They said it couldn’t be done. If you haven’t heard already, exactly a week and a day after we started the Georgia Billboard campaign we have 1010 donors and $21,721.20. Enough to launch a good campaign in Atlanta.
When I first mentioned this on the blog I got the following comment:
Bare minimum cost for a bilboard is about 3K. While it is a fine idea I seriously doubt it will come to anything and I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time working on it.
We already talked about how to ignore naysayers and making our Big Fat Impossible Dreams come true. Today I want to talk about something different.
I’ve been talking to reporters and one of the questions that they all asked is “Why now? Why this issue?” I was going through the comments that people left on the GoFundMe site and lots of people talked about the fact that kids are involved. I think that’s what was pivotal -they went after kids and we will fight for the kids. Allow me to suggest that we deserve to be fought for just as hard as we’re fighting for kids in Georgia. Every Body Deserves respect. Not just thin bodies, not just children’s bodies, all bodies deserve respect. YOUR body deserves respect
The fundraising was a massive victory (and not just because we raised 7 times more than my naysayer said was an impossible amount.) When we put up our billboard campaign, it will be another massive victory. All of the amazing I Stand posters are a massive victory. Getting a letter from the NIH denouncing the Strong4Life campaign was a massive victory. First let’s take some time to celebrate all of these victories.
There are more fights to come and many of those will be fighting for adults (including ourselves) and I want to use the opportunity to suggest that those fights are just as valid, and just as worth fighting. I saw several people on the GoFundMe site say some version of “They can shame and stigmatize us but stay away from the kids”. We don’t have to think that way. We can stand up and say “You absolutely cannot shame and stigmatize us or the kids, and we will fight you if you try!”
There are going to be a lot of fights like this and we’re going to gain and lose ground and some days it will feel like we’re nowhere and we never will be, but I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that if we fight all the fights, not just the ones that seem possible, but all the fights that need fighting, we will win.
Huge, massive thanks to everyone who was involved with the fundraising! We are now accepting design ideas from the community, for submission guidelines check out www.SupportAllKids.com.
This blog is supported by its readers rather than corporate ads. If you feel that you get value out of the blog, can afford it, and want to support my work and activism, please consider a paid subscription or a one-time contribution. The regular e-mail subscription (available at the top right hand side of this page) is still completely free. Thanks for reading! ~Ragen
Dances With Fat 
I LOVE THIS. I love your ideas. I love that you are shouting out to the world that EVERY BODY DESERVES RESPECT.
Isn’t it amazing how even one person can change the world? You came up with this, and you got other people to join you and now look what is happening. Hopefully a lot of kids will have a better future because of this, because perhaps people around them might be that bit more accepting.
I hope so much for the day that people are celebrated for being their unique, special, different SELVES xx
I think that’s what was pivotal -they went after kids and we will fight for the kids. Allow me to suggest that we deserve to be fought for just as hard as we’re fighting for kids in Georgia.
Well done to you and everyone involved. What you said reminds me of a song “If you tolerate this, your children will be next.”
>>Well done to you and everyone involved. What you said reminds me of a song “If you tolerate this, your children will be next.”<<
I hope you don't mind if I put this on my FB page!
Not at all, here’s the song.
Congratulations to Ragen and everyone who donated. This is a massive achievement and is on the first step of many, I’m thinking.
Ragen, it’s especially wonderful to have leaders like you in the community. Brava.
This is awesome! Congrats on your success.
Oh no!
FIGHT ALL THE FIGHTS!
Now I want to see a Hyperbole and a Half about THAT!
Yaaaay!
That’s my favorite. column. EVAR. 😀 She describes my life in a nuthouse. I mean nutshell. 😉
I think one of the reasons it’s no more ok to shame/go after adults than it is children is because adults don’t exist in a vacuum. Kids WILL see you heaping shame on adults and telling them that they’re horrible evil worthless beings because they’re fat, and even though the comment wasn’t directed at the kid… they’re going to get the message that fat is bad, therefore fat people are bad, therefore if they get fat they are bad…
Which is, of course, why it is complete and utter BS whenever CHOA trots out their lies about the Shame4Life campaign not being directed at kids but at their parents. Unless they can make magic signs that direct the shame ads towards adults while only showing fuzzy bunnies and rainbows to the kids, it is completely dishonest to claim that kids won’t have any reaction to those ads. And even if they could, the kids would get the shaming when suddenly they’re being starved and harangued about being lazy etc.
YES – thank you for this. (And thank you Ragen and everyone who donated! Yay for victories!)
It’s taken me years to realize how my mother’s constant dieting when I was a kid taught me so much more than her words.
I am impressed and completely blown away by the success of this campaign. It shows that ordinary people can get their voices heard when they band together.
I’ve been hearing rumours that Strong4Life is not planning to take down the negative billboards. Strong4Life is part of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Their corporate sponsors are listed here. If the billboards don’t come down, then I think the next step is to work with their sponsors. And if the sponsors stand with Strong4Life, we need to publicise that.
In the battles over this that have been taking place on Facebook recently, something I’ve seen repeatedly is Strong4Life and their supporters claiming that, for us, it isn’t really about the kids and their health. It’s about us fat adults looking at the posters and ‘projecting our own issues’ onto them. As in, they think we (rightly in their eyes) feel bad for being fat, or for having been fat children, so we attack the people who are making us feel bad rather than ‘taking responsibility’ and slimming down like good little self-hating fatties.
Screw that. Yes, when I look at those posters I do see the kid I was, and the adult I became, and I know how people who couldn’t see past the size of my body made me feel. And I think it’s they who should be taking responsibility, because that’s where it lies. And all that stuff about ‘making excuses’ and ‘finger pointing’ and ‘truth hurts’ – that’s bully talk, that’s ‘You force us to do this to you by being fat at us.’
No, we don’t, and the kids sure as dammit don’t either. And I think part of the lesson of all this is that there are many of us, now, who won’t stand back and let them blame us for their cruelty any more. I salute you all.
Emerald, I would love to quote the way you said that in various places. Would you mind???
Absolutely no problem, Diva! 🙂
Thanks!
I completely agree that every body deserves respect…even ours as adults. I think it’s completely natural for many people not to get angry until there’s a threat to “our” children. In most people, it’s hardwired to care for or protect those that are seen as innocent, helpless, weaker-than, etc. It’s why many people have a soft spot for children and small animals.
For me it was an easy way to get involved in a fight that I wanted to fight, but didn’t have the guts to stand up for myself. And I also think that if we can save this next generation from the self-esteem levelers that we went through or are going through, then they’ll be even stronger and able to fight even harder.
I’m so proud to have been a part of this fight and I admire all of you that are doing the “I Stand” posters. ❤
Wow. You took a passing suggestion I made and turned it into a kick-ass PR campaign. Go you!! And go us!! Our community really came through.
You rock, Ragen!
We did it!