Comments on: What’s your fat experience?

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:18:36 +0000

eyelinerpirate — re: “people of size” vs. “fat” — Honestly, I prefer Fat. To me, *EVERYONE* is “of size” in that, we all have a size, whatever it may be. However, because I want a wide variety of stories from people at a wide variety of empowerment levels, I vary terms in the language of the site, and in its promotion. It’s a conscious choice to use multiple ways to say fat, though I shy from the terms obese (because I find it too medicalizing) plus-size (plus WHO’S size?) and overweight (Over WHO’S weight?) as well as the more…foofy ways to say fat. (rubenesque, zaftig, etc.) “People of size” seems the least pandering of options to me, but I admit it’s inherently flawed as a term.

By: Bunny Mazonas

Bunny Mazonas — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:34:50 +0000

Does anyone know how to submit anything for this, if they are accepting submissions?

By: eyelinerpirate

eyelinerpirate — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:25:58 +0000

As opposed to “fat people,” I mean. Goodness, where is my brain?

By: eyelinerpirate

eyelinerpirate — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:25:04 +0000

Sorry for the tangent, but does anyone know a good discussion of pros/cons for the term “people of size” (as opposed to “fat”) that they could point me to? I’ve gotten kind of used to saying “fat” (rather than “obese”), and I’m wondering if it would be more appropriate/productive to use “people of size,” as Stacy does in the email.

By: stacy

stacy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:14:34 +0000

Thanks Julia! I added a few more questions to the “What we’re looking for” section — and took yours specifically into account. :)

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:27:52 +0000

Diversifying early on is paramount to the long-term success of the site. If the stories fall inside a narrow margin, then the site will be pigeon-holed as such, even if that’s not its intent, so please do bring your many and varied experiences to us.

Stacy, I’m glad to hear that diversity is important to you and to see you’re not being defensive about it. I particularly appreciated you mentioning intersectionality on your site. One suggestion, in the “what we are looking for section” you list a bunch of topics for people to talk about. You might want to include something like “How has your fatness affected your gender presentation/identity?” or “Does being fat change your experiences within political movements you identify with?” or something. I’m not being very good at thinking of topics, but I think including some that are geared towards people of color, trans people, queers, etc. would be helpful.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:18:06 +0000

crossbuster, I don't really know what your point is, but yes, men's voices are underrepresented in the fat acceptance movement (despite the fact that Paul is one of the founding members of the fatosphere). That doesn't negate the fact that we're talking about one privileged class and two non-privileged classes, but in this particular context, while male privilege of course still applies, it would nevertheless be easy to put together a group of voices that didn't include the male-identified. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you might want to cool it just a tiny bit, okay?

By: kateharding

kateharding — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:05:17 +0000

(and kate and the rotund for mentioning it

Fillyjonk’s the redhead! But I would have written this post if she hadn’t beaten me to it.

By: DiosaNegra1967

DiosaNegra1967 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:51:58 +0000

i love stacy to pieces!

i met her through NOLOSE a few years ago….and had the fortune of being interviewed by her in early ’07…at the time, she wasn’t exactly sure what was she was going to do with the written material and video footage she collected (if i remember correctly)…

i’m glad she’s decided to use this treasure of experiences….

go stacy! (and kate and the rotund for mentioning it….y’all are made of teh awesomeness!)

By: crossbuster

crossbuster — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:01:44 +0000

ahem

the disabled.

Scuse my grammars.