Why do people hate and fear fat bodies? Weight stigma — also known as fatphobia, fatmisia, anti-fatness and fat hatred — ties into threads of power and profit going back centuries. Let’s look at one of the primary factors: Racism. As ably described in great depth in Sabrina Strings’ recent book Fearing the Black Body,…
I promised I’d make more videos, but speaking off the cuff makes me so nervous! So I’m sharing a trick I recently learned for helping myself AND other people feel more comfortable in social situations. Click through and watch it on Instagram for closed captions/subtitles. I’m a photographer, writer and fat acceptance activist. Dive deep…
Here’s something to think and write about in this coming week: If you were able to show up fully in the world, without body shame, what might that mean for other people in your world? You’re welcome to share your answers on the Instagram post (as long as they meet the space boundaries in my…
Thin privilege is not having your “health” status be constantly the focus of, and scrutinized by, an entire culture. A comment from @conceivingitall in a discussion we had the other day made me realize how much fat folks’ health* is a cultural obsession. When you live in a fat body, your health is public property….
Fat people MUST be treated as the experts on our own lives, bodies and oppression. Must. Here are 5 reasons to learn about weight stigma from fat people. 1. Learning about weight stigma from people with thin privilege deprives the people most affected by fat hatred of the opportunity to speak authentically about our lived…
Ultimately, you can’t change hearts and minds that don’t want to change. Here’s how to convince people to stop dieting or being fatphobic.
My Seattle photography office is where I spend most of my time. This is where some of my most precious things live, where my cat Blue hangs out, where I edit photos and post to social media and hold remote client photo reveals. Here’s a tour.
One of the best things about summer is water: swimming, splashing, wading, dancing, drinking, flavoring, floating, fishing, boating, or soaking in it! The larger your clothing size, though, the more challenging it can be to find a swimsuit you find comfortable or beautiful. For folks who wear clothing sizes larger than are generally carried at…
Fat folks’ health* is a cultural obsession.
I don’t want to reclaim Ursula. Released in 1989, Disney’s animated movie The Little Mermaid struck me at a formative time in my life. Ariel hit me right in the heart. Open and sunny and earnest and curious and longing, both of us. Both of us yearning for unexplored territory. Isolated in rural North Carolina…
I recently talked about how people who are privileged in a particular area often expect people who are marginalized in that area to educate them, give them ideas and even fix their organizations for free. I’m also thinking about people like Ragen Chastain, who answer literally thousands of emails per month to provide free labor…
I’ve produced another workbook! This one is for everyone who’s ever run, or tried to run, a group (whether online, like a Facebook group, or in person). Running a support or special-interest group of any kind — online or offline — is one of the kindest things we can do for our fellow humans. Though…
One of the most important issues facing weight management, bariatric, dietetic, endocrinology, special interest groups, and other provider groups and practices today is weight stigma. It’s important to update your resources, handouts, training, certifications and other materials to remove stigmatizing language in order to improve patient compliance and positively impact clients. Here are ten ways…
Need the body image boost that comes with getting used to bodies like yours? Here are 40+ accounts of fat influencers, models, and everyday folks to follow on Instagram.
Here’s one concrete action you can take to help end weight stigma: Stop saying that weight loss doesn’t solve anything. And I’m going to need you to read alllll the way to the end of this post before you @ me, because I am not jumping on the diet wagon here. Does intentional weight loss…
Image description: A fat white woman in a short-sleeved red dress sits in front of a stone wall and shrugs. There’s a pattern I’ve seen displayed dozens of times by people and organizations who are asked to walk their talk about size inclusivity, and it goes something like this: Invalidation or gaslighting of the fat…
Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman, stands in front of a brick wall in a heart polka-dot dress. She’s holding a rainbow umbrella and smiling. It’s always a pleasure to speak with Jodie Gale of the Psychosynthesis Centre — did you know we recorded a podcast episode together? — and today we’re talking about…
Image description: A fat white woman stands on a city street corner in a silver dress and cape. Buy a similar stock photo >> It’s a story as old as time: Someone sees an injustice in the world and bands together with a small group of friends to fix it. The princess is locked in…
Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman, looking into the camera and smiling. She’s wearing glasses, a pink and blue top and a camera necklace. I created this intro for my Instagram, but why not post it here as well? Let me do a little re-introduction + bring you up to speed. I’m Lindley (she/her,…
Image description: A photo of a fat person silhouetted against a sunset along with a thin crowd, lifting a fist defiantly, behind text that reads, “Body Liberation Quote Library from Body Liberation Photos.” End image description. For years, people have been asking me where I get all the quotes I include in my social media…
Image description: A close-up of a woman’s hand holding a restaurant menu, with her arms and chin in the background. Did I tell you about the time I took on Whole30? One of the dangers of being the only person in the world regularly producing stock images of fat and very fat bodies is that…
Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman with blonde hair, stands in front of a wall covered in brown and yellow ivy. She’s wearing a pink and blue plaid top and a necklace with a camera charm. This post originally appeared on the site Fat Girl Reviews. If you’ve been on the internet for a…
Bear with me for a moment while I get a bit nerdy. Trust, there are fat politics coming up, as usual. Especially during these pandemic times, I’ve been spending a great deal of my free time playing a video game called Final Fantasy XIV. It’s a massive multiplayer online game, or MMO, which means that…
Image description: A nude fat woman with pale skin walks away down a garden path, a festival mask left discarded behind her. Real talk: I know that the activism component of my business pushes away potential photo session clients. Trust me, you don’t need to tell me. But I started out like almost every other…
Here’s one simple action you can take to help end discrimination against fat bodies this week: Believe fat people when we say something is fatphobic, specifically the works of Brené Brown, Anita Johnston, Geneen Roth and Bessel van der Kolk.
Image description: A teal square with a chat bubble and the words, “Fat bodies are just treated as this horrifying mystery in the photography community. And I got mad! Fat people deserve to have somewhere they can come and feel safe and accepted and attractive and worthy.” Lindley’s logo is at the bottom. “Fat people…
Image description: A plus-size woman poses in front of a sunset-lit city skyline and water with one arm in the air and the other wrapped around it. She’s wearing blue jeans and a black crop top sweater. Once a friend of mine observed that in their daily life, they just felt like they didn’t see…
Image description: Three fat women stand back to back with hands entwined in a grassy park. In a fat-folks-only Zoom call last night, a friend looked around and said, “You know, this is the first time I’ve ever been in a space with only fat folks in it before. It’s wonderful.” It’s necessary and vital…
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 that’s been made? You’re so divisive!” It’s often accompanied by more-enlightened-than-thou comments about wanting to focus on “the good,” as if those of us confronting oppression are somehow more negative than those who want to cover up and ignore it.
In this month’s Ask a Fat Creator interview, we’re talking to Kristine Zaftig, a fat and fat-positive artist who showcases women of color in her paintings.
Image description: The side rolls of a fat body are shown in a black-and-white photograph, with highly textured skin. An excellent question came up on the Body Liberation Photos Instagram this week: Why does fatphobia exist? Why do people hate and fear fat bodies? Fatphobia — also known as fatmisia, anti-fatness, weight stigma and fat…
Image description: A fat woman’s shoulder, side rolls and hip are shown in a black-and-white photograph. During this pandemic, so many people are finding that their bodies, for the first time, are now in the “plus size” or “fatter than I wanted” categories, and are finding it a pretty scary place to be. It’s scary…
Image description: An abstract light blue watercolor background with the words, “Stop appropriating the experiences and oppression of people who are fatter than you.” Lindley’s logo is at the bottom. Here’s one way you can help end weight stigma: Stop appropriating the experiences and oppression of people who are fatter than you. If you live…
Image description: Small, messy bits of kitchen waste on a white background: orange, cucumber, onion, bread or cracker, a piece of packaging. Photo courtesy of Charlie Deets on Unsplash. There was an attempted coup in my country today. People with guns stormed the capitol building — for the first time in my country’s history —…
An under-analyzed part of diet culture is where it intersects with class and socioeconomic status. I talked about this a bit on my episode of Food Psych, and had a chance to explore it in more depth in this discussion with Jodie Gale on the Soul Sessions podcast.
If we could opt out of oppression, would we still “deserve” it?
Image description: Black and white photo of a Black woman with long dark hair, looking at the camera with a small smile. She has her hand in her hair leaning into her hand. She is wearing glasses and a light-colored knitted sweater. There is a teal banner across the image, reading “Ask a Fat Creator:…
Image description: A fat blonde woman in a bikini with visible side rolls sits on a vintage red suitcase at the edge of the water on a beach, looking away. Content note: Dental procedures I feel like my poor dentist’s office has born the brunt of my ever-spinning analyses this year, while in truth, I…
In this podcast episode, Dalia Kinsey and I discuss the functions of propaganda, intersectionality and fatphobia, emotional labor and the world’s most important subjects, cats and plants.
Image description: Lindley, a fat white woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, glasses and a sleeveless heart-polka-dot dress, stands with her arms raised and resting on each wall of a narrow brick alley. Superimposed on the image are the Fitness Protection logo and the words Body Love with Lindley Ashline. End image description. Photography is both…
Reader E. asks, “Dear Lindley, I’m working on accepting my body, but it’s so hard to sit at work and have to listen to diet talk all the time. How can I deal with this?”
Image description: A thin white man with close-cropped hair is shown from the neck up in two shots, side by side. In the first, he has a manic smile. In the second, he has an exaggerated frown. In both shots, his face and neck are covered with a pasty white substance. End image description. Photo…
Image description: A fat white women with shoulder-length blonde hair is shown in a black and white image with a black drape just covering the tips of her breasts and part of her torso. She is looking off to one side with a solemn expression, with tree limbs behind her. Today we’re going to explore…
Image description: A fat white woman stands in a mowed field in front of green trees. She has long dark brown and gray hair in a ponytail and is wearing glasses, cropped green pants, and a t-shirt that says “Body Diversity” with a variety of cartoon dogs. She is looking to one side and smiling….
For people in very large bodies, who are most affected by the physical and infrastructural inequalities built into a world that is designed to exclude fat people, moving through the world looks very different. In this guest post, Erica talks about the considerations that make up her everyday life, and how speaking out is gradually…
Image description: A young woman’s legs are shown propped up on a white wall. She is wearing a short black tutu skirt and black lacy socks that twine up (or down, since her feet are pointing up) her legs. Last week during a podcast recording, I was asked to talk about what I’d want young…
Because I have my fat fingers in so many pies, this chat with Chrystal Bougon of Curvy Girl Lingerie and All Bodies Electrolysis touches on lots of topics! If you’ve ever wondered about whether you can set boundaries with a photographer or how a good photographer works with mobility limitations or anxiety, this is the…
One part of interacting with healthcare providers while living in a fat body is that your value and worth as a patient are always, always conditional and based on your perceived compliance. I’ve been seeing my dentist, who I adore, for many years. My genetic lack of tooth enamel makes me a frequent visitor. In…
My friend P. asks, “It was a total shock to me to be told that I’m small fat. For me it was like being told I’m not really fat. My sense of myself is something very different. I struggle with self loathing every day. I’ve believed all the negative messages society feeds us. Thankfully I’m…
Think you can’t support a movement from your corner of the world? Think again! In this Instagram Live, Sara Stanizai, LMFT and I talk about capital-A activism (with hand gestures), using your power to change the world, what counts as activism and simple ways you can help the fat folks in your life. Listen to…
