Feeding Our Children to Death

This was my response to a West Virginia article concerning the recent ad campaign in Ohio where fat kids are depicted eating unhealthily with the caption of "Are We Feeding Our Children to Death", a campaign which NAAFA has come out against:

The reality is many schools have dropped physical education because of funding cuts. Even if there is a park or playground, the days of just sending your kid out to play are gone. And many people do not have backyards where the kids can play. With our economy, usually the parents are working one or more jobs simply to make ends meet, and don't have the energy to supervise their children at play.

What NAAFA encourages is healthy eating choices and getting some exercise into your life. NAAFA wants people to concentrate on being healthy, not on what they weigh.
The simple fact is people come in all sizes. Americans are fatter than ever. Americans live longer than ever. Obviously, fat people are not dropping dead in alarming numbers, despite the dire preductions the medical establishment has been making for decades.

Mom was right when she said - just eat your veggies and go out and play.

She didn't say eat your veggies and worry about what you weigh!

Should fat people buy 2 seats on a plane

My thinking on this issue is - if you take up 2 seats you should pay for them. HOWEVER, if you want to put your seat back and use the space behind you - you should have to pay for the seat behind you. If your shoulders extend over into the seat area next to you - you should have to pay for that seat. And (this may get me really yelled at), if you are flying with an infant/toddler - you have to pay for the second seat. I'm sorry holding a child in your lap is not safe for the child or yourself in the case of an emergency. Nor is it comfortable to sit next to someone who has another person in their lap. After all, the airlines are supposedly doing this for our comfort and SAFETY. The airline should provide infant seats - like car seats.

AND if the airlines are going to charge fat folk for the extra seat, they need to be non-discriminatory about it. They need to adhere to their own rules, and allow the person to prove that they can (or cannot) fit into one seat.

AND if (as Southwest claims) it isn't about the money. Southwest should allow 2 fat people to purchase the 3rd seat between them to share. Southwest claims they can't guaranty 3 seats together (because they don't do assigned seating), however, Southwest lets the fat folks pre-board so they can be guaranteed the 2nd seat. So Southwest's explanation doesn't wash.

Fair is fair.

Tante Terri

How can you say fat people have no self-discipline? We haven't killed you yet!

BBW

Why don't I like BBW? I consider myself to be a beautiful woman. I am certainly big. But maybe because I don't like euphemisms, I prefer the word fat. Yes I am big, large, and all those other things – but what the word I identify with is fat.

So I guess what I am is a FBW.

I like that better, I guess.

And it's funny because I like acronyms. They can be all kinds of fun. I love LYLAS (love you like a sister), and I use LYLAA (love you like an auntie), and LYANJBYMS (love you and not just because you’re my sister).

Maybe I feel BBW (or FBW) is redundant. It may be trite, but everyone is beautiful in their own way. Average sized women aren't ABW, and thin ones aren't TBW or SBW. Why do fat women have to justify themselves by saying they are big AND beautiful – like those two words wouldn't normally go together.

And don't get me wrong, in my days of personal ads, I used BBW – because we all know that is the code to let the men looking at the ads know this woman is FAT. Although come to think of it, maybe I didn't use BBW – my recollection (going back, lo' these many years) is that my ads started "Fat and happy but not dumb …" And the kind of guys who responded, were the kind of guys who appreciated the fact that I knew I was fat, and I was comfortable with it. Often, the use of the word "fat" would be what attracted them to my ad over others.

So come on folks, I want a new fun acronym. This one doesn't make me happy, but I can't think of anything better (and since I'm married, I am not sufficiently motivated to put the brain cells to work on the problem).

Word 48 - Fat

This is part of my blog (on Live Journal and Myspace), where you sit down and list 100 words that relate to who you are, and then each day you take the next word, and blog on it. Can you believe that "fat" was word 48? How did it get so far down the list?

Where to start? Basically, I have been fat my entire life. Oh, I've managed to diet down to just a little above average size a few times, but, of course, the weight came back plus some.

My first realization that being fat was an issue was when I was maybe 6 or 7 and hanging with the neighborhood boys, and one of them told me that I could be his girlfriend if only I'd lose weight! Holy shit! 6 or 7! Not long after that our family doctor, Dr. Asshole – I'm sorry, Dr. Asline, began his ritual harangue about how I would never be asked on a date, much less have a boyfriend or get married, if I didn't lose weight.

I don't remember when my mother put me on my first diet, but suffice it to say, I was young. I don't know what she thought would happen. She was fat. Her mother was fat. Diets had never worked for her or her mother. Hello? And so a major part of my life was spent on the diet-go-round. I starved, ate weird stuff, got shots, took pills, you name it. And here I am, big as life and full of life, despite the weight loss industries best efforts.

I got teased, but not as much as you might expect. I have always been good at fitting in (no pun intended). And I was an active fat kid – I actually liked gym class. And I've always been able to make people laugh. For some unknown reason, the kids in my class were against anyone making fun of fat people. In junior high (the worst of times for everyone), I remember there was a new girl, Claire, who was gorgeous – white blond hair, built like Twiggy, dressed to kill at all times, she said something nasty about me being fat, and Claire's friends (the other "cool" kids obviously) told her that was not okay and to knock it off! Wow. Imagine how different fat kids would feel about themselves and life in general, if something like this happened to them, instead of the bullying so many are subjected to (with society's implicit blessing)? I was most fortunate.

And once I found theater, I was home free. Everyone could see I had some major talent, and they could respect that. So that was good.

My first job was as a salesperson for a fat lady's clothing store. I got the job after doing a couple TV commercials for them (they paid me in clothes – the first really nice clothes I ever had and they actually fit – thus beginning a lifelong obsession with clothes). I went on to manage their new store, and I learned that fat ladies can dress nice too. And all the employees of the store had to be big enough to wear the clothing!

Moving to LA, I found out there are fat people everywhere (not just in Michigan). I even found NAAFA, and Dimensions – imagine a magazine, where the beauty of fat women is extolled – and I found out there are men who prefer fat women! Holy crap! I also discovered that most of the problems I had dating were due to people issues not fat issues. I think that is probably one of the biggest problems fat folk have in relationships – they attribute the problems to fat issues, when in actuality it is just normal people issues that everyone goes through.

Anyhow, here I am in San Jose, married, and still fat. Happily, I am much more enlightened regarding fat issues. I have found that there are fat communities everywhere, and that (finally) fat people are learning that it is not okay to be discriminated against because of size. The voices of sanity seem to get lost in the hysteria that has been cultivated by the weight loss industry and our government; but if you listen closely the voices are there, and they will not be stilled.

New favorite saying: How can you say fat people have no self-discipline? We haven't killed you yet.

It's all about the fattitude.