Sundays used to be reserved for my marathon updates, but since I moved those over to the IronFat blog, I’m experimenting with new ideas for Sunday. I’m a fan of small deeds of personal activism, so I was thinking that every Sunday could be “Say Something Sunday” – I’ll give some ideas for Size Diversity Activism, and then those who do participate (whether it’s my suggestions or something else entirely) can tell us about it in the comments.
I did the math and if everyone who views the blog each week did one piece of Size Diversity Activism a week, it would add up to over 1.5 million body positive messages put out into the world this year. Multiply that times the number of people who might see each of those messages and things start to increase exponentially. To be very clear, nobody is obligated to do activism so if this doesn’t appeal to you that’s totally cool, I’ll be back tomorrow with your regularly scheduled blog post!
So I’ll give it a shot today – I’d love to hear your thoughts about this (as well as any activism in which you engage, or other ideas for Sunday blogs) in the comments.
My ideas for this week (these are just suggestions, if they don’t appeal to you feel free to do your own thing!)
Make a New Year’s Resolution to stop negative body talk. Post it to social media.
Post/Repost a Size Acceptance message or article on your own social media (have a good one? leave it in the comments!)
Thank a Size Diversity Activist whose work inspires you (check here for some that I like!)
Put something body positive in the comment section of an article where there’s a bunch of fat shaming. You may not change the fat-shamer’s point of view, but you’ll give people reading the comment section another viewpoint to consider. (If you want some support with this, you can join the Rolls Not Trolls group on Facebook, it’s a group created for the specific purpose of putting body positive things in body negative spaces on the internet and supporting each other while we do that. It’s a secret group so if you want to join just message me on facebook (I’m Ragen Chastain)
Happy Say Something Sunday!
Like this blog? Here’s more cool stuff:
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Hi Ragen. I’m actually doing the New Years resolution and have challenged some others to stop the negative body talk as well. As always, thanks for the work you do and the inspiration you are. Happy New Year.
What a smashing idea!!
My one resolution is to eat better and exercise more. The difference is that I’m not adding “to lose weight”. Last semester was intensely awful, and my health got pushed to the sidelines…and I’m paying the price right now. My diet wasn’t crappy per se, but it wasn’t great either. And I didn’t move nearly enough, so now my joints ache and my anxiety levels have been very high, along with my BP.
We’ve decided in my family to do more “Mediterranean” eating (NOT “dieting”!) because here in the South, the food isn’t particularly great. It just so happens that the things we need to eat more of–fish, lean meats, veg–are the things featured in that way of eating, and me being a lousy cook needs some sort of guidelines for putting it all together. Free internet recipes help a lot.
Again…this is for health purposes. Losing weight is NOT my goal. That’s a huge change for me.
Your work inspires the hell out of me, Ms. Chastain. Thank you SO FUCKING MUCH for everything you do!
I heartily agree.
I am going to make the resolution and post it on facebook.
This week, I noticed my Pacer app only went up to 200 lbs. I emailed them and told them that needed to changed. They responded saying it was a glitch that they were working on fixing.
Ha – done! I posted this on New Year’s Eve and got so many positive comments and likes. Happy New Year to one and all!
“Yesterday, my friend Kelly asked if anyone had new year’s resolutions planned. I was a jackass and replied, “I have a revolution not a resolution planned”. But, I guess meant it.
I’m going to continue to work on radical self-acceptance.
I’ve spent most of my life – at least 40 years of it, not liking the way I looked. I’m done with it. I’m going to continue to work to stop talking about feeling ‘fat’ or ‘old’ or ‘ugly’. I’m so tired of hearing myself jump on the female bandwagon of that crazy hate talk train. Or at least when I hear myself doing it, I’m going to stop and think – be conscious of it.
I’m going to work stop demonizing food. Food is not imbued with morals – it’s not ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ – it’s fuel. And I plan on eating some great food this year – wholesome, healthy and sometimes indulgent food that feels right for my body. I’m going to listen to how I feel when I eat what I eat.
I’m not a big Beatles fan but they got this one right. (song link – Revolution)
Happy New Year!”
I don’t make New Years resolutions, but I have set goals I want to do through out the year. One is to bring up and asking people to stop body snarking around me and others.
I like to repost body positive stuff and the occasional scientific article about weight on Facebook. I don’t know if anybody reads them, but it makes me feel better. Especially when I’m seeing dieting stuff and negative self talk.
Compliment a fat person in public. It may not go far (as opposed to a Facebook post)p but I think it’s hugely important. I’m also trying to change my compliments from, “your shirt is cute” to, “you look so cute in that shirt”, so the person knows I’m complimenting them and not the shirt. I hope in that way I can mke them feel good about themselves even if it’s only for a little while.
Personally, that would creep me out. I don’t want strangers commenting on my body. Compliment my taste in clothing, sure, but my body is off-limits.
Hm, that’s a good point. I guess I’ve mostly been using it in a personal context with family and friends, but it would be a bit weird coming from a stranger.
This is just a small thing that I try to do in regards to compliments, but rather than saying “You look so cute in that shirt.” I try to say “That shirt looks so cute on you.” It’s a subtle difference, and not everyone would care, but I know some people (myself included) would take the former as saying “You look cute in that shirt, but maybe not in other things.”, but the latter as saying “You make that shirt look cute.”
I’d like to thank a size diversity activist: THANK YOU!
And I’m reminding myself to thank you when I share your articles on my feed throughout the year (I do it already), but I want to double the statement about how body positive concepts are to women in general. I have a handful of people who always “like” those posts. Maybe I’ll work on increasing that visibility… hmm…
I left body-positive messages on three fat shaming articles this week. I also refused to join in at least six food/body policing conversations at the New Year’s party I attended.
What’s more, I did this while spending half the evening talking about baking with a new acquaintance.
In conclusion: THANK YOU, RAGEN!
But I might just send a couple more thank yous out to other fabulous FA activists.
Wait a minute, I thought of someone else to thank!
Thanks to all the amazing commenters on this blog. Every one of you has made me think, made me laugh, made me cry, or made me take action. You all inspire me in my activism, and for that I am truly grateful.
In which case, Twistie, then, THANK YOU!!! And happy New Year, y’all!!
My activism is usually to send body positive articles out via my friends and family email list. I will do that more this year.
I find that complimenting strangers in a succinct and sincere fashion is a great way to spread positivity and self-esteem. It is VERY rare to meet a person who doesn’t have at least one feature or quality about them that is worthy of flattering. Whenever I tell someone they have a vibrant smile or that I like their hair or admire the clothes they’re wearing, their face lights up nine out of ten times. It always shines the brightest in people who aren’t terribly attractive, so don’t save all your compliments for the people who get them all the time, not that it isn’t good to flatter and admire the Beautiful People as well.
Obviously, this does NOT include “compliments” with sexual overtones. I’m sorry to say this out loud as if I’m addressing a gaggle of morons, but we are on the internet here. Butts and boobs are not to be discussed with people that aren’t officially your friends and even then, discretion is in order. Compliments should NOT be confused with pick-up lines.
This post is just lovely!
And I can attest how much that kind of compliment means. A couple of years ago when I was at my body-hating worst, a young waiter in a cafe where I was having breakfast stopped in mid-sentence when I looked up at him and said “Oh my god, you have SUCH BEAUTIFUL blue eyes!” It made me happy all day — and I still get a silly grin when I think about it. He very clearly wasn’t hitting on me, and he was also very clearly sincere. It was great.
This is a topic I know you’ve discussed in the past, but I wasn’t a Trader Joe’s shopper at the time, but their “Guiltless” products really irritate me now that I go there regularly. And what I find really frustrating is, if I CAN eat something that’s delicious and lower in fat, sugar, calories or whatever I totally will. I’m not willing to sacrifice taste and flavor for that, but since Trader Joe’s is pretty good with quality, I really wanted to try their reduced-fat mac & cheese. I resented the hell out of the food morality that is implied.
So, I emailed them. I don’t expect it to make a difference, but I pointed out that for many people who are in eating disorder recovery or just trying to improve their relationship with food, such as it is, this sort of terminology is very loaded and triggering. And I even sent them a link to your old blog post about this topic as evidence that I am far from the only one who is upset by this assigning moral terms to food.
I don’t really expect it to make a difference, as I’m sure the “guiltless” name will appeal to many of their shoppers, and let’s face it, though problematic it may be, it’s more catchy than simply being scientific and saying “reduced fat/calories” would be. Still, I took the time to do it, and it felt good.
I decided a while back to say something in rebuttal whenever someone drops the usual into a conversation — you know, “being so overweight is unhealthy,” etc. — whether it’s about me or not. Because I’m not that obviously big (5’7″, 185 lb.), I usually don’t get such comments directed my way, but I feel this way of thinking is so wrong and damages everyone. So I’m with you!
I can think of three from b the last few days.
1. Told a fat co-worker how stunningly cute she is.
2. I am in a natural healing FB group and someone asked how to finally get some pounds off. I responded by suggesting she consider an alternative and linked to the ASDAH website.
3. Posted on my FB Page two links to the fat, 15-year-old, Blues guitarist, phenom, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram.
I have a bunch of size acceptance images and art on my tumblr: anotherbodypositiveblog if anyone is looking for body positive stuff to share elsewhere on the interwebz. I was also inspired by Virgie Tovar’s #NewYearNewView campaign to create a more body-love-centric goal for the new year.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/01/new-year-new-view/?utm_content=buffer2db29&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
My resolution is the graphic next to #4.
Happy New Year, all!