[Images: three animated GIFs of Katherine Moennig speaking with the words captioned: Sexuality is fluid whether you’re gay, straight, or bisexual. Just go with the flow!]
UNNNNNNGH SHANE. Let me dive into your bedroom eyes.
(I think this is Shane, yes? Or another role of hers? God I’m so so so far behind on the L Word.)
[Image: a photograph of a fat, female-presenting person laying on a bed of red silk in black lingerie and red pumps, holding a rose. Her red hair is curly and pulled back from her face.]
AND I DON’T HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP!
o/
Body Positive: Why I Endorse Fat Acceptance
In my blog I use Fat Acceptance and Body Acceptance interchangably because to me they mean the same thing. But I’ve heard the term Fat Acceptance specifically criticized for a number of reasons (mainly based on ignorance of what it actually means – e.i. associating it with feederism or thin bashing).
The reason I associate myself to Fat Acceptance specifically, however, is because it goes a step further than many media generated Love Your Body type Campaigns. These will tell us that it’s okay to maybe be bigger than a model and that every body can be beautiful. (Even if they don’t necessarily SHOW us that – I’m looking at you, Victoria’s Secret) They’ll tell you to love your curves and that it’s more important to be healthy than to be skinny. But they won’t tell you it’s okay to be fat. That, they would say, is too far, is promoting obesity, unhealthy lifestyles, etc.
People say fat acceptance is “too extreme”, but it’s exactly as extreme as it needs to be. It shocks a lot of people and frankly they need to be shocked. They need to be made uncomfortable. They don’t deserve to be coddled into thinking their old paradigms about weight and health and beauty are acceptable because they aren’t.
Fat acceptance is a branch of the body acceptance movement that includes ALL body types, yes but says with clarity exactly who that includes. It says if you’ve got a BMI requirement on your type of acceptance then it isn’t acceptance at all.
Example of caring about a fat person’s health: “Hey, have you checked out this new HAES article? It’s got tons of information! Including tips on self esteem and some cool recipes we could try out!”
Example of being an unimportant douchebag: “Hey, I don’t like the way you look and I could never have the confidence you do, so I just wanted you to know that I hope you get a heart attack and die!”
<3 <3 <3
May have just started an argument on Facebook after someone health-concern-troll-fat-bashed my assertion that all body types are valid for women to have, so now I’m trawling the fat acceptance tag to steel myself for confrontation if it comes to it.
[Image: an illustration of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty as a woman of color.]
Lovely!
It’s probably telling that the last major fandom I was involved in was Sailor Moon in the late 90s and early 00s. I’m the kind of fan that can passionately care about a title/series/etc, and I can watch on my own for years and years and be happy, but the moment I dip my toe into a community I discover… people.
For example, The Office. I binged on the first three (American) seasons on Netflix, then at the time, the 4th seasons was still airing on TV. I think I discovered fan blogs for the show around season 5, and I excitedly checked comments on the newest episode to find that I absolutely cannot stand any of the people on the internet.
“This was the WORST EPISODE EVER.”
“…has totally jumped the shark.’
"This episode needed more _____.”
“This storyline needs to go.”
And I’m like… really? Worst episode ever? You don’t even know what the overarching plot lines of the season will be and how they connect and GH,0EA,;‘IKGWPAGK:EWAGJLE.
My kneejerk reaction is that everyone just needs to calm the fuck down. And maybe it’s just something unique to fans of The Office and other non-geeky ilk? Since TO is pretty planted in the mainstream? I don’t really think so. People are the same pretty much everywhere you go.
I guess being somewhat introverted, I’m even more of an introverted fan. Unfortunately, other folks can damper my enjoyment of a work with their opinions and such. I’ll just be over here in my corner, enjoying my fandoms on my own, kay?
[Image: An illustration of a ponyfied Lauren Faust having a picnic with characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; Celestia, Luna, Nightmare Moon, and Discord.]
[Image: A black and white drawing of the cast of the Office as the figures in “George Washington crossing the Delaware.”]
I’ll just leave this here.