The Fat Lip

From time to time we like to check in on what’s going on in fat news, and there are a few subjects to touch on this fall. This is Today in Fatness–Fall 2017 edition.

In this episode I talk about This is Us’s fat lead character, Kate and her evolution since the last time we talked about her. I also discuss the Canadian judge who suggested that a 17 year old victim was flattered by her sexual assault because she is fat, a county in the UK that has issued a policy prohibiting fat people from undergoing certain nonemergency surgical procedures until they lose weight, and adequate seating for fat people.

Credits

As always, thank you to Starcrusher for the music on today’s show. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com

Thank you to our Patreon patrons. Our patron of the week is Hayden! Thank you Hayden for your support! And if you would like to support the show, go to patreon.com/thefatlip to learn how.

Don’t forget to follow The Fat Lip on social media. Find all of those links at thefatlip.com. And if you have a topic or a story you’d like to tell on the show or on the blog, submit it via the Tell Your Story link!

Read the transcript of this episode here!

I’ve been involved in fat acceptance for over 15 years, and on my best day I can raise all kinds of hell about misinformation and fatphobia in medical care. But on my worst day, when I’m the one who is sick and vulnerable and on the wrong end of a doctor’s weight-related lecturing, it’s a hell of a lot harder to take a stand.

I had a short hospital stay recently (I’m totally okay now) and I was reminded of how absolutely terrifying and frustrating and confusing medical care is, especially for fat people. So many doctors see a fat body as a critical problem that needs to be solved, regardless of our actual overall health. This isn’t the first time that I’ve experienced this, but I came away from this whole thing with a stronger resolve than ever to make sure fat people are heard in healthcare. The first step, I think, is talking about they things doctors say to us. By talking to each other about our shared experiences, we can empower each other to demand better.

Thank you to Starcrusher for the music you heard on today’s show. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com.

And thank you to our Patreon patrons. If you’d like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron. Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to learn more.

Are you a fat person who has a story to share? Go to the Tell Your Story page to make a submission. We want to hear your voice on the show!

View the transcript of this episode here.

I’m sure many fat people can relate when I say that I have a very fraught relationship with mattresses. It has always just seemed like beds weren’t made with fat bodies in mind. They sag or the materials scrunch up or sometimes they just break entirely. I’ve just never been perfectly happy with any mattress I’ve ever owned. Until I got the Big Fig Mattress.

As part of a new advertising partnership, Big Fig Mattress, creators of the first mattress system ever created specifically for larger people, very generously sent me a Big Fig to try out and to review for you. And man do I feel like I lucked out in this deal.

Listen to my experience and then head over to bigfigmattress.com to learn all about how the Big Fig was made for you! And now use the promo code FATLIP for $100 off of your Big Fig Mattress!

Read the transcript of this review here!

Like many fat women–more than we could even count–Nush is in recovery from a near lifetime of disordered eating. But she’s finding her own way by using social media. Nush’s insta is a beautiful collage of selfies and outfit photos that are for her more than anyone. When she looks at these photos she can see her body as it is, and holding up that mirror has been invaluable to her recovery.

Credits:

The music in today’s episode is by Starcrusher. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com.

If you have an extra $2 a month, please consider supporting The Fat Lip on Patreon! Patreon patrons are the reason that the Fat Lip ship stays afloat, and their support means everything. You can help with as little as $1 an episode ($2 a month) and truly every dollar helps. Go to patreon.com/thefatlipto learn more!

Please follow The Fat Lip on Instagram (instagram.com/fatlippodcast), Facebook (facebook.com/thefatlippodcast), Twitter (twitter.com/fatlippodcast) and subscribe on Youtube (youtube.com/thefatlip.)

If you would like to share your story with The Fat Lip, I’d love to hear from you! I’m especially interested in hearing from fat people of color, superfat and infinifat people, fat queer people and fat trans people. Get in touch from our Tell Your Story page!

 

We know by now that “inclusive” in beauty and body positive campaigns doesn’t necessarily mean that people of color are represented. Slowly, though (very, very slowly) the tide seems to be turning and retailers seem to be hearing our calls for non-white representation. But it’s still so incredibly rare to see fat Asian people in these campaigns. So rare that I couldn’t even name a single time that I’ve seen a fat Asian woman in a retail ad campaign. But fat Asian women do exist and they do need to see themselves in media.

Grace is half-Japanese and from Indiana, so she grew up with a lot of white people. She didn’t know she was different until people started to tell her that she was, and they never let her forget it. But the fact that she looked different didn’t exempt her from the pressure to be thin. In fact, she got that message from her family as well. When she went away to college and gained weight, her family did not approve. But Grace, with the help of the internet and the fat positive community, that there’s nothing wrong with her fat body, and she won’t let anyone tell her any differently.

Credits:

The music in today’s episode is by Starcrusher. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com.

If you have an extra $2 a month, please consider supporting The Fat Lip on Patreon! Patreon patrons are the reason that the Fat Lip ship stays afloat, and their support means everything. You can help with as little as $1 an episode ($2 a month) and truly every dollar helps. Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to learn more!

Please follow The Fat Lip on Instagram (instagram.com/fatlippodcast), Facebook (facebook.com/thefatlippodcast), Twitter (twitter.com/fatlippodcast) and subscribe on Youtube (youtube.com/thefatlip.)

If you would like to share your story with The Fat Lip, I’d love to hear from you! I’m especially interested in hearing from fat people of color, superfat and infinifat people, fat queer people and fat trans people. Get in touch from our Tell Your Story page!

As a superfat woman and fat activist, I’ve always felt a little skeptical about Health at Every Size. “Health” just isn’t a word that treats fat people very well. In fact, it’s very often used as a weapon that attempts to derail fat pos discussion. I’ve always assumed that it was part of the “good fatty” ideal–that as long as we’re participating in healthy behaviors we will be granted the privilege of social inclusion. I’ve always assumed that HAES is not for fats like me, so I’ve always shied away from this discussion.

But it turns out that I was totally wrong.

So what is Health at Every Size really about?

Today on the show I’m talking with Meredith Noble of Made on a Generous Plan. Meredith is a food and body peace coach who lives and teaches the HAES paradigm, and she did an amazing job today of validating my feelings about the word “health” while walking me through what Health At Every Size really means. It’s not about prescriptive health standards, and it’s not about earning your worth through dieting and exercising. HAES is a holistic approach to body peace and wellness that recognizes that weight loss via dieting is not sustainable and that health is not a prerequisite for being treated with respect and dignity.

Follow Meredith on social media at facebook.com/generousplan, instagram.com/madeonagenerousplan, and twitter.com/generousplan. To learn more about Meredith or HAES or food and body peace, go to generousplan.com.  The Plus Size Food and Body Peace Beginner’s Guide on her site is a great place to start.

Thank you as always to Starcrusher for the music you heard on today’s show. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com.

And thank you to our Patreon patrons who make this show possible every month. If you enjoy the show and want it to continue, please consider pledging as little as a dollar per episode ($2 per month) to keep the gears turning. Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to learn more.

 

White women think we have a monopoly on body size oppression. We’ve all heard (and probably repeated at some point) the racist stereotype that fatness is more accepted in black and brown communities. This is simply not true, and we white people should get out of the way and let fat POC tell their own stories about growing up fat in a Latinx or black family. By doing so we would learn that we all experience body shame but systematic racial and cultural oppression compounds that. We must raise fat POC voices and see fat activism and body politics from an intersectional perspective.

Viviana Rose on Diet Culture and the Latinx Community

Author Viviana Rose’s book How American Diet Culture Negatively Affects Latinas gives us a firsthand account of how being a fat teenager in a latinx family really feels. With her own story, she shows us how diet culture has affected her life and the lives of those she loves. The book also touches on several more important themes–bullying, eating disorders, depression, teenage body angst–all in a personal, emotional voice.

Get How American Diet Culture Negatively Affects Latinas by Viviana Rose on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Follow Viviana Rose on Instagram.

Gloria Lucas of Nalgona Positivity Pride, a comprehensive intersectional Xican@ / Brown* / Indigenous body positivity blog, wrote the opening chapter of Viviana Rose’s book. Gloria and NPP are also currently raising money for Trensitas, a body positivity program for teens of color. This is important work, so please consider donating here.

As always Starcrusher provided the music for today’s show, so be sure to go to cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com to hear more.

Please consider supporting The Fat Lip on Patreon! Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to learn more.

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Fat Lip on iTunes or Stitcher or your favorite podcast app! Also, if you have a moment we’d love if you’d rate and review the show on iTunes. Ratings and reviews help us rate higher in search results, so more listeners will click through and listen to the show.

And finally, be sure to follow The Fat Lip on social media. We’re fatlippodcast on Instagram and Twitter, thefatlippodcast on Facebook, and thefatlip on Pinterest and Youtube.

Have a story to share on the show? Want to spread the word about your fat-positive project or venture? Reach out using the Tell Your Story link!

It’s kind of our culture’s greatest tradition to tell each other how to act and what’s good for us. “Just be confident!” is one of those vague directives that we’ve all heard a hundred times–it’s the apparent solution to all of our problems.

Episode 24: “Just Be Confident!” and Other Useless Advice for Fat People

The problem with “Just be confident” is that it’s often an order directing us to act and speak and look a certain way. Confidence becomes a performance instead of a tool. Body confidence is often even harder to achieve because it often comes with specific, designated performance metrics. But body confidence doesn’t look the same person to person. You don’t have to wear a bikini or show your arms to prove your body confidence.

Plus, body confidence doesn’t just suddenly explode out of us. It takes work and struggle and often a lot of self-doubt. And I’m pretty confident in my assertion that not a single one of us is confident twenty four hours a day. Too often we’re told to fake confidence until we make it, but why shouldn’t we talk about the hard days? Pretending that body acceptance is easy only alienates those among us who are struggling.

Thank you as always to Starcrusher for the music you hear on the show. Hear more at cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com, and this weekend (August 4-6) Bandcamp is donating proceeds to the Transgender Law Center in support of trans rights, so now is a great time to pick up Starcrusher’s album, Goodbye Halcyon Days.

Our Patreon patron of the week this week is Cori! Thank you so much Cori for your support! If you’d like to support the show and have your name mentioned, go to patreon.com/thefatlip to find out how.

If you have a moment, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and share the show with a friend! The more ears we get into, the further our message spreads! Reviews are especially helpful!

And don’t forget to follow the show on social media! Find the show on twitter.com/fatlippodcast, instagram.com/fatlippodcast, facebook.com/thefatlippodcast, and pinterest.com/thefatlip

Read the transcript for this episode at http://thefatlip.com/episode-24-confident-transcript/

“Or I could just say whatever and open a plus size thrift shop…” 

What do you do when you’re a fashion-forward, business-minded woman who is fed up by how difficult plus size shopping can be? You create something different.

That’s what Cat Polivoda did when she created Cat’s Closet. It started with just selling her own clothes to people she knew and grew into its own website and then a better website and now she has her sights set on brick-and-mortar. With a new name, Cake Plus Size Resale, and a surging crowdfunding campaign, Cat is well on her way to providing the fat positive shopping experience and community space of her dreams.

Learn more about Cake Plus Size Resale and contribute to the Indiegogo campaign at tinyurl.com/cakeplussize.

As of today the Indiegogo campaign for Cake Plus Size is at just under $10,000 with a goal of $16,000 with 11 days to go, so if you can, please donate! Every little bit helps. And if you can’t donate, please share the campaign on social media. More shares equal more funding, so every share is a big deal! Also, don’t forget to follow on social media! Find Cake on Insta at https://www.instagram.com/cakeplussize/ or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cakeplussize. 

I’d like to thank Starcrusher for the music you heard on today’s show. So you should probably check out cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com to hear more from him. 

If you’d like to support the show, please consider becoming a Patreon patron. Patrons are the probably the entire reason this show continues to exist every month, so if you have a dollar to spare per episode, you could be a part of that, too. Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to find out more.

Finally, if you have a moment, please rate and also review the show on Apple Podcasts! Every rating and review means more people can see us, and more fat positivity is one of the things that the world needs right now.

Facebook: facebook.com/thefatlippodcast

Twitter: twitter.com/fatlippodcast

Instagram: instagram.com/fatlippodcast

Pinterest: pinterest.com/thefatlip

Youtube: youtube.com/thefatlip

TheFatLip is looking for fat people of color and fat disabled people to tell their stories on the show! Please consider sharing your story by reaching out here.

Between TFL episodes there are often stories about fatness and activism that I want to comment on, but most of the time they’re just quick little things that are either too small or too new to talk about in a full episode. Some of these are things that I feel are actually incredibly significant for our movement, but they just don’t fit into the regular episode format. In the year that I’ve been making The Fat Lip, there have definitely been short stories that I wish I had addressed on the show even in a small way.

I’ve decided to try something new by throwing in an occasional episode where I’ll talk about some of the things that are happening in fat news or fat activism. Each “Today in Fatness” episode will run through several quick stories or happenings that impact the fat pos community. I want to spend more time talking about the every day actions and progress (and sometimes setbacks) that we see in the movement, and I think this might be the way to incorporate some of that.

So today I’m happy to present the first of these to you. In this episode I’m talking about Natalie of nataliemeansnice, Corissa of fatgirlflow, some turd on Big Brother, Roxane Gay, The Sporkful, and the incredible protest actions of ADAPT, a national organization of disabled activists who have been protesting ACA repeal efforts.

Today in Fatness (mentions in this episode:)

instagram.com/nataliemeansnice

twitter.com/nationaladapt

fatgirlflow.merchtable.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Memoir-Body-Roxane-Gay-ebook/dp/B013PKAFOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498865649&sr=8-1&keywords=hunger+roxane+gay

http://www.sporkful.com/how-to-be-fat-with-lindy-west/

Thank you as always to Starcrusher for the music in today’s show. Go to cstarcrusher.bandcamp.com to hear more.

Please consider supporting the show on Patreon! Go to patreon.com/thefatlip to find out how.

Read the transcript of this episode here!