Changing the World

Happy belated Trans Day of Visibility! Trans, non-binary and exploring folks are precious, valid and welcome. I see you.  Also, I’m seeing progress on my hand injury since getting a steroid shot a few weeks ago, woohoo! It’s not 100%, but it’s the closest it’s been since October. That means I’m booking photo sessions again — head to…

Sometimes a stray comment or post on social media will spark something in my mind, and suddenly I have an opinion on it. This time it was a comment on a fat activist’s Instagram post informing the activist that they shouldn’t be using the term “fatphobia” because “people aren’t afraid of fat people, so it’s…

This week on Patreon, I’m launching the Body Liberation Guide+, a patron-only supplement to the free public Body Liberation Guide newsletter (this email!) I send out every week. Here’s what you can expect in the BLG+:  More of The Conversation and event updates Handy links to this week’s supporter-only updates Journal prompts and discussion topics from the Body Liberation…

If you’ve been a subscriber for a bit, you know I produced an entire guide to that awful fatphobic movie The Whale.   I’m not a pop culture kind of person and I don’t watch movies (due to my neurodivergence making it difficult), so I’d be perfectly happy never to think about that movie again. But with awards season…

Here’s one simple action you can take to help end discrimination against fat bodies this week: Stop appropriating the experiences and oppression of people who are fatter than you.  If you live in a body that is of average size (the average American woman wears a size 14-18) or a bit larger (what some folks…

Something I think we need to be very cautious about as we fight fatphobia and weight stigma is that it’s very easy for us to deplore those things primarily when they happen to people in bodies we find worthy.

Here’s one simple action you can take to help end discrimination against fat bodies this week: Stick your neck out. Quite often these days, thin (usually white) folks feel the need to message me and tell me about how they were going to speak up about this harmful action or that piece of fragility, but…

It’s a privilege to focus on the gains of body positivity when fat people are still left out. One of the most common pieces of pushback I see against fat acceptance and the need to represent fat and very fat people is, “Why are you so negative? Can’t we all just celebrate all the progress…

Often when I post about the way I as a very fat person am treated, I’ll get responses along the lines of, well, you just have to be confident and stand up for yourself and people won’t treat you like that. Or, here’s what I would do in that situation (insert behavior that’s very aggressive,…

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know I talk a lot about anti-fatness, but I’m including a content warning today specifically for what I’m going to link to for its extremity. I had planned to send this letter to you today anyway, but coming across this video from a thin…

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was spent mostly resting my hand and recovering from this tendon injury. I’m about 50% better – not well enough to book photo sessions yet, but quite a bit better than I was, which means there are a lot fewer cusswords drifting through the house as…

This is my last letter for 2022; you’ll next hear from me on January 9. Tonight I’m headed to a Zoom cookie-baking event with friends, and have a nice quiet holiday planned otherwise. I hope that the rest of this month is filled with joy for you. As the Twitter chaos continues, more and more…

I want to follow up on my previous Body Liberation Guide about AI-generated artwork. People who are into AI art are telling me that this is a chance for fat people to see themselves represented and change their body image. But there’s a problem: exploitation will not create liberation.

The robots are coming for art. You might not have seen any art created by artificial intelligence yet, but it won’t be long. We’re at the very beginning of a trend that will change art as we know it.

Though I ended up catching the stomach flu* and having to rest and isolate for the last part of the retreat, our attendees had a fabulous time and it was such a satisfying experience. There really is no substitute for in-person fat community. (*confirmed by PCR testing that it wasn’t COVID)  Also, I’ve been featured in a…

Since I first wrote “The word on the scale” and shared it with my Patreon supporters (and later in the Body Liberation Guide), Taylor Swift has updated her video to remove the couple of seconds showing the word on the scale (without public comment). Here’s an update, plus part 4 of our series on body-positive business…

Getting called out sucks. Complaints suck. Trust me, I’ve been there. But it’s essential to listen to and absorb feedback if you want to improve in how you treat other people, especially people with less privilege than you. Also in this edition: Lizzo and the flute Terms to know Nutrition and anti-fatness Upcoming events October free…

I’m white. I have hair that falls into gentle waves with little to no styling. I’m very fat, but the way I carry my weight makes me look smaller than I am. My skin is mostly clear. I had braces as a teen, so my teeth are mostly straight. I can fit into the top…

If you’ve been on the internet for a hot minute, you’ve probably heard of body positivity. The movement has some high-profile promoters — and a valuable outlook on the worth and beauty of all bodies. What does body positivity have to do with your business? Everything. By incorporating its principles into your business, you can…

Hi friend, The big news in the fat-related world this week is Brendan Fraser’s hideously fatphobic new movie called The Whale. Since there’s been so much commentary, rather than including it in The Conversation section, I’ve given it its own list down in the Quick Resources.