Not important
• 12.7% Very important
• 11.7% A little important

Guerrilla Activism

• 29.6% Important
• 27.7% Don't care
• 16.4% Very important
• 14.1% Not important
• 12.2% A little important

The big winner, overall, was having an up-to-date website. This was also cited in a very large number of the free-form comments.

I admit I was surprised by the strong showing of social events. I intentionally chose the word "social" to imply events of a non-political/non-activism nature - and threw in "outings" too, just to be sure.

I was also surprised by the poor showing for podcasts ("don't care" won here) but perhaps people see that as a function of bloggers/podcasters rather than an organization.

Moving on to the next question, we asked how much one would pay in annual dues to be a member of a fat acceptance organization. I have yet to do a formal statistical analysis of the results - that'll happen in due time! - but the range of responses was interesting. Only a smattering of folks said they'd pay US$100 or more, and most people said they'd pay between US$20 and US$60 to be a member. Lots of people also threw in the "...but it depends on what they offer" clause, totally valid.

Again, several folks cited money as a concern and didn't want to turn things into an admission-based organization. One person said frankly, "[I'd pay] nothing. My kind of activism is free."

The final question we'll tackle in this segment asked what actions people have taken in fat activism. I left this a bit open-ended, because the definition of what and what is not activism can be very personal in nature. Here are a select number of responses.

• Blogging & some guerilla activism. Individual activism (i.e. explaining why diets don't work or why fat-hating self-talk bothers me). Performance as a form of activism (in the sense that people respond to fat chicks dancing as OMG, WOW).
• Honestly? Perhaps not all that much. My blog about body acceptance is relatively new, but it's the same stuff i've been telling my friends for years. I try to be a good example.
• I do nothing organized. But I do pay attention to my words and actions: 1. I never criticize another person's body or food choices, and if I hear other people doing those things, I speak up. 2. I attempt to do what I want and wear what I want and try to provide an example for the less-confident. 3. I attempt to be open about my fatness and bring it up in conversation if warranted. For example, I had a recent conversation with a thinner friend about the skimpy clothes teenagers wear and would we have work those in high school? Instead of just saying no, I said, "I was fat, so I wouldn't have worn that." I'm trying to normalize the word "fat" so my friends don't flinch when they hear it.
• I am an activist in my daily life just by getting up and going out into the world and doing what I want to do no matter what anyone says otherwise.
• I've written four books (three novels and a collection of poetry and lyric essays) that center on the strength and sensuality of complex fat lesbians. I blog, sometimes on fat issues. I've given a fair number of workshops and speeches over the years, and also read work with fat positive content that many folks find enlightening or challenging in many contexts over the years. When I got hate mail in response to an op ed piece in a local paper, (and with plenty of help from others), I organized a speak out against fat hatred. I'm not doing much fat activism at the moment, and my current novel is not centered on fat.
• I used to write a lot of letters but I got out of that habit. I do teach a Health and Body Image class at the college I work at and weight is a large portion of topics that are covered.
• Not much. Argue when people talk diets and being too fat, especially when it is in front of their kids, especially when they are not even fat. Printed and wore a 'Fat and Happy' t-shirt till it wore out.

There were a couple of common threads in the responses. Nearly everyone - and I mean everyone mentioned that they blogged and/or read fat blogs. That's important for an obvious reason but I'll say it anyway: blogs are considered the norm, and can easily be considered activism. Easily. Anyone who says otherwise is, plainly, missing the boat.

The other common thread was that a lot of folks said they just "lived their lives": they did their work, went to school, participated in life. This goes hand in hand with the blogging, in my mind: people who are just out there and being fat and not hating themselves and not dieting are doing an enormous amount for the movement. All of us are demonstrating that we're here, we're real people, and we're not some abstracted or dehumanized thing.

Interestingly, a very very small number of responses referenced organized activism in any way (except someone who identified herself as one Marilyn Wann - "I've done lots of stuff." Indeed!) There's an enormous void to be filled there, one that hasn't been tackled well by any one organization yet.

Thanks for reading, and see you in part III, which will involve me getting stuck with Doc in the Old West.