First of all, super exciting news – I have joined Fatch, a Fat Sketch Comedy Group whose members are all kick ass and hilarious women who I’m completely honored to get to join. (You may remember we recently collaborated on a song about the importance of Fat Friendly Seating!)
So today was my first episode of The Fat (think The View/The Real but fatter!) as a member of Fatch! We did a year-end wrap up during which we talked about Jen Kirkman, a comic who made a cheap fat joke on Twitter, then blocked the people who called her out on it (including me!) then called us all mean bullies, as well as discussing the COVID vaccine, and other fat going’s on.
You can watch the full episode here!
UPCOMING ONLINE WORKSHOP:
The Truth About Weight And Health
There are a lot of beliefs, myths, and misconceptions that float around when it comes to the relationship between weight and health. In this workshop we’ll discuss them from science and social justice perspectives.
Details and Registration: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/
*This workshop is free for DancesWithFat members – login info is on the member page
Become a member here!
Topics will include:
- What the research says about weight and health
- Why do so many people, including doctors, say that weight loss will make you healthier? (And why are they wrong?)
- Common issues with the research around weight and health, and how to spot them
- How to discuss the research with skeptics
- Answers to the questions
- But what about fat people’s effect on my tax dollars?
- Can you be fat and healthy?
- Shouldn’t we treat fat people like we treat smokers?
- Does being fat cause health issues?
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all the questions are answered!) so you are guaranteed to get the information you came for!
Like This Blog? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program:A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Non-members Click here for all the details and to register!
Body Love Obstacle Course
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization (and I can do it remotely!) You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
Dances With Fat 
“Shouldn’t we (The Royal We?) treat fat people like smokers?” What? You mean like ostracise them 24/7 insist they slink, apologetically through the side-corridors of life like criminals, fire them with impunity, refuse to see them as potential sexual partners/friends/spouses, devote thousands of hours of “entertainment” at their expense, constantly portraying them as ‘pathetic losers/sidekick/ comic relief/ counterpoint to the people of value’, suggest by professionals, laypersons and the very very concerned that they are not, and can never be healthy as they are now, convince them, and everyone else in the world that they will have a half-life of chronic sickness, infirmity, and early death, and add the kicker that they are entirely responsible for their most unenviable, inevitable state. All the while hard-selling the view that any and everyone smaller in body size than they are is a paragon of virtue, value, and an example of a life well-lived. Hassel them from cradle to grave with derisive imagery, remind them of the moral implications of their physical being. Tell them in every area of their lives they are a befouled being in desperate need of improvement, realignment, removal, for which they should happily pay for themselves.
Yeah, you mean that kind of hassle smokers endure? Sorry my friend, the SS Go Fuck Yourself has sailed…no berths left, full complement of crew, course set.
Ah me, think of the lives we could save if smokers had to endure one-fifth of the abuse we fatties get. The things they could do, the places they could go with the money they save…
“You want to treat fat people the way smokers were treated in the 90’s? Okay! Let’s get right on that! First, we’ll make a list of all the weight loss companies/programs that marketed and sold to fat people goods and services that caused them health problems or even death, who knew about and sometimes actively hid information about these health risks as they made sweetheart deals with public and private entities to look the other way, and we’ll sue them into infamy! The damages can be paid to the fat people they’ve harmed for their medical care, or to their families in the event they were killed by the product. Then we’ll make these companies/programs put a warning label on their products disclosing the associated risks and ban them from selling or marketing to children, even with colorful “back door” ad campaigns ostensibly aimed at adults. Finally, we’ll start a series of empirically-based weight-neutral fitness and nutrition programs anyone of any size struggling with disordered relationships with food or movement can enroll in for free- since they’ll be bankrolled by taxes placed on the aforementioned companies/programs- as we run a series of ad campaigns on the dangers of restrictive dieting and the importance of having a healthy, grounded relationship with food and fitness and realistic goals with evidence-based paths to reach the…”
…what do you mean, that’s not what you meant?
What DID you mean, then? Surely you didn’t just mean ‘I want to be able to treat fat people even shittier than I do now with even fewer consequences for doing it,’ did you?” *innocent blinking*
“..in the event they were killed…”
Come on, it’s not an ‘event’ when fat people are killed, it’s the fee they pay for making “normal people” have to look at them…
Pretty sure the rate of ‘acceptable deathage’ is around %73. That one isn’t exclusive either. Death Value is relative. There is only so much outrage and concern to go around. When low-value people die (extras in film, minorities, ugly people, women, fat people, criminals, drug addicts, foreigners here or abroad, the disabled) death isn’t really DEATH, s’more like housekeeping in Southern California: poor brown people are shipped in to clean rich white peoples homes without being seen, then get shipped back to “where ever they come from.”
“It’s not a Diet, it’s a “Lifestyle Change.” “Death, the Ultimate Lifestyle Change.”
My friend just announced her Jannuarilly diet intentions. No idea why she tells me… I just tell her to be careful stay well…” Move along to less stupid subjects.
The joke doesn’t even make sense. Vaccines are preventative, not curative. A vaccine against weight gain, if there were such a thing, would have to be administered before weight gain occurred, not afterwards. /pedantic
In unrelated news, I heard telling someone about your New Year’s Resolution is supposed to help you stick with it, so I shall tell you my resolution: ‘ve resolved to not utter the phrase, “It was just a joke, bro! Lighten up!” or any variant thereof in 2021.
I think you just answered my endnote.
That’s it! “Better chance of keeping a resolution when you tell someone.” It IS a Social Contract, the added (only?) value is the social Celebration vs spoken and unspoken Condemnation of your Big News. Humans are social animals, do we really do anything “on our own”. If I tell you I am making changes, I HAVE to keep up with them or I look like I’m lying, or slacking, or worse FAILING.
Is it any wonder? Really, the joy and enthusiasm a woman hears when announcing a diet/weight loss plan. The real-world shift when she reaches it. The crashing silence when it doesn’t “take”. The fallout reality of being treated like shit.
This was so refreshing to watch and now I follow FATCH which is wonderful. It’s amazing how people will try to turn around when they’re called out, because being called out is uncomfortable, and many people can’t sit with and work through that, so they turn to projecting and gaslighting.