Welcome to Your New Big Fat Blog!

Hey Paul, just a heads up - when I go to my profile page to upload a file or make the contact form work if people want to email me, after I hit submit the page refreshes saying "The e-mail address ***myemailaddress@editedout.blah*** is already registered". But obviously, without the stars and with my email address. Which, I mean, I know it's registered, because I'm logged on and trying to change that account. Ha.

Just FYI. I'm curious to know what prompted the change, and what other changes are in store for le BFB.

One thing though: where's the xml flux?

The link at the bottom left doesn't work...

Oh, cool! We have smileys now. I have the infinitely bad taste to like them.

(Hey! It didn't work)

Are we to be opposed to cheesy? I've always embraced cheesiness in my life.

I've been enjoying the new digs for a bit now and just wanted to stop by to congratulate Paul on a job well done. And cheesiness rules!

MizB

I wrote this as I waited for my BFB membership to be approved. I’m eager to start writing/talking about fat acceptance (and the horrendous lack thereof), as well as the public perception of obesity as it relates to other changing attitudes.

Let me begin by summarizing my fat credentials: started to get big when puberty hit at nine-years-old. By the time I was in my mid-teens, I had already been on quite a few diets, including some with diet pills (speed). By my mid-20s I had tried Weight Watchers several times and had already spent a couple of years in Overeaters Anonymous. During these years, I bought into all the fat propaganda (fat is ugly, unhealthy, will color my career and love life). From my teens to my early 30s, I yo-yo’d between a size 20 and a size 26, torturing myself into losing and regaining literally hundreds of pounds.

When I turned 40 (1992), I made peace with myself and my body. I vowed to stop postponing my life until I got thinner. I was a successful freelance writer (fat made it harder, but I managed just the same) and was quite the large-size fashion plate. Then, between 1995 – 2000, my (very small) family died and I went through a series of personal health and business crises. By 2003, I had gained and retained an extra 100 lbs., which put me in the mid 300s. As of now, I’m just a few pounds short of 400 and am on permanent disability because of health problems tied to chronic depression and obesity. I almost never leave the house (agoraphobic, anxious, limited mobility).

Sometimes I feel unattractive because of my weight, more often I don’t. But I’m keenly aware that, especially in this anti-fat climate, people who don’t know me (and even some who do) see me as a lesser person because of my size. It really pisses me off. My interest in size acceptance as a social movement and civil rights issue began in the 70s. I remember when NAAFA was formed; the initial publication of fat fashion (and fat politics) magazines; and the introduction of the term BBW into the social lexicon. Having been a socially conscious person regarding several other issues, it wasn’t difficult to recognize the politics of fat. But, to be frank, I didn’t get involved in fat politics back then or over the years, because I was burned out as an activist. I just wanted to live my life.

Now, however, things are different. The climate of fat-hate in this country is truly alarming. America has never liked fat, but until recently, fat people may have been seen as ugly and lazy, but nobody was accusing us of contributing to global warming and being an obstacle to affordable health care; no one was saying we were a drain on the collective good; no one was saying we should pay more for health care, life insurance and what all, because we’re using up a disproportionate amount of collective resources.

I’m not at all sure that we will ever be able to convince society that fat is okay, but I feel strongly that we must protest a social movement to marginalize us even more than we already are. We are being told that obesity is a choice (which, for some, it is; so what?), and we, as a class, are a danger to society and must be charged, excluded, and rejected accordingly. However, it’s my belief that in a diverse society, everybody pays for everybody’s choices.

For example, I’m not a parent and I don’t even like children. But I don’t balk at paying school taxes, or for children’s health care. I don’t resent working parents for having flexibility in their work hours to accommodate their families. I don’t mind that they get a family tax break, or that society in many other ways supports family life. I don’t play sports, but I don’t resent people’s needs for medical care for sports injuries. I don’t drive a car, but I appreciate that for most people, a car is a necessity and the need to control the environmental impact of cars, as well as the economics of oil, must be shared by all. I also don’t advocate euthanasia for retarded people, orphans, or the elderly. In short, I believe in live-and-let-live and everybody pitching in to support everybody’s needs.

When the anti-smoking movement began years ago and, over time, became a completely hostile “zero tolerance” effort to eradicate, even criminalize, smoking, I said this was a bad idea, that a diverse society makes at least some allowance for alternative behaviors. But everybody was saying “smoking is unhealthy [and, therefore, the right to do it should not exist].” Now, they’re saying that obesity – fat people – “are unhealthy [and, therefore, the right to be fat should not exist].”

We do skid on the proverbial slippery slope when, as a society, we make a failure to conform a punishable offense. It is for this reason – as well as my own self interest – that I look forward to joining in the conversations on this blog, and to lending my voice and efforts to ensuring that fat people are not rendered illegal.