It’s “Say Something Sunday,” a day dedicated, at least on this blog, to personal Size Diversity activism. I’ve got some suggestions below and/or of course you can do your own thing and feel free to leave a comment about it. If you have ideas of things to do for Say Something Sunday I’d also love for you to share those.
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!
My ideas for this week (these are just suggestions, feel free to change them to make them work for you, and if they don’t appeal to you feel free to do your own thing!)
- Head over to The Australian and tell them to give Colleen McCollough the respect that she deserves in her obituary.
- Notice when people are judged for their looks first and their talent second and speak up – in comments on articles, social media, television show discussion forums etc.
- Write a fan/thank you letter to a public figure who is fat and who has to deal with all the bullshit that comes along with following your dreams in a fat body.
If you want to do more of this kind of thing, consider joining 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)
Have a great Say Something Sunday!
Let’s Hang Out!
Schools are back in session and I’m booking talks for Spring and Fall of this year. If you want me to come to your school, business, or organization (even if you’re not sure how to get it done), just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and we’ll talk about the options. If you want to bring me to your community but don’t have funding or an organizational affiliation, I can help you with that too – e-mail me and we can talk about the possibilities. See you soon!
Like this blog? Here’s more cool stuff:
Become a Member For ten bucks a month you can support size diversity activism, help keep the blog ad free, and get deals from size positive businesses as a thank you. Click here for details
Buy the book: Fat: The Owner’s Manual The E-Book is Name Your Own Price! Click here for details
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information on topics, previous engagements and reviews here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
Dance Classes: Buy the Dance Class DVDs or download individual classes – Every Body Dance Now! Click here for details
I’m training for an IRONMAN! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com
A movie about my time as a dancer is in active development (casting, finding investors etc.). Follow the progress on Facebook!
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
Dances With Fat 
There’s a petition on Care2 Petitions to The Australian to retract the Colleen McCullough obit and apologize for it, of anyone would care to sign.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/155/181/735/retract-sexist-obituary-for-colleen-mccullough/
So far there are more than 12,000 signatures. It only takes a moment to add your name, and you can also include a personal comment. I signed yesterday.
thanks for the tip! I signed.
So did I!
Yes. Signed.
I sent a message on Facebook last Sunday to join the Rolls not Trolls group, may I be added? Thanks!
For today’s bit of activism, I’m going to re-read some of the studies to which Ragen has linked as well as go through things posted to “Fat and Weight Science” on facebook so that when I do Say Something, it is well-informed, evidence-based and accurate.
I wanted to share a win from a previous Say Something Sunday! I sent in feedback to Consumer Reports complaining to them that their Consumer Reports on Health uncritically used BMI as a marker of health, which was unworthy of them given that they’re usually a good evidence-based organization. I got the following response:
“Thank you for taking the time to contact Consumer Reports®. I want to express how much we value your choice of our products and services to help you make informed purchasing decisions.
Puck, I appreciate your writing to us regarding our article including the Body Mass Index. Please be assured that our readers’ feedback plays a strong role in the work that we do. Because of this I have taken the liberty of sharing your feedback with the appropriate members of our editorial staff for their knowledge and review.
Consumer Reports is committed to making your experience positive and informative.”
Doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to *do* anything about it, but I’m still pleased that they’ll review it.
TW: Anorexia
I finally got around to watching the British documentary I’m a Child Anorexic. It still baffles me we’re using bullying tactics to try and create thinner children in the US, and England has seen this sort of thing as wrong enough to create a documentary about how it negatively affects children. Perhaps Michelle Obama should watch this on YouTube. I’m ambivalent about linking directly to the doc, because as you can imagine it’s full of triggers.
It’s not much, but today I got a survey about my company’s Wellness Incentive Program. One of the questions was if I participated in one of the Quarterly Challenges (most of which revolve around weight loss) and if not, why not. I was able to use the information you have provided regarding the Mann study to tell them the challenges were flawed if they truly wanted to improve health since weight loss is rarely successful and not proven to improve health anyway. I doubt anything will be changed because the belief in the magic of weight loss is too strong, but at least there’s another voice out there.