Did you grow up believing you needed to wear a t-shirt over your bathing suit to cover it up? Do you still believe it? In the time and place where I grew up, I quickly picked up on that unspoken rule. Thin, bronzed (white) women wore bathing suits in public. Every other woman covered her…
Shelby Bergen is an illustrator and cat enthusiast from the suburbs outside of the Twin Cities. She loves using bright colors, patterns and shapes in her work, and loves making fun character designs. Shelby prides herself in keeping her work diverse, focusing on showcasing different types and sizes of bodies. When Shelby isn’t making art,…
What would happen if paint became a Big Thing? In fact, what would happen if one specific paint brand became a Big Thing, to the exclusion of all else? What if that paint brand became so popular that you were expected to use it in every room of your house? To the point that visitors…
Hi friend, what’s it like to go to the grocery store while thin? Let me tell you what it was like to go to the grocery store this week while fat. It’s having people glance your way and then look away quickly, as if having glimpsed something obscene or disgusting. It’s having a woman in…
This lovely piece is one of a set of fusions of Baroque and Brazilian music by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. (Thanks, Wikipedia) This isn’t a recent video, but I’m re-sharing it as a way of releasing old body shame. When this video was taken, I was bothered by the way my fat body moved…
March’s pick for the Body Liberation Book Club is Fat, Pretty and Soon to be Old by Kimberly Dark! Join us on Thursday, March 26 at 7 pm for a fat-friendly hangout and book discussion. Newcomers are very welcome! Purchasing the book from this affiliate link helps me continue to offer free resources: https://amzn.to/2TDyJoQ About…
2021 update: Kathryn says of herself, “She’s queer now and getting a divorce! Thanks Fat liberation!!!!” Kathryn Max is a Body Liberation Artist and Activist living in Oakland CA. She credits making fat art with helping her cultivate a kind and compassionate relationship with her own body. Kathryn is currently working on her memoir “Fat…
Everywhere we go, we’re surrounded by diet culture, the cultural forces that cause us to feel bad about our bodies and want to shrink them into acceptability. Diet culture causes poor body image, encourages eating disorders and makes $71 billion in profit for the diet industry every year. More and more often, people are pushing…
For those of us in larger bodies, it can feel like we’re hemmed in all around with barriers and gates and forms to be submitted in triplicate just to live our lives. To live in bodies this scrutizined and regulated and constantly criticized is to feel that we need permission to eat, to breathe, to…
Cruelty is an inherent part of diet culture. Diet culture gives us a dichotomy: bodies are either good (thin) or bad (fat). In this framework, a “good” body is something that can and should always be the ultimate goal. Not only is a good body the only healthy, morally upright and worthy kind of body,…
This is an oratorio piece from the Dixit Dominus, a psalm setting by George Frideric Handel (catalogued as HWV 232). It uses the Latin text of Psalm 110 (Vulgate 109), which begins with the words Dixit Dominus (“The Lord Said”). (Thanks, Wikipedia!) This isn’t a recent video, but I’m re-sharing it as a way of…
It’s generally quite cool year round here in the Seattle area, but in the summer it can get hot enough to make a dip in a nearby river refreshing. Ms. G and I spent her body-positive Confidence portrait session at Flaming Geyser State Park (named for a flame created by coal miners discovering a methane…
Just in case you need a reminder today: Cutting off contact with toxic people, or setting a no-contact or minimal-contact boundary for yourself, is a perfectly valid thing to do. We have this cultural expectation that if you just find the right words and make your case just right, a toxic relative or friend will…
This is of course the song with a famous rendition by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. “Con te partirò” was never part of an opera, but was an individual piece written by Francesco Sartori (music) and Lucio Quarantotto (lyrics). It was released first as a solo piece by Bocelli and then as a duet with…
Jiji Knight is a lover of magic, ladies, and breakfast for dinner. Graphic designer by day and illustrator by night, she’s a champion of body positivity, uniter of the cute and macabre, and overall dedicates her body of work to women. She studied illustration at the Academy of Art in beautiful San Francisco and currently…
December’s pick for the Body Liberation Book Club will be Fat Girl by Judith Moore! Join us on Thursday, December 26 (yes, the day after Christmas) at 7 pm (Jalisco restaurant, 12336 31st Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98125) for a fat-friendly hangout and book discussion. Newcomers are very welcome! About the Body Liberation Book Club…
This calendar is provided as a public resource for the body positivity, fat acceptance, plus-size fashion, and Health at Every Size (HAES) communities. I’m not affiliated with any events except the ones in bold, and at this time I’m not compensated for any event listings. The calendar is current on hold due to so many…
I was honored to recently be part of a roundtable series, a collaboration between the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and Yoga & Body Image Coalition (YBIC), called Growing & Thriving Together: A Roundtable Series on Diversity, Inclusivity & Accessibility in Yoga and Fitness Spaces. The discussion for which I was a panelist focused on…
Get an edge on your holiday shopping and support fat artists at the first annual at Artists’ Open House & Overstock Sale! We’ll have a range of body-positive and creative goods for you, including: THE BODY LOVE BOX: Overstock boxes from previous months, books, stickers, bookmarks, self-care items, zines, figurines, and art prints Body Liberation…
November’s pick for the Body Liberation Book Club will be Heavy by Kiese Laymon! Join us on Friday, November 29 at 7 pm (Amante Pizza on Roosevelt Way in Seattle) for a fat-friendly hangout and book discussion. Newcomers are very welcome! Content note: Heavy contains potentially difficult material, including descriptions of sexual abuse. Reading this…
Krystal Thompson of The Luscious Life helps people struggling with their relationship with their body and their relationship with food. Working as a Yoga Therapist over the past 9 years, she has been dedicated to educating, empowering and assisting individuals so that they can take an active role in their healing and wellness. Lately her…
I went on a trip! It was lovely! At least, most of it was. People in small bodies go out in public and come home with lovely memories. People in fat bodies go out in public and come home with thorns among the roses. The Young Lovers This is the couple who wanted my spot…
Some days, caring for our fat bodies looks exactly like caring for any human body. On other days, we may need a little extra something to carry on. When it comes to chronic health conditions like diabetes, though, caring for a fat body can be very different. Why? Because fat bodies are subject to weight…
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…
Allies, HAES providers, body image and body positivity activists, and influencers who live in small and medium-sized bodies: Where are you when a superfat person posts a bikini photo and is rewarded with, not the accolades you receive for your vulnerability and bravery, but uniform disgust? Where are you when fat activists are exhausted at…
Over on the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) blog, I’m talking about Mary, a fictional fatty, and her experience in the fitness world. Recently I saw a comment from a fitness professional that got me thinking. She said that she wants to help people in bodies of all sizes get to the “happy…
Rachelle Abellar is a graphic designer, fat activist, and body liberation advocate. She is the founder of PNW Fattitude, a group that hosts events for people of size in the Pacific Northwest. She also runs Archive Six, a small press and zine distro that carries work centering indie art, social justice, feminism, WOC, intersectionality, fat…
This is a guest post from Dawn Clark, who graciously allowed me to share her experience at the National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance, or NAAFA. – Lindley I have been fat most of my life, and if there were one word to describe my fat life thus far, it would be “uncomfortable.”…
This post is part of a series on exploring and navigating the world with a fat body and an anxiety disorder. See all the posts here. If Montana is big sky country (and it is — we’ll get there), northern Idaho feels intimate. The smoky haze begins to clear as you head east past beautiful,…
A photographer and writer explores the American west while living in a fat body with an anxiety disorder.
“Oh, phew,” said the client I’d just finished photographing yesterday, as we stood in her office. “That makes so much more sense. I found you by googling for ‘body positive photography’ anyway — this is much more clear.” I’d just told her that I’m changing my website and brand, and she immediately picked up on…
Take a look with me at Tatiana Gill’s Fat Positive Coloring Book! I’ll let you in on a bit of background about the book itself and the original cover, plus give you a peek at what’s inside. Full disclosure: I was provided with this copy of the coloring book in exchange for the review. All…
I’m the official photographer for Project HEAL’s Camp Heal 2019! Join us in Angeles National Forest outside Los Angeles this September to help heal your body image. In this video, I’m talking about eating disorder recovery and who has the “right” body for it, why I’m lending my skills to the camp, and my fave…
***I’m giving away a free pair of Dry Apron Panties! See the video and transcript for details. Contest ends at midnight on Friday, May 31, 2019. You must comment over on Youtube to enter (not here on the blog).*** In a world where living in a fat body is barely discussed, taking care of a…
What do boudoir photography, subscription boxes and stock photos have in common? What even is a stock photo? How does body liberation play into all this? In this video, I chat with the wonderful Dr. Melissa Bird about all this and more (with transcript).
Chrissy Brown is an artist who works primarily in 3D, and as a fat, disabled, queer, femme she wants to make sure she and others like her feel welcomed to take up space in the world. Her subject is fat liberation and body positivity, and she’s trying to strip away all ‘performance’ we, as fat…
The fifth time, I was puzzled. My arm was lying along the armrest, but not extending out into the aisle at all thanks to my careful arrangements. So how was I being struck hard on the arm every few minutes, particularly since almost everyone on this flight over the ocean at midnight was asleep?
Have you ever gotten something extra for free? Or checked your mailbox to find a completely unexpected present from a friend? That’s how I felt when I opened up the first shipment of Adipose Issue zines from Miles Lyons. I’ve seen paper zines before, of course, but these are spectacular. Paper dolls! Special paper envelopes…
Authors who write long-form works like novellas and books seem to get the short end of the stick with the Internet, I sometimes think. Unlike us photographers, who regularly produce pretty visuals to post on social media, authors work just as hard at their art but have less to show for it in the short…
Today, I’m talking with one of the owner of Laughing Goddess Apothecary, Eve Enzweiler. Here’s how Eve describes herself: “I’m queer fabulous out and proud fat positive bellydancing witchy rootwoman living my best life in the mountains of New Mexico with my beautiful butch wife of 17 years. I have been on a journey of…
“The truth is, the other person in your bed is just so happy that you want to have SEX with them that they aren’t focused on your imperfections. They are INTO you, and into the fact that you are into them sexually. Live out loud and let go of your insecurities, and that is when…
“Storytelling is the essence of who we are. And so stories themselves are capsules of who we are—they represent our hopes, our dreams, our fears, and our goals.” – Kate Sullivan Representation in fiction can be a transformative experience. We infuse the stories we find of people like us with lots of additional meaning because…
There’s probably a photo of eight-year-old Lindley in a dictionary somewhere next to the word “competitive.” Or possibly “overachiever.” Other than athletics, in which I had little interest, if it was a competition I was going to enter it. And win it. And the more competitions, the busier I was, the more intensely I could…
You deserve to have a holiday season that’s happy, not a punishment for being you. For those of us who struggle at the holidays, here are some of the best resources on how to set boundaries, take care of ourselves, and know when to draw the line.
It’s always a delight to talk with one of the Fat Faces, Eron, and this time we did it on the record! (Amanda is also a delight, but was absent that day, alas.) We dig deep into my entrepreneurial journey, why I chose to work with fat folks, and your official permission to take care…
Katie Breen interviews Lindley Ashline, founder of stock photography website Representation Matters (now Body Liberation Stock). Lindley explains why it’s so important that we see representations of diverse bodies in the media, and how she uses her platform to create stock imagery featuring people in all types of bodies – large bodies, brown and black…
In a nutshell: sexy, easy to use and great in one specific area Y’all, I’m reviewing a sex toy. Whoa. One of the most powerful aspects of boudoir photography is the journey I’ve been privileged to experience in my own relationship with my body. As you know, I’m a firm advocate for body acceptance and…
You don’t have to smile to be sexy. Or be sultry. No, seriously. Your natural expressions are what’s sexy. Some people are serious. Some people are giggly. Some people are both, or neither. And whichever comes naturally to you, without feeling like you’re “performing” sexiness, will be the perfect expression for you. At her…
Ms. C came in before Christmas and did a body positive boudoir session as a surprise for her hubby. And when I say surprise, I mean complete surprise: All he knew was that his Christmas present this year was going to be really special. From the planning to the session to scheduling the reveal, we…
A woman in one of the plus-size groups on Facebook made a really good point the other day: We rarely see women with double chins represented in images. Many, many women have double chins. It’s a completely normal thing. But we hide them in photos. We stretch out our necks, raise our chins, tilt our…
