Stocklaufer granted 2nd adoption hearing

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Well, Mr. Stocklaufer has lost almost 200 lbs and has been given a second hearing on adopting the baby that was taken from him and his wife.
The court was so worried that a man who weighed 550 lbs wasn't healthy enough, wouldn't live long enough, to raise this child (despite the fact that he and his wife have an 8 year-old adopted son) that they took the baby away and gave it to another couple for possible adoption. So Mr. Stocklaufer had WLS in August and has lost almost 200 lbs in less than 4 months. Yeah, judge, that's really healthy, mutilating a perfectly good digestive system and losing almost 50 lbs a month is just so good for a fat person. You're willing to condemn a man to a lifetime of side effects and possible death because fat-phobia has run rampant and you have bought into the hype that no way can a fat person be healthy, their fat is going to kill them sooner than anything else possibly could. You're willing to deny this baby loving parents, who are related to him, just because one of those parents is fat.
I'll tell you what, judge, there are no fucking guarantees in life. Those thinner people that you gave the baby to, they could die tomorrow in a fire, a car wreck, or any one of a number of accidents that can't possibly be foreseen or prevented. And then where would that baby be? Without parents again. And I can guarantee you that that baby isn't going to give a rat's ass why his parent died, just the fact that a parent is gone is devastating enough, without blaming the parent for his own death. Judge, you really need to educate yourself on the facts of weight, and not go by the hysteria dished out by the media and the pharmaceutical industry.

The big issue.......maybe

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I'm not so sure I agree with the writer's premise here. He seems to be saying that women are their own worst enemy when it comes to size and accepting/loving themselves. He also seems to be saying that thin women aren't womanly, only women with "curves" are womanly.
Since this is a British newspaper, and his main "woman with curves" seems to be Nigella Lawson (and I don't have a clue who she is since I don't watch British tv, hell, I don't even watch that much American tv), I can't say if she's "average", "thin", "overweight", "obese", or whatever.
I will agree that women are harder on themselves than they should be, and we are prone to judging each other by size/shape/hair color, etc. But, and I think this is a big but, has it gotten so bad because women are naturally so judgmental of other women, is it because we are competing against each other for whatever it is we want out of life, or is it because we've been programmed by the entertainment industry, the diet industry, and the cosmetics industry to try to reach some unattainable ideal of beauty and fix every little teeny tiny flaw we have (or maybe all of these)?
I will admit, that before I found FA, I was as guilty as the next one for judging on the basis of looks alone. I don't know how many times I saw a thin woman and said "I hate skinny women (actually, it was skinny bitches), they don't know how good they have it" or a fat woman and said "Damn, I'm glad I'm not that big (or: "fuck, I wish I was her size", if she was smaller than me)." I never stopped to think that the issues I had about my body applied to every other woman out there, no matter what her size happened to be. I never stopped to realize that the perfection we are supposed to strive for and attain is impossible for all but a very few (and they have it because they were born with it). And even though those born with that supposed ideal beauty probably still have issues every day that they aren't perfect either. I'm not proud of the fact that I used to think that way, but I'll tell you what, I am damned glad I found FA and that I can see the way I used to think is nothing but programming/brainwashing/whatever and that I have the ability to realize that and change my attitude about myself and other women.

“I don’t think that it has necessarily got worse: my mother was obsessed with weight,” says Feltz. “But now, nobody ever says, ‘Handsome is as handsome does, and so what if she’s put on few pounds – she’s still fascinating.’ That’s the real difference.”

I wonder though, even when people said that, did they really mean it? Did they really apply it to the people they knew, the people they met? And did a person's weight, back when that quote was popular, have little bearing on how handsome/beautiful a person was considered? I don't know how many times I was told "you'd be so pretty if you just lost some weight" (and all that did was make want to punch out the lights of the person who said it).
Everyone has biases, and it's impossible to eradicate all bias, but just because you have a bias about some aspect of a person doesn't mean you get to treat them as less than human. Everyone, no matter their size/looks/intelligence/ability/whatever, is worthy of being treated with respect and dignity. If they're an asshat, on the other hand...........

Target/Lane Bryant rewards for touting merchandise

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I read this, and I think what Target is doing now is damage control. They set up on Facebook and MySpace, and have members of those communities recommend merchandise from Target in return for rewards, but don't want anyone to know that those are paid recommendations. When someone thinks that's unethical and posts about it on Target's Facebook or MySpace, her posts are either archived or removed, presumably to keep the secret. Once that is found to be impossible to do, they spin it by saying it was a mistake and worded incorrectly, and then they change the wording to make themselves look good.
My point for making this post is that I got a couple of emails from someone saying she is from Lane Bryant, thanking me for posting about their Right Fit jeans, and wanting to reward me with a holiday gift, just send me your mailing address so we can thank you. Well, I'm naturally leery about that kind of thing, and I didn't respond, and trashed the email.
Then about a week later, I got another email telling me about a free mp3 I could download:

Right Fit has a new song, I Can’t Believe It’s Me!, that invites women to celebrate themselves and love their bodies. You can download this song to your blog!

Now, I don't have a problem with advertising, how else do we learn about new products and decide if we want to try them? I also don't mind linking to websites that I've found that have awesome clothes and products for fat women. But for some reason, and I haven't quite figured out why, this just kind of makes me uneasy.
I don't have anything against Lane Bryant, per se, other than the fact that they don't use larger models for their clothes, using the excuse that even fat women don't want to see their clothes on larger models (and if that's really the case, why does Catherine's use larger models and sell as many clothes as they do?). About the only thing I ever buy from LB is slacks, because I know how they are going to fit me, and I know how they are going to look on me. As for tops and dresses, I won't buy from LB because I can't tell from looking at a top or a dress on a thin model how it's going to look on me (we're talking catalogs/websites here, I don't like their stores much, and that's a whole 'nother rant). I have a humongous rack of doom and hips that don't quit, not to mention thunder thighs that make a storm pale in comparison, so how can I tell what it's going to look like on me when the model isn't even close to my shape or size? Ain't happening, folks. That's one of the reasons I won't download their song to my blog, another is that I listened to it and I don't really care for it (I'm really not into the hip hop style of music, and the lyrics seem rather repetitious to me). Now if they had wanted to do that song more on the order of Free Your Mind by En Vogue, I would have jumped on it in a heartbeat (love that song, can ya tell).
I know I'm not the only blog out here who has talked about Right Fit jeans, so I'm assuming I'm not the only one who got this request? Does anyone have a different perspective on this? I'm open for suggestions.