Back in 1997 I started working with my first therapist, the lovely and talented Sharilyn Marshall, MFT, concentrating on body image issues. In the nine years that I saw her, she helped me in myriad ways both relating to body image and not. She helped me come alive in my life, truth be told. I wouldn't be who I am today without her.
One thing she gave me that I'll never forget, and that will always be on my shelf no matter how outdated, was a copy of the book Fat!So? Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size. I remember reading it in wonder, thinking that the ideas within were totally ground-breaking. I just took this book off the shelf the other day, as a matter of fact. And you know what? The ideas within are still ground-breaking. Maybe a little bit less so now, 12 years after it's publication, but not that much. Fat people are discriminated against in so many overt ways (duh), and unfortunately that's still the norm for our culture.
Fat!So? is a large part of the reason I say "fat" instead of tending to use other, more common names such as "overweight", "plus size" or "plump". You'll hear me liken fat rights to gay rights in several ways and this is one of them. Just as the gay rights movement took back words like "fag" and "queer", I'm doing my part to take back the word "fat". I got called fat a lot as an insult growing up, a word that would make me inevitably burst into tears and run away to cower. Call me fat now, and I'll just say, "That's right, I'm fat. And...?" It's a descriptor above all else. I am fat.
Back in September 2005, I started this blog to chime in with all the other fat activists and hopefully become one myself. A couple years ago, I realized I just couldn't keep up with the blog in general, much less as a tool for activism, and quite honestly wanting/trying to speak for many, not just for myself, grew tiresome. I changed the title of my blog from "Guide to the Fat Life" to "Guide to (her own) Fat Life". How to make peace with being fat is extremely personal, as is blogging, for starters. And in the end I'm a quiet person who sometimes has big ideas and opinions on (or off) the topic of fat politics... as fantastical as the notion was when I started this blog, I'm just not an activist.
Today I came across Fatshionista. I really like Lesley Kinzel's voice. What she's doing, to me, is true activism. And again, that activism is not something I'm part of (anymore).
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