ELEGANT PLUS CONTENT TAGS:Activism, body image, Fat Rant, Joy Nash, Musings from the Editors Chair, obesity, Size Acceptance Women and Media

Joy Nash’s original Fat Rant video clip took the internet by storm earlier this year.  Since then she’s become a talk show guest taking on the likes of MeMe Roth and gotten neck deep in national size-acceptance issues.  She’s smart, well-spoken …. and yes fat.  But not in the media stereo-typical way that seems to delight in images of sloth when portraying fat people.  She’s very cute and curvaceous, fashionable and well dressed. And, let’s not forget funny, but unlike the usual fat comedian, not in a self-deprecating (might we even say self-loathing) way that we usually see.  No Kirstie Alley self-hating antics for her. 

 Check out Part 2 of her Fat Rant.   Kudos! 

Now excuse me while I go feed a sleep addiction and take a nap.

Popularity: 15% [?]

ELEGANT PLUS CONTENT TAGS:Activism, Advice, Back to School, BBW, Beauty, body image, body types, Confidence, Guest Article, Health, Life, obesity, parenting, Plus Size, self esteem, Size Acceptance, Teens women

Fat… So? 

Human beings come in all sizes.  How can we promote health …. and size-acceptance in our schools?

by  Camille Jackson of Tolerance.org
Reprinted with permission at Elegant Plus Magazine

As the “War on Obesity” heats  up, in schools across the country kids who are heavier than their classmates experience size bias and even outright bullying from peers and adults.  And, school health programs can sometimes hurt more than they help. Experts from the size-acceptance community, whose views are often omitted from health debates, offer a fresh perspective: eat healthy foods, stay active, and don’t worry about your weight and size.

Article title based on Marilyn Wann’s book,     Fat! So? Because You Don’t Have to Apologize for Your Size

 ”I’m the biggest in my family and I have the best cholesterol and blood sugar,” announces Kevin, a junior at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Calif. He has just walked an extra-long distance for a late lunch of salad topped with grilled chicken strips and ranch dressing, followed by chocolate chip cookies. He came to the school’s Teen Resource Center to make a point about stereotypes.

“I play three sports, I ride my bike, I walk everywhere and I’m still the same size,” he says, insisting his health is better than some of his thinner classmates.

Looking at his larger-than-average size, some doubt Kevin is as healthy as he claims. But Marlene Schwartz, co-director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, says it’s quite likely Kevin’s weight may not negatively affect his health.

“I believe if a child is eating a nutritionally balanced diet and is active, if he or she has a higher BMI [body mass index], it doesn’t matter,” says Schwartz.

Schwartz routinely hears people say, “If only fat people worked harder, they would lose weight.” But she and others challenge the hysteria surrounding the global “obesity epidemic,” which defines 17 percent of children age 2 to 19 as overweight.

Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth, argues that Americans are, in general, only 15 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago. It is public health standards, not our bodies, that have changed, becoming more rigid in defining the majority of Americans as “overweight.”

That news is small consolation for students subjected to harassment and prejudice, sometimes unrelentingly, from peers and teachers because they are heavier than others. Many have been frightened into hating their bodies by grim medical reports about childhood obesity. Too many believe that dieting is the only solution, even though study after study shows dieting doesn’t work.

Michael Loewy, a psychology professor at the University of North Dakota, paints an unsettling picture in his essay Working with Fat Children in Schools: “It is amazing that so many fat children survive adolescence, given the hatred and meanness directed at them.”

‘I Put Myself Down’

At Sequoia High School’s Teen Resource Center, Dana Schuster, a speaker with the Health at Every Size program, has gathered a group of students to discuss how the war on obesity has taken a toll on their self-esteem.

“In my family they tell me, ‘You’d look nice if you were smaller,’” says Celia, 15.

“I think I put myself down more than anyone,” adds Rachel, 18, referring to the negative thoughts filling her head about her size.

One girl says she’s more confident and accepting of herself now that she’s in high school, yet she’s just finished a juice fast, essentially starving herself. “I felt good. I lost the 10 pounds,” she says.

Naomi, 16, listens quietly to other students’ comments about the frustrations of gym class and clothes shopping. Then she says simply, “It hurts when you weigh a lot.”

Victims of size discrimination often suffer from depression, anxiety and loneliness. They may also suffer from low self-esteem, voluntarily serving as the butt of jokes — the stereotypical funny fat kid.

“If they say things to you, it doesn’t matter,” says Max, one of two boys in the group, shrugging his shoulders. Max says he responds to insults with humor.

Naomi does, too. But she also has a more straightforward comeback: “I tell them, ‘It’s my body; if you don’t like it, don’t look at it.’”

ALL sizes

Children learn anti-fat attitudes from many sources, including adults who talk negatively about their own bodies or who allow size-based teasing to go unchecked.

“A lot of people who don’t have this [size] difference aren’t aware how painful it can be,” says Frances Berg, a nutritionist and international authority on weight and eating based in North Dakota. “When someone tells a fat joke, the response should not be to laugh, or even to be silent.”

Many students say teachers or other adults rarely speak up about size bias, embracing the myth that thin always is better than fat.

It’s a myth some see the medical community presenting as fact.

“If one already prejudges fat people as gluttonous or lazy, it is not very difficult to think that they are also sick,” writes J. Eric Oliver in Fat Politics. That means even a visit to the school nurse doesn’t feel safe for some fat kids who are used to the medical community trying to “fix” their size.

Connie Sobczak, executive director of Body Positive, a nonprofit based in Berkeley, Calif., that helps teens with body issues, says the medical community does a disservice to thin kids by focusing solely on kids who are overweight.

“There are so many [children of all sizes] who aren’t eating well, and not [being active],” Sobczak says. “We ignore all those children, then we focus and shame the fat children.”

Size-related stereotypes, of course, work both ways — against fat and thin kids.

“We can’t just talk about it as an issue for fat kids. The ones who are ‘perfect’ get overlooked, too. It’s hard for them to talk about being blond and thin and looking like Barbie,” says Debora Burgard, a California psychotherapist and creator of BodyPositive.com (unrelated to the Body Positive group in Berkeley). “They have a stereotyping problem, too.”

Those prone to believe one stereotype often are prone to embrace other stereotypes, as well.

“In fact,” writes Oliver in Fat Politics, “people who have strong anti-fat attitudes also tend to be more hostile toward minorities and the poor.”

Stigma-by-association also exists. A recent study by British psychologist Jason Halford shows that prejudice against fat people is so strong that biases are also formed against people who associate with fat people.

Fear of Fat

Responding to concerns about childhood obesity, John S. Martinez School in New Haven, Conn., was one of the first K-8 public schools in its district to rid its campus of junk food. Last year the school hosted a pilot program introducing more physical activity, healthier cafeteria foods and nutrition education.

The inner-city school with predominantly Latino students offers swim classes using the school’s state-of-the-art pool. Students also can earn 30 to 45 extra minutes of gym class each day. The school’s health clinic monitors each child’s health and weight loss.

One physical education teacher says she sees the effects of the obesity epidemic firsthand, with younger children being diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol levels.

“Most of them get on the scales without problems,” she says, but for other students the process is “stressful” and “hard to approach.” She contacts parents to discuss the best ways to intervene.

One winter afternoon, with snowflakes swirling outside the windows, several 7th- and 8th-graders gather at the school to talk about what happens when their parents get that kind of call.

“I hate it,” says Michelle, 13. “My mother makes me drink diet soda.”

The 8th-graders say all these efforts to get or keep them thin — eliminating vending machines, serving salads for lunch, increasing their gym time — have increased their fear rather than reduced their weight.

Twelve-year-old Arianna worries about high cholesterol. The message she gets from her parents and her doctor is that she must lose weight to get healthy. “I get depressed if I think about it too much,” she says. When she’s depressed, Arianna confesses, she sneaks Snickers and Milky Ways.

Emily worries her extra weight could lead to a heart attack. “I’m not going to be big in high school,” says the 12-year-old, shaking her head from side to side. “No, I’m going to go on a diet.”

Focus on fitness, not weight

In 2003, Arkansas was the first state to require schools to chart its students’ BMIs. Three years later, the state’s percentage of heavy school children remains the same: 38 percent. But another statistic has emerged: 13 percent of parents reported that their children had been teased because of the new program, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Weighing children regularly does not help them become thin, says Miriam Berg, president of the national Council on Size & Weight Discrimination. Berg believes promoting weight loss as public policy is misguided for three reasons:

• the policy targets fat kids and promotes discrimination against them;
• teaches all kids that fatness should be avoided at all costs, resulting in dangerous diet practices and eating disorders; and
• ignores the nutritional, exercise and health needs of kids who are average weight or thinner than average.

Instead of forced weighings and BMI checks that focus all attention on heavier kids, Schwartz, of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, says schools should develop creative ways to get all students more active. She suggests PE classes that emphasize different choices of movement, not just team sports.

Laura Perdikomatis, chair of Woodside High School’s physical education department in Woodside, Calif., couldn’t agree more.

“I think we’re turning them off,” she says, of mandated fitness tests that are harder for larger students to complete.

She says coaches, who often use running as a punishment, sometimes stand in the way of progress. Perdikomatis has heard a group of PE teachers, for example, laugh at the very concept of Health At Every Size.

“They think everyone should be the same size,” she says.

Perdikomatis just received a grant to furnish her high school’s fitness center with games like the interactive “Dance, Dance, Revolution” and a stationary bike/Play Station II combination. The equipment is not only fun, Perdikomatis says, but it also puts the focus on heart rate rather than on the mechanics of a fitness test.

Frances Berg, founder of the Healthy Weight Journal, says that’s the way it should be.

“It’s important to practice healthy habits no matter how much you weigh,” Berg says. “It’s not the weight; it’s how active you are. (And) kids have to enjoy what they’re doing, or else it won’t work.”

_______________________________________

 Teaching Tolerance’s educational kits and subscriptions to its magazine are FREE to: classroom teachers, school librarians, school counselors, school administrators, professors of education, leaders of homeschool networks, youth directors at houses of worship and employees of youth-serving nonprofit organizations.

More size-acceptance resources from Tolerance.org include:

 

Tips For Teachers
People usually think about diversity in terms of ethnicity, class, gender and ability. Fat children also have a unique perspective on the world. Learn to see fat children as a valid part of diversity

 

LABELS: The ‘O’ Words
The size acceptance community embraces the label “fat” over words like “obese” and “overweight.”

 

Kids Come In All Sizes
Use this workshop to teach all students to feel good about their bodies.

 

This Story at Work
Do you possess anti-fat biases? Take a free, confidential online and find out what’s lurking in your subconscious. After taking the test, try to identify steps you can take to offset or minimize biases you may hold related to size or other factors.

Popularity: 55% [?]

ELEGANT PLUS CONTENT TAGS:Advice, body image, Dieting, Fertility, Health, infertility, Maternity, obesity, Plus Size, plus size pregnancy, Plus Size Pregnancy & Fertility, Pregnancy, Size Acceptance women

   

Plus-Size Fertility

by Brette Sember for Elegant Plus Magazine

The decision to become a parent is an exciting one. You and your wonderful man are going to create new life together through the power of your love. It’s a heady feeling and one that definitely can bring you closer together. But if you’re a plus-size woman, you may worry about what kind of impact your weight will have on getting pregnant.

Schedule a Pre-Conception Physical

Make an appointment to see your gynecologist before you toss that birth control out the window. It is now recommended that all women have a pre-conception check up to discuss medications, lifestyle changes, and any possible stumbling blocks to conception that they might face. As a plus-sized woman, one of things your physician will likely discuss with you is weight. Being overweight can cause irregularities with your cycle and suppress ovulation. It’s likely that you’ll be encouraged to get close to your ideal weight by your doctor (according to body mass index charts), but losing even 10 pounds can have a significant positive impact on fertility for many women. Diet drugs are an absolute no-no though when trying to conceive.

Losing weight is a personal choice (and for many women, a difficult path), so be sure to weigh your own feelings into the decision. It’s also important to note that too much weight loss too quickly can make it difficult to conceive.

Discuss Major Causes of Fertility Problems

When you see your physician, it is a good idea to ask about two common medical issues that impact the ability to conceive for many plus-size women. If you have never had your thyroid tested, ask for a complete thyroid profile (the traditional TSH test is NOT enough because an underactive thyroid sometimes is only detected with thyroid antibody levels). An underactive or overactive thyroid can impair fertility and also cause problems during pregnancy. Overweight women are most likely to experience an underactive thyroid since the failure of thyroid to function properly can lead to weight gain. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the most common form of underactive thyroid, is five times more prevalent in women than in men. 

You should also discuss Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) with your physician. Between five and ten percent of all women of childbearing age have PCOS, which is a complicated metabolism and hormone imbalance. Symptoms include infrequent or irregular cycles, acne, facial hair, high cholesterol, thinning hair, skin tags, and sleep apnea. PCOS is a leading cause of infertility in overweight women (and there is a higher incidence of it in overweight women), because the imbalance of male and female hormones makes it difficult to get pregnant.

Some women find they have both of these problems, creating a double whammy. These disorders are things that many physicians are not as aware of as they should be, so asking to be tested for both will offer you peace of mind about your own fertility.

Make a Trip to the Drugstore

Your physician will prescribe prenatal vitamins for you, an important way to make sure you will have a healthy pregnancy. While prenatal vitamins are important, there is some research to suggest that the typical prenatal vitamin does not contain enough folic acid to provide protection in overweight women against neural tube defects in the baby. Some physicians believe plus-size women should take additional folic acid supplements (since it is a harmless vitamin) along with their prenatal vitamins in order to obtain full protection. Ask your physician about a higher dose of folic acid.

Track Your Cycle

While trying to get pregnant can be a romantic and exciting proposition, there is a science to it. Learning how to maximize your cycles can mean getting pregnant more quickly. Start tracking your basal body temperature each morning before you get up. Talk to your physician about how to read this chart (essentially you’re looking for a temperature drop, then an increase of at least .4 degrees, which indicates ovulation). Over the counter ovulation predictor kits are also a valuable tool. The key is to try to have sex at least every other day during the five days before you ovulate and the two days after. For more information, see www.FertilityPlus.org.

Stay Positive

Feeling good about your body and keeping a positive outlook will not only ease stress (which has been shown to have a negative effect on fertility), but will help you stay happy as you begin trying to get pregnant. Many women hope they will get pregnant right away, but in actuality there is only a 25% chance of getting pregnant each month, so you may have a long road ahead of you. Make time for your relationship and for yourself and try not to let all your hopes and happiness ride on that monthly pregnancy test.

Staying positive about your body is key, because many full-figured women often have low self-esteem. This is the time in your life when you should appreciate the amazing things your body can do, and learn to love it for what it is.

When to Seek Help

According to the CDC, 55% of couples get pregnant within three months, 72% within six months and 85% within one year. The standard advice is to try for a year before seeking assistance, but overweight women should seek assistance sooner, since weight can impair ovulation. If you do not ovulate (based on your basal body temperature chart or ovulation predictor kits), you should call your physician immediately. If you are over age 35 you also should not wait a year, since your window of opportunity is getting smaller.

Recommended Books

PCOS and Your Fertility	Your Plus-Size Pregnancy	Healing Syndrome O: A Strategic Guide to   Fertility, Polycystic Ovaries, and Insulin Imbalance	Female Fertility and the Body Fat Connection
Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom	Is Your Thyroid Making You Fat	Big, Beautiful and Pregnant	Fertility and Conception

About the Author

Brette Sember is a plus-size mom of two and co-author of Your Plus-Size Pregnancy: The Ultimate Guide for the Full-Figured Expectant Mom (Barricade Books, 2005). Her web site, www.YourPlusSizePregnancy.com, contains a section on plus-size fertility.

Popularity: 28% [?]

ELEGANT PLUS CONTENT TAGS:Activism, body image, Dieting, Health, Junk Science, Musings from the Editors Chair, obesity, Plus Size, Size Acceptance, women Women and Media

 

Obesity Contagious! Beware of Fat Friends and Other Nasty Headlines

from Elegant Plus Magazine

In a week that saw the opening of the delightfully fat friendly, feel-good movie Hairspray and the celebrated third installment of Mo’Nique’s F.A.T. Chance self-esteem and size-acceptance television special on the Oxygen Network, a study of an entirely different nature reared its head in the esteemed New England Journal of Medicine from researchers at Harvard and the University of California.  Within hours of the related press-releases stating “Obesity is Socially Contagious” hundreds of articles had appeared and news outlets across a variety of media picked up the story.

What raised the alarm bells first for me was realizing that unlike many “stories” that make daily appearances in our culture in the infamous War on Obesity, this one had more legs than most.  Thoughtful news shows like Jim Lehrer on PBS and columnists at the well respected New York Times took up the story, while more tabloid type outlets gleefully declared that you should beware of fat friends and family members because they could make YOU fat!  Yet not once did I hear any real examination of the science behind the study, NOR a consideration of the implications such thinking might have on the lives of large individuals who are already targets of bullying and ostracization.

As an academic who has been trained to cast a critical eye on scientific methodology and underlying assumptions  before accepting the conclusions of any study as fact no matter from which institution it comes,  the media’s tendency to embrace every study that comes out of a laboratory as fact with a capital F has always disturbed me. Perhaps especially so because of the prevalence of hype and sound bytes throughout all types of media in the United States today.   Equally disturbing is the frequency of Junk Science and statistic manipulation used for a whole host of agendas, not the least of which is the support of the diet and pharmaceutical industries.   My first inclination was to contact NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) to see if their health experts had addressed this specific study and invite them to write a guest article for Elegant Plus.   I received a cordial reply and the press release they had prepared on the subject which didn’t seem to really target this specific study, but more the general underlying hype surrounding the media’s War on Obesity, with the promise of a Guest Article if I wanted one.  I encouraged the latter option and sincerely hope one comes.  I am very interested in  publishing an educated and well informed rebuttal from someone equiped to take a critical look at this study for our readers.

So far, the only clearly argued discussion that refutes the specifics of the study based on data and methodology that I’ve seen comes from Sandy Szwarc’s blog Junk Food Science.  She’s a nurse with a biological science degree that equips her better than most to think about health related studies critically.  I highly recommend reading her article “Oh what a tangled web we weave” to begin to bring the hype on this particular obesity study into a balanced perspective. 

But regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the science there is another very real and dangerous repercussion from this type of media spin, especially on women.   Many of the lead drummers in this charge to “fix” what they view as a  looming public health crisis, fail to take into account the impact of their language, rhetoric and social messaging.   Screaming headlines like “Obesity is Contagious” and “Fat Friends Could Make You Fat”  does not effectively guilt anyone into changing lifestyle patterns, which is their purported intent.  It only makes people feel worse about themselves, lowers self-esteem and now piles on the guilt of harming the people closest to them.  How could this be a positive and productive state of affairs?

 In fact equating weight with lifestyle is one of the dangerous underlying assumptions permeating society.   The two are so enmeshed in popular thinking that fat, obese and unhealthy lifestyle are considered interchangeable synonyms (as are the equally false thin, slender, healthy lifestyle) , the first two the current synonyms of headline choice.  We, as a society, somehow think that simply by looking at (or weighing) an individual we have the ability (and sadly the right to judge) how well they take care of themselves.  But the fact is weight and obesity are far more complex than that, with some individuals naturally heavier than others, others suffering from medication side-effects and a host of other medical reasons.  There are women who eat healthier than most and run marathons who will never be slender.  There are skinny minis who eat chips and soda and junk food every day, and rarely lift so much as a  toe to get any exercise.   Simply, you cannot tell by someone’s weight alone what kind of lifestyle choices they make. 

 Think how differently the emotional impact of this research would read if the headlines said “Unhealthy Lifestyles are Socially Contagious”.   That truly is a different meaning than the one currently screaming across our media sphere, since not all fat people have an unhealthy lifestyle and many thin ones do.  Not only would the scientific data have a better shot of upholding such a theory which is already debatable as junk science, but the social implications would be less damaging to individuals already judged strictly by their body mass.  This leads to a downward spiral of social and self-loathing that adversally affects an individual’s mental health.  Now add in other’s fear of just knowing a fat person and we have a recipe for permissable discrimination.  I don’t think that is the path most of these so called “health advocates”  truly had in mind.  But it is the one we, as a society, are fast going down.  

Popularity: 24% [?]

ELEGANT PLUS CONTENT TAGS:BBW, body image, Events, fashion show, fat, fitness, Health, Health at Every Size, NAAFA, NAAFA Convention, obesity, Plus Size, self esteem, Size Acceptance workshops

 NAAFA Convention 2005:
Big Enough for All of Us

by Sita Mae Edwards, Regular Contributor to Elegant Plus Magazine

The 2005 NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) convention, held in San Mateo, California, chose “Big Enough For All Of Us” as its theme; and it sure was! With workshops, a vendor fair, special speakers, a fashion show, dances, documentaries, pool parties, a fat fitness fest, activism training, meals and more, this event was - well - BIG!
 
 Whether the cameras were rolling or snapping away, this was the most well documented NAAFA convention in its impressive 35 year history. Everything from “Inside Edition,” to a South American documentary film maker, to a photographer for a Japanese website were there to cover this upbeat event. As was, of course, your intrepid Elegant Plus correspondent!
 
 It hadn’t occurred to me that with all the recent furor over size and body image, the convention would draw press like crazy. With the CDC denunciation of the “obesity crisis” on the one hand, and Dove slyly thumbing their nose at American media conventions on the other, plenty of media outlets were on hand to see what happens when real live fat folks get together.
 
 What they and I found was pretty inspiring.

Thursday Evening Fashion Show

I wasn’t sure before I got to the show whether I’d be more likely to buy something I saw modeled on regular women like me, or less likely to buy because of the absence of the glamour fantasy that promises if you just buy this dress you’ll look like whomever is in the ad. As it turns out, I found myself much more inclined to purchase the items I saw at the show, precisely because I had seen what these designs look like on a woman my size, and not just on the faux plus-sizes one usually sees displaying designer clothing.

A roar of conversation greeted me as I opened the door to the Grand Ballroom at the San Mateo Marriott, filled with predominantly Plus-size women, as well as a sprinkling of men, large and otherwise. Each table was festively decorated with a spray of cheerful silver stars - a theme echoed  on the stage, where the black background was also decorated with large, shiny silver stars. Not a subtle theme, perhaps, but certainly a positive and welcome one: everyone in the room that night was a star.
 
 We weren’t the only stars in the room. The designers shone as well. Every designer who brought their wares to the show deserves to be mentioned by name. They included some who are well known throughout the plus community, such as Astarte, Big on Batik, By Ro! Designs, and Peggy Lutz Plus, as well as some that were new to me, who had gorgeous wares to show, such as Big Girl Gear, Daisy Plus, Designs by Sandie, Honu Nui, It’s All Big, Myles Ahead, Rogerswear, and Va Va Voom.  Sprinkled throughout the show were beautiful jewelry designs by Angelwear Creations, Beadjoux, and UR2Rare.

A few of the highlights:
 
 - The response as “She’s a Brick House” filled the room and Peggy Howell of Chunk E Business stepped onstage was wholehearted - everything from sedate clapping to more enthusiastic wolf whistles. With tiaras, feather boas, and leopard print hand bags in evidence, this was a fashion show with attitude to spare!
 
 - When a model for Peggy Lutz Plus came out with a bouquet and gorgeous pink dress, and the audience found out she was getting married, a roar of approval went up, the wedding march started, and she threw the bouquet into the audience to the delight of the women in the front row.

- The evening included a surprise performance by the Phat Fly Girls of Big Moves, a fat positive dance organization dedicated to showing that every body can dance. When Jessica, the head of the west coast branch of the organization, turned a somersault into floor splits, the crowd went wild.

- There was a second surprise performance by Charlie Biscuits, a local rapper who endeared himself to the crowd with a song whose refrain had Charlie shouting to the audience that he “likes big girls.” The fashion show models writhed all over him like the well oiled girls in a steamy music video, and halfway through the song Charlie paused to gasp, “Don’t stop!” which was, personally, my favorite moment in the performance.

I presumed the people on-stage would be exclusively on the smaller end of the plus spectrum, as I’ve been trained to expect from magazines.  To my delight there were women and men of all sizes, from small to super size, as well as all ages. One of the most enthusiastic responses was to Terri, a gorgeous, blonde middle aged woman in a hot pink bikini, who elicited multiple wolf whistles with her sassy sashay down the runway.

The roars of delight and obvious enthusiasm of the crowd brought out a wonderfully flirty playfulness in the models, and the whole event was, in a word, adorable.

Friday Workshops

During the day on Friday there were many events, the vendor fair began, and there were lectures and workshops which I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend. Workshops included subjects such as, “It Takes a Village (Idiot) to Tease a Fat Kid,” a discussion on balancing size acceptance with health concerns in the schools and with children, presented by Betsy Breseman, PhD, specialist in Body Image, Teasing & Bullying, and Stigma of Obesity at The Ohio State University; “Self-Care for Body Liberators,” designed to help size activists keep themselves healthy in the midst of what is often difficult work, presented by licensed counselor Deb Burgard, co-author of the book, “Great Shape: First Fitness Guide for Large Women” and owner of Body Positive, as well as “Men Who Love Fat Women,” a workshop for men only led by NAAFA Newsletter Editor Bill Weitze, which addressed the “ups and downs of being a male fat admirer;” artistic workshops, workshops designed to discuss sexual issues and a retrospective marking ten years since “Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes” was first published.

Friday Dance

Guests at one of the two dances over the weekend.
Courtesy of Peggy Howell.

Marilyn Wann was the belle of the ball in a hot pink mini dress, leading conga lines and belly-bumping the other dancers with such wholehearted glee that it didn’t take long before her infectious spirit spread to those around her and the whole dance floor filled with phat people rockin’ out to the funky blues band. One woman, a model from the fashion show the night before, even scooted her chair out into the middle of the dance floor and danced from her chair.

Two women, one of whom was a member of the famous Fatimas, an all pus-size belly dancing troupe, sat on the edge of the stage doing a two woman wave, and other familiar faces in the plus community such as model Buffie of Big Cuties, and Cher Rue and Lisa Marie of The Big Girl Show were in evidence.
 
 The presence of several film crews elicited a few extra booty shakes. It was fantastic for this reporter to see how many women showed up in undeniably slinky, sexy dresses. No muu-muus for this crowd. Instead painted on glittery pinks, spaghetti straps, shiny mini dresses and flirty barely-there tops were the order of the day.
 
 Where, out in the world, I sometimes feel chunky, unwieldy, and oversized, here I felt young and svelte and sexy because I was surrounded by women who looked like me and, more importantly, felt damn good about themselves. It’s contagious!
 
 The epitome of sexy phatness came at the end of the night when the spectacular Big Burlesque and the Fat Bottom Revue performed several numbers. Their saucy striptease act had more than one audience member waving a wad of dollar bills hopefully at the stage. Whether the number featured feather boas, cowgirl hats, or glittery pasties, each one was breathtaking, delicious, and perfectly performed. If you haven’t had a chance to see these ladies in all their curvaceous glory, remedy that - it’s a once in a lifetime experience!

Saturday Fat Fitness Fest  

Yay! Scale
Celebrating the Beauty in All Sizes

During the day on Saturday I attended Marilyn Wann’s fitness fest demonstration that was held at a nearby park with demonstrations by yoga, dance, and aerobics instructors, as well as some hip shakin’ lessons from the Phat Fly Girls and Heather McAllister of Big Burlesque. Pink pom poms were handed out liberally, and I ended up
 wearing pink fuzzy bouncy balls on a headband on my head, while intermittently helping make sandwiches, and being a very dignified journalist. (Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce.)

A pink Barbie boom box played Steriogram’s “Fat and Proud” as people frolicked with a huge beach ball that screamed in all caps: “F-A-T!”  Others weighed themselves on the “Yay!” scale, which registered weight in such increments as “Lovable” and “Delirious.” I’m lovable, in case
 you’re wondering. (Like that’s news!)
 
 ”No Pain - No Pain!” was the slogan that greeted the first speaker at the event, health researcher Linda Bacon from UC Davis. She spoke about running a clinical trial that compared the effects of the rigorous sort of dieting that we are told is the answer to obesity, against a Health at Every Size model, in which the participants were encouraged to eat well and exercise, but not diet.
 
 ”The research was phenomenal. What we saw at the two year stage was that the dieters were back where they’d started with everything except their self-esteem. They felt horrible about themselves. They felt like failures. The  group on the other hand, had wonderful results. Blood pressure had improved, cholesterol had improved, they were getting four times the amount of moderate activity they had when they’d started.
 
 ”It was incredible to see the difference. Self-esteem levels improved, depression improved. Everything looked so much better. And there were virtually no drop-outs from the program. They didn’t lose weight, either. Weight doesn’t matter. People can be happy, healthy and fit at any size. It’s just a matter of self-acceptance.”
 
 With an explosion of pink pom-poms thrust triumphantly in the air, the assembled crowd of healthy fat folks - who knew all this already - roared their agreement.

Saturday and the Vendor Fair

Satu and Tina of Big on Batik at the Vendor Fair

 I have lusted after Peggy Lutz Plus designs  for awhile now, and it was thrilling to get to meet the woman behind it all. (If you’re one of the people who isn’t sure how to pronounce her name, it’s not pronounced like “klutz,” it’s pronounced like “flutes.”) I expected to meet a lovely robust woman of ample proportions, and instead met a lovely, diminutive, petite woman who has never designed straight sizes - when she began 15 years ago with a line of stylish sweat outfits made from unusual fabrics, it was straight to plus. Ever since she and her hand picked sewers at her Northern California studio have been designing the clothes that have made her a legend in the business. They’ve even been in the movies!  Kathy Bates, in her Oscar-nominated role in “About Schmidt,” wore two Peggy Lutz originals.

Part of what makes Peggy’s designs so desirable is that she takes into account the fact that women come in a variety of shapes. (i.e. when looking on her website at an item the information includes the height and size of the model, as well as her shape, such as pear. This makes it easier to get an idea of how something will look on individual bodies.) The models she chooses also represent a wide variety of age, color, and size, which is a delight to see.
 
 Chunk E Business, owned and operated by NAAFA board member Peggy Howell, her sister Dianne, and their mutual friend Darliene, has been one of my favorite websites for quite awhile now. It is a fantastic gift and art site, featuring everything from sculpture to paintings to greeting cards to artistically designed paper towel holders! And all of it, from beginning to end, is size positive.

Emilio Casarotto Figurine

  I had the opportunity to talk to Peggy, Darliene and Dianne at the vendor fair while I longingly patted a statue by Emilio Casarotto that I’ve been coveting for months. (His work is even better in person, by the way.) When asked how they came up with the clever and cute name of Chunk E Business, all three women grinned. They had begun working on the business, but didn’t have a name yet, and were brainstorming one day when Peggy and Dianne’s father called. Jokingly
 he asked, “Are you getting up to monkey business?” “No!” laughed Darliene in response, “We’re up to CHUNKY business!”I had the chance to chat with a few other vendors, including the jewelry designers that were on hand with their original creations designed to fit larger wrists and necks. Kathryn of UR2Rare, whose display of jewelry included wonderful designs unlike anything I’d seen before was my first stop. These were definitely not for the faint of heart, and included a bold array of colors and textures that prompted more than one “Ooohhh” from your intrepid reporter!
 
 Next on the grand tour de jewelry was Designs by Sandie  where I had the chance to chat with Sandie herself, and she let me try out some of her beautiful handmade hair sticks. (Those of you with long hair particularly will love these. They are both stylish and practical.) She also makes lovely, cheerful jewelry, and designs clothing as well!

If you’ve never seen Beadjoux designs, you are in for a treat. When I first browsed the booth, I exclaimed,”Oh, wow, this is epic jewelry!” The designer, Shelley Bond, grinned and allowed as how that was a pretty good description. Working with everything from seed beads to chunks of variegated jade, Shelley will custom make one of a kind designs and work with her customers until their piece of art is just right.
 
 Angelwear Creations, the brain child of Seattle-based artist Angela Jones, was where I wrapped up my foray into the wild, wonderful, sparkling world of jewelry, and it almost undid me. I rapidly developed a silent chant to preserve my self-restraint. “Keep the plastic in the wallet. Keep the plastic in the wallet.” Easier said than done, let me tell you! Though she doesn’t sell her creations on the internet, she can be seen at many shows around the country displaying her creations, which include delicate, feminine pieces and a dazzling array of precious stones.  She also custom designs jewelry from her Washington studio.

It was also great to see Big on Batik’s booth. I own several pieces from Big on Batik and By Ro! Designs, so I’m already a fan of their signature hand-painted floral designs from Bali. Having the opportunity to see the different colors and outfits was a delight, though! As was talking to Satu and Tiina of Plush Cat Club fame , who announced at the fashion show on Thursday that they have purchased the company from founder Cathy Miller, who is going on to other things, including her Love Your Body! wrist band project to raise money and awareness for size acceptance.

There were several vendors whom I didn’t have a chance to interview, but the entire event (which filled a conference room and spilled out onto a grassy courtyard as well) was colorful, full of lovely variety and designs, and a tremendous number of creative and interesting folks. Since I usually am only able to shop from these vendors online, it was fantastic to have them collected in one place for a couple of days.

Saturday’s Not in It for the Money

Also on Saturday was Peggy Howell’s presentation of “Not In It For The Money,” a documentary she recently finished that involved the organizers for several of the plus bashes around the country, including NAAFA, the Vegas Bash, and several others. In it, Peggy gives the audience a glimpse behind the scenes at the planning, hard work, and love that goes into each of these events. Featuring interviews with each of the organizers, clips from each event, and a thorough examination of why these folks do what they do, this little film is extraordinarily educational for anyone who wants to know more about how these wonderful events come to be.
 
 I left the screening with a whole new appreciation for the people who donate their time year round to make sure these events keep happening, and keep bringing the plus community together around the country. They are doing it for all of us.

Saturday Formal Dance

The organizers of the 2005 NAAFA convention spent a great deal of time walking the fine line between allowing enough media access to the event to generate good press and positive articles, but without making the members who paid to attend feel like everything was being recorded and scrutinized. Because the Friday night dance was liberally
sprinkled with video and still cameras, at the last minute the Saturday ball was declared off-limits to press to give the attendees some privacy to enjoy the last big event of the convention.

My lovely and wonderful editor, Thea Politis, had made sure I got an appropriate dress to wear from the Elegant Plus Model of the Month co-sponsor, Igigi, and I felt svelte and gorgeous in one of the most gorgeous gowns I’ve ever owned! Though I wasn’t able to enter the dance as a reporter, Heather Boyle graciously allowed me to attend as a NAAFA member and “cute fat chick.” That was good enough for me!

The ball was - dare I say it? - a ball! There was a wide variety of music, so just about everyone got up and danced at some point or another. There were door prizes and fun gifts given out at one point  during the evening, and everyone looked absolutely beautiful.
 
 It had been so long since I went out dancing, that I had honestly forgotten that I LOVE it. Being out there with a bunch of folks who look like me, and who appreciate people who look like me, was utterly liberating, and I moved like I haven’t moved in years. By the end of the evening I was sweaty (Or is that dewy?), disheveled, exhausted, and couldn’t have been happier.
 
 Thank you, NAAFA. This year’s event was truly fantastic.

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