A little Feel Good Friday one day early from positively adorable BFDiva Mychii.
I think it speaks for itself, don’t you? Thanks, Mychii! You rock!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Tidbit, Video | 11 Comments »
A study released yesterday attempts to answer that important question, dividing adolescent girls into groups like “Jocks,” “Burnouts,” and “Alternatives,” and discovering that their peer groups are the most important deciding factor. From the press release:
The central theme of the study is that peer groups of teenage girls best determine their attitude towards their bodies, dieting and exercise. Some points to note are that athletic teens (part of the jock peer group) had the most healthy attitude, while those who were not part of any group had the most negative attitude and were the most likely to diet or over exercise.
Here’s a more sciency excerpt:
[G]irls identifying with athletic peers (‘Jocks’) were less concerned about their own weight and seemed less likely to be trying to control their weight. Girls identifying with non–conformist peers (‘Alternatives’) were more concerned about their weight and appearance and more likely to be actively trying to lose weight. The girls who identified with those who skip school and often get into trouble (‘Burnouts’) believed their peers valued thinness and dieting. Finally, girls who did not belong to any particular peer group were the most likely to use slimming strategies.
It’s kind of ironic that the non-conformists turned out to be more obsessed with weight than the other groups. So what were you: a Jock? A Burnout? An Alternative? A Vampire Groupie? (Yes, I have been reading the Twilight series. No, that’s not a real peer group. Sadly.) Do you think your peer group had any effect on your attitude towards your weight?
I personally was a Nerd, not brave enough to play sports, and all my pressure came from home and from my own brain. My peer group never pressured me, as far as I can remember. Of course I’m speaking of high school: in junior high, I simply didn’t have any friends. What about you? What about your daughters?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Kids, Personal, Question, Science | 33 Comments »
Over the weekend, I was thinking about traditionally “healthy” or “unhealthy” foods. You know, the old “good” and “bad” foods, if we were assigning morality to food, which we totally are not doing. I was thinking about the “healthy” foods I love and those I hate, and the “unhealthy” foods I love and hate, and thought it might be fun to hear yours.
On the healthy side of things, I dislike carrots and hate The Evil. I also don’t like beans much, although I’m trying to eat them more because of all the protein and blah blah. I actually was eating an apple when I thought of this topic, because some types of apples seem overly sweet to me; it’s not my favorite fruit. Health foods I love? Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and so many kinds of fruit, especially figs, apricots, green grapes, barely-ripe bananas, and strawberries. Greek yogurt.
Unhealthy? I don’t care for cheesecake very much. This is because my high school boyfriend (you know the one who is now gay and my best friend) reportedly makes awesome cheesecake, and I would have spent all four years of high school eating way too much cheesecake while I came to grips with my boyfriend’s sexuality. My favorite unhealthy things are probably fries, chocolate-chip cookies, and sprinkle cookies. And Coca-Cola, which is the one thing I have the most guilt about indulging in, as I think I’ve mentioned before.
Probably very favorite food is chocolate-dipped strawberries, which covers both categories in a perfect synergy of deliciousness. Anyway, at various times I have felt guilty about some of these likes and dislikes—feeling guilty for what I like and what I don’t like. But it occurs to me that everyone has their food likes and dislikes, no matter what their size, and none of us should feel guilty about any of them! So what are yours?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Food, Personal, Question | 49 Comments »
From someecards.com, my favorite electronic card purveyor! Also, this card reminds me to tell you I have a Twitter feed in case you’re interested. Happy Friday!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Feel Good Friday, Meta, Tidbit | 7 Comments »
Sorry for the sporadic updating this week. There were some back end issues with the blog (they should be resolved for now), I had a couple of interviews to do (one for Japanese television, which I definitely will need to write a report on at some point, especially because I’m pretty sure one of the camera guys actually zoomed in on my fat so god only knows how that will turn out), and there was a family emergency. Oh, also work has been insane and I am teaching over the summer. So there you go: lots of things happening this week.
In the meantime, are you planning to see Wall-E this weekend? (Follow that link to read our previous discussion about the film.) Red No. 3 has some thoughts about the movie as well:
Indeed, it seems like Pixar is actually being quite subtle and I suspect their use of fat shorthand will appeal to a variety of different fat prejudices. Essentially, fat is cautionary in the film. A sign of humanity’s downfall in the future. But that’s all it is. A sign, a symbol to represent something else. That can be useful sometimes, but here the effect is far more crass. Rather than making a complex point about consumerism or over-consumpsion of resources, they just rely on people’s fear and disgust of fat. Forget all the valid complaints about those things. They’ll make you FAT! That fear can be so base for people, that it doesn’t matter if someone thinks of fat as a consequences of personal irresponsibility or corporate neglect. Both will feel the fear of fat and attach their own nuanced prejudices onto that.
Wow, that’s way more profound than I can be this Friday. So who’s going to see the movie? If you see it, please report back in this thread!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Feel Good Friday, Meta, Movies, Tidbit | 40 Comments »
You have most likely already heard about The Fat Experience Project, but it’s worthwhile enough to hear about one more time!
One day, FF and I talked about the fact that we were fat. It was a surprising conversation. I had never talked to another fat person about being fat. We kept it light. We talked about “Chub Rub” - the chaffing between our thighs on hot summer days. We talked about our low-hanging bellies - We called them meat curtains and envisioned theatrical events that could take place beneath them. We talked about uncomfortable plane seats. We talked about diets and childhood humiliations. We made fun of ourselves. We made fun of other fat people. We leaned in close and whispered terrible things we’d never said out loud before. We laughed until we cried. We laughed so hard we had to leave the restaurant where we were having lunch. It was the least politically correct conversation I’ve ever had, and it RADICALLY changed my life.
I have created The Fat Experience Project to humanize the life lived large.
No more headless bouncing bellies on the news with the “Obesity Epidemic” stamped across the screen.
We have faces, names, lives and stories.
What’s yours?
It’s a really well designed, professional site and such a great idea. And how freaking cute are all these contributors so far? Sorry to be shallow! You’re all very cute.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Fat Positive, Meta, Tidbit | 4 Comments »
I was at the Bubble Lounge with Anne on Friday night, dressed up in our elbow-length gloves, eating chocolate-dipped strawberries, and sipping champagne. (Tangent: I was wearing a dress with the totally wrong undergarments and felt very self-conscious about it. Of course it was also very low cut, and as I was walking to the Bubble Lounge, a car full of men drove by and literally yelled, “Woah!” Ace in the hole, baby.)
As we were lounging and sipping, we saw a plus-size girl in an awesome striped blouse. Anne stopped her and said, “I love your blouse! Where did you get it?” She hesitated for a moment and said, “Thanks! Er, I don’t remember. Some boutique.” She gestured off into the indefinite middle distance.
As she walked away, Anne turned to me. “That’s totally code for Lane Bryant.” I said, “I was thinking the same thing.” “I want to grab the back of her shirt,” Anne said, “And find the evidence in the form of a tag that says ‘Venezia.’” We traded stories about times we’d shopped at Lane Bryant and answered exactly the same question exactly the same way. (I would also sometimes say, “Macy’s” which does sell clothes in a wide range of sizes so is slightly more plausible.)
So, yes, I’ve been there, and so has Anne. Yet this maneuver is totally transparent, it turns out. First of all, what “boutique” caters to plus-size women? None that I know of. Second of all, who “can’t remember” where they got an item of clothing? I admit it happens occasionally, but for the most part? Oh, you remember. And it was Lane Bryant. Why is that such a punchline? Why can’t we proudly say, “Yes, I got this at Torrid!” Or the Avenue! Or Dress Barn! Or Lane Bryant!
So, plus-size women, has this happened to you, or is it just us? Do you shop at an imaginary “boutique” or do you shop at Lane Bryant?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fashion, Personal | 72 Comments »
The end is the best part. Go, Joy!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feel Good Friday, Video | 11 Comments »
Or “tastants,” as they are being called in the world of science. We all know that the senses of smell and taste are linked; what I didn’t know was that the olfactory nerve is in part what governs our feeling of satiety. (Also, according to this article, people who lose their senses of smell and taste tend to gain 10-20 pounds. No idea if this is true.)
To test out if enhanced flavor would have the opposite effect, the sciency people did a study showing that flavor crystals sprinkled on food resulted in weight loss.
In a study lasting 6 months, Hirsch and colleagues had 2,436 overweight or obese adults sprinkle a variety of calorie-free “tastant” crystals on the food they ate. They put the salt-free savory flavours — like cheddar cheese, onion, and ranch dressing — on salty foods and put sugar-free sweet crystal flavours — like cocoa, spearmint, banana, strawberry and malt — on sweet or neutral-tasting foods.
A control group of 100 volunteers used non-flavoured “placebo” crystals. Both groups were told not to change their eating or exercise patterns… [Tthe “tastant” group’s] average weight loss over a 6 month period was a little over 30 pounds or about 15% of their body weight versus 2 pounds in the control group.
There are a whole host of reasons why tastants would work, Hirsch said, “but the best hypothesis is that these powerful smells and tastes acted to enhance sensory-specific satiety.” They send messages to the brain that say “I’m full.”
So, interesting. (Even though the doctor blithely says diets don’t work “because people do not have the will power to succeed.” Way to be reductive there, doctor.) I’m curious about the concept though. Would you sprinkle cocoa or cheddar cheese crystals on your food? I would at least be curious to see what they taste like. But I would also be concerned about the questionable chemicals they no doubt contain. I mean, what do we know about these things? They are “crystals” that are most-likely crystal-shaped, and that’s all we got at this point. A little ill-defined, if you ask me!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Food, Science, Weight Loss | 24 Comments »
Saw this tidbit about Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s son James (who I believe is 5 years old) and his hate of the word “fat.”
Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker have been banned from using the word `fat’ at home - by their politically correct young son. Little James Wilke insists the word upsets him more than any expletive.
Broderick explains, “You’re not even supposed to call people fat according to him. I guess that’s nice because it isn’t a very nice word and he’s very sensitive about it.”
Interesting. I obviously don’t feel that it’s “not a very nice word” if you reclaim it and own it and rah rah all of that, but I do feel it can be hurtful to people who aren’t all “fat pride!” about it. It used to be very hurtful to me, to be called fat. And we’ve seen that kids can be very hurt by the idea that they are “fat.”
So my question is: how do you feel about the word fat? Does that word have power over you, or has it ever? And if we teach our kids that the word “fat” is just a statement of fact and that it’s not a bad word… could we end up doing more harm than good? Let me know what you think.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Kids, Question, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tidbit | 40 Comments »
I was in Vegas this weekend, and at one point I think Weetabix said something drunkenly about Malan from Project Runway and Nikki Blonsky, but I didn’t really understand, as I was probably on the third pitcher of mojitos at that point. But I have Googled and checked Project Rungay and figured it out!
There was a fashion show on Bravo where some memorable designers from the show designed outfits for celebrities—one celeb/designer pair was Malan and Nikki; reportedly he was inspired to give her an Elizabeth Taylor quality. Fashion Sanity was inspired to present a list of lessons for designers, including:
3) We don’t have figure flaws to “camouflage”. We just have some body parts that are more perfect than others.
4) If you hear of a rule about what bigger people should NOT wear, throw it out of the window and throw away the key. We can and will wear horizontal stripes, large prints, high waisted skirts and pants AND skinny jeans. So MAKE everything you make for the skinny chicks for us. Just bigger.
6) We are fat. NOT OLD and not 60 and NOT BORING AND NOT SUBURBAN. Make us clothes as hip and cool and sexy and fun as the ones they make for skinny chicks.
8) We don’t care if something is “slimming” or not. Wanting something to be “slimming” is like making a black girl wear something that is “whitening” or making a gay man wear ill fitting jeans and a basketball jersey.
10) We are fashion savvy, creative and as a rule, WAY cooler than most skinny chicks. Make us clothes that fit our personalities and hearts.
Please note that I think old, suburban, and skinny people also deserve great fashion. Still, some good points! And check it out, size fourteens: you can even bid on Malan’s dress! And here is the fashion show where you can check out all the designs:
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Nikki Blonsky, Project Runway, TV, Video | 34 Comments »
Now you too can diet like a celebrity, using everything from cayenne pepper to colonics in order to “detox” your body and lose weight. Yummy!
Martha’s Vineyard Detox Diet: Followers include ridiculously skin-and-bones supe Gisele Bundchen, weight loss master Robin Quivers and the muscular Madonna. The 21-day detox promises devotees to shed 21 pounds in that many days “by subsisting on live juices, enzymes - and regular colonics.”
Master Cleanser: Reportedly what Beyonce used in order to nab her Dreamgirls role, Vince Vaughn allegedly follows the lemon juice liquid diet, and Jared Leto shed his Chapter 27 weight by drinking the “water mixed with lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper” cocktail as well.
Joshi’s Holistic Detox: Fans include the clavicle-flashing Gwyneth Paltrow, original waif Kate Moss and currently slim Ralph Fiennes. The main focus is avoiding acidic and toxic foods, but the downside hardly sounds worth it, and sort of explains Kate’s moody expressions in photo after photo: “Users report headaches, stomach pains, nausea and fatigue.”
Follow the link for pictures of the skinny celebs. Post here to answer Defamer’s question, “is giving up our nightly vino and succumbing to regular colonics worth looking like a lollipop head?” One of the profound questions of our age.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tidbit, Weight Loss | 24 Comments »
We wrote about Deborah Voight all the way back in 2006. You might remember her as the opera singer who was fired for being too fat, and who had gastric bypass surgery. She was recently rehired to sing the same role that she was fired for, back in the day. The New York Times has an overview:
At the time, the director, Christof Loy, proclaimed her too heavy to wear a sleek black cocktail dress that he deemed integral to his concept. The dress has since become a symbol of skewed priorities among opera directors who value a singer’s appearance over vocal artistry.
Voight made a video called “Return of the Little Black Dress” where she spoofs the incident… and makes reference to her previous weight with jokes like the dress saying: “I thought our being together was… a bit of a stretch” and then apologizing and saying “I was wrong. Size doesn’t matter.” Of course even the NYT points out, if size doesn’t matter, why was she fired at size 30 and then rehired at size 14?
This all seems very “all’s well that end’s well!” and “getting skinny is the best revenge.” But of course she should never have been fired in the first place, and I guess in her place I’d be a little more angry, a little less willing to take the blame upon myself for being treated unfairly. And yet…
Still, for Ms. Voigt there have been upsides to this humiliating episode in her life. For one, she looks and feels terrific. After her surgery, by monitoring her diet and exercise closely, this 5-foot-6 soprano reduced her dress size from 30 (at her heaviest) to 14, with resulting benefits to her confidence and health. In recent seasons she has been winning acclaim for portraying characters meant to look alluring, like Puccini’s Tosca and, in a career milestone, Strauss’s Salome, at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2006.
And while she hopes that the little-black-dress incident will not be the defining moment of her career, she said, “It’s allowing me the chance to talk about the subject of obesity, especially childhood obesity. It’s become so much more prevalent in society today, it really frightens me,” she added. “I had a weight problem, and will have one for the rest of my life. It’s a constant battle. Gastric bypass is not a cure, it’s a tool.”
So what do you think of the video and the article? Are you as ambivalent about it as I am?
Thanks to Eleanor for the link!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Art, Celebrities, International, Music, Theater, Video, WLS | 22 Comments »
Has there been more uproar lately about celebrities gaining and losing weight, or have I just noticed it more? Three posts I ran across today in quick succession:
1. “Carnie Wilson’s War” (with video from the Tyra Banks show, of course) is Carnie’s battle with her weight after her highly publicized weight loss surgery.
2. Britney Spears is on the Posh Spice diet (water with lemon, steamed fish, edamame, and seaweed) and has gone from a size 14 to a size 10!
3. Oprah has gained weight again!
From that last post:
I hate how we are so quick to pay attention to how much weight everyone loses and gains. I know, Oprah has tons of money and I’m really not a big fan… Nonetheless, money or not, she has the same body issues many of us “normal” women have — probably moreso because she’s constantly being scrutinized by people. When she loses weight, people give her a hard time. When she gains it, people give her a hard time and laugh at her. It’s sad. Maybe I’m just sensitive, but I really hate seeing people being judged by their weight — fat, skinny, whatever.
I don’t want to point out again that all of the posts I ran across today were about women. But, oops, I guess I just did!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Britney Spears, Carnie Wilson, Celebrities, Feminism, Guest Post, International, Oprah, Tyra Banks, Victoria Beckham, WLS | 18 Comments »
Quiconque e-mailed me to alert me to a Subway commercial, which she blogged about, that implies that people who eat fast food get automatically fat and that, among other things, this means they smell bad. I know, I almost can’t believe it either. (As soon as I or anyone else finds the video, I’ll add it to this post.) As she describes:
An announcer asks a slackerish dude, “What do you get with a burger combo meal?” According to the announcer, in addition to the fries and the drink, the burger meal also comes with elastic waist pants, seat belt extensions, diet books, and extra-strength deodorant.
There’s also a Jezebel post about a similar ad in the same campaign, where a cashier tells a woman that ordering a cheeseburger means she’ll lose her boyfriend and have low self-esteem.
This article also talks about the offensiveness of that particular ad simply from a feminist standpoint:
Apparently, eating at McDonald’s makes you completely unlovable. The more troubling and implicit theme is that a woman’s worth is wrapped up not only in her waist size - something she should worry about even if she is Hollywood stick thin - but in her boyfriend as well…
These commercials prey on young women, a portion of the population that is already predisposed to having the kind of low self esteem that leads to eating disorders. It’s made all the more abhorrent by the fact that that the woman in the commercial is thin enough that the idea of one meal at McDonalds making her “fat” and “undesirable” is ludicrous.
I had Subway for dinner tonight, as it happens. I have Subway several times per week, as there’s one right by my house and one right by my work, and I like their sandwiches for a quick healthy meal. But given this new advertising campaign, I am going to think long and hard about visiting there ever, ever again. And in the meantime, both the advertising agency and Subway will be getting feedback from me. (The chain can be contacted here, but I’m sure there’s a more direct way.)
Here is the video of the low-self-esteem commercial. As I mentioned above, please keep your eye peeled for any more videos in this campaign. I’ll also add contact information for the chain and for the advertising agency as soon as I’m able to find it. Feel free to provide that info in the comments if you find it. Because you guys, THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, Fatism, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Food, TV, Video | 53 Comments »
We’ve helped a 21-year-old, a 16-year-old, and a 14-year-old. Now we have a 12-year-old, and we have a tough job ahead of us. You see, she isn’t looking for body image advice. She went to the site hello i am fat (funny blog title; sad search term) because she wants to be skinny like her friends, wants to know what she’s “doing wrong.” Here’s her comment:
5″4 and 135 pounds.
Huge: arms, Stomach, Hips, and Thigs.Hello. I need some help, maybe you are the right person to ask. Atleast I hope so. Well, let me start… I am 12 years old. Im in 7th grade. Youngest out of all my friends. I look around and see girls and guys who are so skinny. How do they do it?? I do not know what i am doing wrong! I excersize so much, and I am in great shape. I eat very healthy and I dont know when the last time I had fast food was. I feel super uncomfertable in tight clothes since my hips are majorly sticking out. What do I do in the Summer time when its time to wear a bikini? I am a size 7 in pants and probably a medium at like Hollister [with my fat hanging out of the clothes.] I hate this and cant stand it!!! If you can respond back that would be a big help.
Anne sent me this link yesterday, and I spent last night lying awake, thinking of what I could possibly say. This is what I came up with. Read more…
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Health, Kids, Miley Cyrus, Personal | 30 Comments »
How did I not know there was a site called Celebrity Body Gossip? Well, there is, and according to them, Madonna hates her “big fat thighs.” Oh, Madonna!
The original story comes from the Daily Mail:
[D]espite a body that belies her 49 years, it seems Madonna is just like every other woman when it comes to hating one part of her body - her thighs. A newly-released video shows the singer bemoaning the ‘big fat thighs’ she inherited from her mother…she is heard on the clip pleading: ‘Don’t show my big fat thighs, whatever you do.’
The footage was shown during an interview on US television. Asked about her remarks, she made light of them, joking: ‘My big Italian thighs. Very proud of them.’ But she added that she was happier with her legs now a new workout schedule had taken effect. ‘My thighs aren’t as chubby,’ she said.
I guess you can say this makes her relatable or something. (Not that we ever need to hear, say, Johnny Depp whinging about his cellulite.) But mostly it’s just depressing that she, of all people, at the age of 49, hasn’t found peace with her body. Another point of view? According to my husband, “she should be more worried about whether people are sick of her.”
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Gossip, Madonna, Music | 21 Comments »
It was only a matter of time before fat people were being blamed for people who are starving, as if we could send all our Big Macs and Oreo cookies directly to them.
UN food agency chief Jacques Diouf said today that billions of dollars are being wasted on feeding obese people in the West while millions starve around the world. “No one understands … how over-consumption by obese people in the world costs 20 billion dollars each year.”
I don’t even understand this. People who eat pay for the food they eat, right? So… how does the food that obese people eat cost more money than the food thin people eat? What he hell? And ironically, this also sounds like an echo of the “you had better clean your plate, because people are starving in Africa!” approach to eating that has screwed up some people’s relationships with food in the first place.
Anyway, I am happy to put my fat person dollars to work to help ameliorate famine throughout the world. All I need is you to tell me what worthy cause our fund-raising drive should benefit, and what I should offer as incentive for people to donate. My friends, let’s show Jacques Diouf that he’s full of it, shall we?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Food, International | 42 Comments »
As you probably know, if you know anything about me, my favorite show is The Office, and you know I’ll take any excuse to mention it in this blog. I recently discovered The Office Alliance podcast, and have been listening to episodes during my long commutes. Having run out of new episodes, I recently started over at the beginning, and in one episode, they quoted from this interview with Ricky Gervais.
“I never knew I was fat until I got famous… Then I suddenly realised I was overweight. The papers can’t simply put ‘comedian Ricky Gervais’. They have to put ‘rotund comedian’ or ‘chubby fatster’.
“The other day, I was trying to keep fit by going jogging with my iPod, and the paparazzi leapt out a bush and got me. The headline the next day? ‘Ipodge.’ What can you do?”
Man, that bugs the hell out of me, too; certain celebrities often get some descriptive plus-sized adjective attached to them, even when it’s not relevant to the story. (I was Googling for examples and found this article where Nikki Blonsky not only escapes that fate, she gets referred to as “Golden Globe nominee” instead. She’s working on an album! Yay! Sorry, tangent.)
Anyway, Ricky Gervais pokes a lot of fun at his own weight in both The Office (him sucking in his gut for the benefit of the motivational speaker people) and Extras (oh god, the the girdle); in each case it’s not so much mocking the character’s weight, but his vanity. To sum up, Ricky Gervais is a genius. Wait, was that not the point I was supposed to be making here?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Music, Nikki Blonsky, Ricky Gervais, TV, The Office | 18 Comments »
Just to give you an update on the BFD BlogHer situation, it looks like we will have some meeting space on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully there will be some frivolity, some gossip, some squeeing, and some swag. Let me know if you’re planning to attend and if you have anything specifically you’d like to see, do, or talk about!
Code for this button is available right here. Don’t forget to let me know you’ll be there so I know how many swag bags to make. Let’s start planning in the comments!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: BFDCon, BlogHer08, Feel Good Friday, Meta | 1 Comment »
