Fat Activist Definition

1. What is your definition of a Fat Activist?
Activist: one who supports direct, vigorous action in support of a controversial issue, usually social or political change. So, for me, a fat activist is one who is saying that fat people deserve respect, just for the fact that a fat person is a human being and as such is entitled to respect. The direct, vigorous action can be blogging, writing congresspersons, participating in fat-positive events, confronting prejudice wherever it happens, and enlightening family, friends, neighbors, and strangers that there is nothing wrong with body diversity. Letting people know that fat healthy people, and fat unhealthy people, don't deserve to be treated like pariahs just because they are fat. Getting the word out about all the studies promoting the obesity epidemic hysteria and how the information is skewed to represent what the studies' backers want them to represent (did a pharmaceutical company with a new weight loss drug pay for the study that says this drug works, did they pick and choose the participants based on wellness or ill health, how did that reflect on the efficacy of the drug, what information did they learn that was detrimental to the use of the drug that they decided to leave out of the study, etc).
2. What qualities give a Fat Activist the capital letters in that title?
Courage under fire, meaning the ability to keep on telling the truth about diets and weight loss and HAES, no matter how many people shout you down. The ability to understand and interpret those studies mentioned in #1 and translate for those of us who don't have the technical knowledge to decipher medical-speak. A willingness to write letters to editors, congresspersons, companies, etc about the injustices perpetrated on fat people. The ability to inspire others to follow, and maybe even become leaders themselves. I don't mean that every Fat Activist will have all of the mentioned qualities, they may have some, and not others, they may have other qualities not listed.
3. How is a Fat Activist different from a Fat-Acceptance Supporter?
A Fat Acceptance Supporter may not be willing to become involved in direct vigorous action, but might work behind the scenes, organizing, filing, donating time and/or money wherever needed (got a talent for making buttons/t-shirts/bumper stickers with smart sayings promoting FA, etc). Fat Acceptance Supporters give feedback on ideas, help keep dialogs open, and give us all much-needed encouragement when things look bleak.
I haven't decided where I fit in the scheme of fat acceptance yet. I will continue to blog about the issues I find important, I will continue to read other fat acceptance blogs. I will also promote fat acceptance anytime I hear nastiness directed at any fat person. I don't want to hear about diets, been there done that, succeeded for a while, then failed miserably. I'm not going to congratulate people who have lost weight (nor will I put them down for dieting). Any opinion poll I take, that has an opportunity within its context, will hear about HAES from me. Any doctor I see will know that I don't want to hear anything about my weight, I want to be treated for whatever ailment I have just as I would be if I were thin and sick. I will complain when I am treated badly because of my fat.
Now, for how I reached this point in my life. I always thought I was fat as a teen because I didn't wear a size 4 or 6 (back in the late 60's/70's, 4's and 6's were considered fine), I wore a 16/18 in high school (I started having to wear a bra in 3rd grade). In high school, I was 5' 9" and weighed 175 lbs. I gained about 60 lbs when I got pregnant at 17 1/2 and didn't lose any of it after the baby came. I lost the weight when I got hit by a car at the age of 19. I was very active after that, roller skating and walking and bicycling, so even at the same weight of 175, I wore a size 14 (and still thought I was fat, since the Air Force wouldn't take me until I got down to 140). I stayed at that size until I got pregnant with my son in 1975, and ballooned up to 325. I dieted down to 200 lbs several times, each time regaining what I had lost, and then some. The last time that happened, I hit 350 lbs in 1989 and said enough is enough. Then I met a woman who was fat and had some serious health issues (I've blogged about Pat) back in 1991. We moved from Illinois to MN and her doctor recommended a VBG for her. She lost a lot of weight (check out her pics, you'll see what I mean) and I thought, wow, this could help me with my mobility issues that had been creeping up on me. Well, it killed her, and didn't work for me (my VBG was in September 1997). After that failed, I decided I was meant to be fat, there was nothing I could do to change it (after all, I had tried and failed too many times to keep on trying and failing). It wasn't until this summer that I found Fat Acceptance. Even though I kept saying I was meant to be fat, and knew I couldn't lose weight and keep it off, I still wanted to be thinner. If I was thinner, I wouldn't have the pain in my knee, or the pain in my back that keeps me from walking or standing. But if diets don't work, and WLS doesn't work, what do I do? I learned about HAES, and doing what exercise I can (which isn't much at this point, but I hope will improve). I learned that I don't have to apologize for being fat, that I don't have to accept the stereotypes of fat people, that I can learn to love myself as I am, fat and all. I wish every fat person could learn that, know it in their heart and head, and live their lives to the fullest, no matter what. I'm still on the journey, and probably will be forever, because as so many of you have said, it's not easy. It may be one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, and I've been through some pretty rough shit (but that's dozens of other posts for other times), but, and this is a BIG but, I'm worth it, and so is every other fat person out there.

Amazon.com and recommendations

I got an email from amazon.com with a new recommendation, based on past purchases. Now, what I had purchased was Megan Garcia's Just My Size Yoga, and Paul Campos' The Obesity Myth and The Diet Myth (didn't know they were the same book, just re-titled when I ordered them). So what did amazon.com recommend for me? Save 25% on a Weight Watchers online membership. I have no idea how they got that idea from my purchase of a fat woman's yoga video and two books about the myth of dieting. It just seems obvious to me that if someone thinks dieting success is a myth, then they aren't going to be interested in another diet that is bound to fail in the long run. Below is the letter I sent them, letting them know how to improve their recommendations in the future:

I bought 3 items about fitness and not dieting (Just My Size Yoga, The Obesity Myth, and The Diet Myth). You sent me an email recommending Weight Watchers online. I am not interested in another diet that does not work. I do not want to have ANY type of diet recommended to me. I am interested in Health At Any Size, not on changing the size I am. 95% of people who diet will regain what they lost within 5 years of going off the diet, and may regain even more weight than they lost. This is true, no matter what diet they use. There is no way to make a naturally fat person thin, just like there is no way to make a naturally thin person fat. Having been there done that, got the t-shirt, hat, and key chain, I don't need any more diet recommendations. If you had recommended more items along the lines of Paul Campos' book, that would have been more in line with my life philosophy and interests.

I don't know what the response will be, but I will post their answer, if and when I get it.

I knew there was a reason I don't watch TV

We (hubby and I) went to my son's house this weekend to pick up my washer and while we were there, the TV was on. Now, I don't usually watch TV unless it's CSI or Law and Order or Trick My Truck. My son was watching Dirty Jobs, then that Spaceballs movie. During the movie, a commercial for Subway came on. You know the one, where the customers (average-sized) are ordering a beer belly (extra large) and cheese curd thighs, then they show the Subway subs and fruit and low-fat yogurt and say that's a healthier way of eating, and imply that it will either keep you from getting fat, or help you get thin if you're already fat. Reminds me of the commercial with the couple at the drive-thru, ordering the thunder thighs and badonkadonk butt, etc.
These commercials are assuming that fast food places are the only places people eat, they always order the most fattening, calorie-laden items on the menu, and they order a ton of it. Now, I would assume that if fast food is all you eat, even if you stay within a healthy amount of calories, you could possibly gain weight. But how many people actually live that way? And whose business is it if they do? I was not put on this earth to meet anyone's expectations but my own. I, and only I, have the right to decide what is right for me. If that is eating a healthy variety of foods and exercising, fine. If it's pigging out on chocolate cake and ice cream and cheeseburgers and fries, that's fine too. The size, or lack of size, of my ass does not determine my worth, and I resent the hell out of commercials that try to tell me I must be thin, and in order to be thin, I have to eat a certain way.
No one has figured out all the things that make a person the size they are, let alone how to lose weight and keep it off forever (or gain weight, for that matter, for people who are thin). And I do not want to live in a world where all the people are the same size, look the same, act the same, and think the same. That would be so boring. Yes, I'm somewhat of a non-conformist. After all, I'm a woman who knows how to run power tools, work on cars, do basic carpentry and plumbing, and never thought I had to have a man in my life in order to be a 'real woman'. I've never been big on dresses or make-up or having my hair and nails done. I also don't read what I've been told most women read (and how stereotypical is that). I like science fiction/fantasy, horror, true crime, historical novels, and anything to do with the supernatural (I admit a fondness for the were animal/vampire romances, tho). Musically, my tastes range from Alice Cooper to Jimmy Buffett to Rob Zombie to Native American to Celtic and everything in-between. I have never thought that a woman should be bound by what they are supposed to want to do, so why would I think that a woman should look like whatever the ideal happens to be at that time?
The ideal for women used to be fat. Fat women could survive a famine, being fat showed that you could afford to eat when food was scarce for the common people. Now that we have a surfeit of food (and goods) and no need for fat to show how prosperous we are, thin is the ideal. We are shown, on a daily basis in print and on television, all the goods we have and are told to consume, consume, consume, but don't get fat. Love that chocolate cake, the fudge brownie sundae, but don't get fat. Fat is going to kill you, you must be thin at any cost, and never mind the studies that have shown that carrying a few extra pounds can help you survive the after-affects of a heart attack or stroke, especially as you age. Never mind that it is a natural thing for people to gain a few pounds as they age, we are supposed to be thin at any cost. Never mind that eating disorders are killing young women who want to reach that unattainably thin ideal, never mind that weight loss surgery is causing untold complications for people who would have been perfectly fine at their current weight, never mind that pharmaceutical companies are creating drugs (and pushing them rabidly) that they have no fucking clue what the side effects are or what the long-term consequences of their use will be. You must be thin at any cost, and if they can't convince you with all their studies (and we have seen how they have been debunked on Junkfood Science), then they will try brainwashing you through commercials designed to tell you what and how to eat.
Sorry, I'm not buying into it any more. I have had a healthy dose of cynicism where weight loss is concerned for the last 9 years (ever since my WLS failed), and everything I read just reinforces that cynicism.