Fat Body Politics

veeisagenderneutralname:

karynchaotic:

fancybidet:

If you’re a smaller fat person and you embrace the word fat and use it descriptively and lovingly, that’s awesome. I just hope that you think about your big fat friends who can’t use weight limited gym equipment, are denied visas to countries, denied life saving operations, and can’t physically fit into this every day world leading them to live isolated and distressing existences.

I would hope that you’re totally cool with your privileges and that when it comes to taking up space in fat activism, there are marginalised experiences we need to talk about OTHER than how hard it is to find clothes (although that is important too!) and our fat friends on the super awesome deathfat end of the spectrum need a place to talk about the things that make it hard for them to live and thrive every day (including other intersecting oppressions!)

people don’t believe that i weigh over 400 pounds because “wait, can’t you like, not walk at 400 pounds? i saw a show about a man who was so fat he couldn’t wear clothes and had to live in a bed. it was horrifying!” and i have found that like, size 30, 400 pounds, suddenly that’s where “fat acceptance” stops for some people. lane bryant stores only carry up to size 28, so clearly that’s the end of the human size spectrum. suddenly, when you’re Really Big, you start hearing “well, i mean, if you’re like, really severely obese you should do something about it, that’s just not right” etc etc from people that start their sentences with “now, i’m all for fat acceptance but…”

i love that fat acceptance has resonated with smaller fats and inbetweenies and thin folks, but again, there is not a cut-off point for fat acceptance and activism.  there shouldn’t be some magic size where you’re just too big to include or accept or listen to. the difference between a size 0, a size 6, a size 14, a size 22, and a size 30 or higher can be hard to fathom for people who just aren’t on the larger side of the spectrum. i see lists of all these ~amazing~ stores with plus size sections that all cut off at a size 24/26, and i’m left wondering what exactly i’m supposed to do with that. yay, you carry a wider range of sizes, boo, you still expect me to go naked or…not exist.

I WAS GOING TO BOLD MY FAVORITE PARTS OF THIS POST. BUT IT WAS ALL OF IT. IT WAS ALL OF THE POST.