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!
The theme this week is accommodations. Let’s start with the fact that when fat people ask for a chair that works for us, or a seat on transportation, or medical equipment that accommodates us, we aren’t asking for something special – we are asking for what everyone else already has.Businesses may or may not be legally required to accommodate us (depending on where we live) but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do activism. Suggestions of what to do with this:
Call ahead and ask if a restaurant has armless chairs/booths with tables that move etc.If a movie theater has seats with arms that lift, (bonus intersectionality – ask if the space accommodates those with dis/abilities) If not ask to speak to a manager and let them know that you aren’t going to patronize their business and why (hint: you can do this even if you aren’t fat or don’t have a disability yourself.)
Realize that, whatever size you are, you take up exactly the right amount of space, don’t be shy about existing in the world in the body you have.
Speak out against the idea that people of some sizes “deserve” to exist in the world comfortably, while others don’t.
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!
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Dances With Fat 
While I haven’t ever called ahead, I have on several occasions looked at the booth I was shown to and asked to be moved to a table instead. So far every such request has been granted quickly and without any eye-rolling or snideness. But I stand ready to walk out if that ever is the response.
I also make sure people hear what the response was. Places of business that take good care of their customers deserve to have the world hear about it, and those that don’t… well, potential customers deserve warning that they may not be respected.
I’d like to know what y’all have to say about the show “My 600 Pound Life”.
Said show depicts what it calls “super morbidly obese” or maybe even “morbidly obese” people (my memory fails me on the correct term) suffering and barely able to walk.
It only adds fuel to the fire stating that us fat people cannot truly be happy at our size and are just in denial because it’s easier to justify our weights than change them. Ugh.
I, for one, can say that I like my size, and am slowly learning to not care if others believe me.
This is the first time that I properly understood what it meant when people say that your body is allowed to take up as much space and there is nothing wrong with that. Thank you for this! Excellent explanation.
Re “the idea that people of some sizes deserve to exist in the world comfortably and others don’t”
I really like the way this is phrased. Further, I like the way you elaborated upon this idea in the link.