Here we realize that the messages that are being sent every day create a whole lot of Size Issues. And other issues. Editorials, articles, commercials and even our own communities tell us things about acceptable body diversity every day. We like to celebrate when these things are broken down, and the way we can celebrate ourselves.
And of course, people are welcome to submit!
Some pics from friday nights fashion show at Jelly Roll! For more pictures head over to https://www.facebook.com/ChubbyCartwheels! Also if you were there and took pics please hit me up! I would love to see them!
I need to take a “hi” break to take off my tights and eat ice cream. Here are some of Shawna’s AMAZING clothes for you to lick while I’m gone eatin.
awesommme
26th May 2012
Reblogged From bbwprincess
Notes: 340
So I was super excited when I saw that Tess Munster had styled an editorial and been interviewed by SWAK, not just because she’s super present on Tumblr, but also because I’ve loved her style in lots of other shoots, primarily for Domino Dollhouse. She’s a model in the larger ranges, rather than the 10s and 12s that are more commonly seen, and that’s cool to have out there.
However, I was seriously disappointed when I read the article. First of all, the headline — advertising her “big ‘n sassy personality” — smacked a little bit of the ‘sassy’ stereotype that fat women are far too often subjected to. We take up space! That means we’re loud and opinionated! If negative, bitches: if positive, sassy friend, which graduates into no-nonsense maternal types. (This is even MORE prevalent as a stereotype among women of color.) But I handwaved and kept reading.
Although on the first page she espouses living a “happy, full and fashionable life” whether you are a “size 22, or larger”, once she starts describing the styles, this positivity fades into something really problematic. The first dress has a lot of positive traits - however Munster moves right into “it fits snug around my waist to hide my stomach - which isn’t flat and I like to camouflage.”
YOU MEAN A SIZE 22 DOESN’T HAVE A FLAT STOMACH? HEAVEN FORBID!
Also, if a reasonably well known plus size model has to “camouflage” her stomach to be beautiful - what the hell is this article suggesting that we NON model types are supposed to do?
If it were just one outfit, as well, it would be one thing, but several times in the copy mentions are made of “hiding midsection” (as well as “creating curves” and “elongating”). The overall impression is that only an hourglass shape is appropriate or beautiful, shortness is bad and nothing but a flat stomach will do.
And while I see how a plus size clothes company might write this kind of copy themselves, not realizing that a good handful of their customers are working on loving themselves the way they are, the fact is that most people are smart enough to know that an “A-line” or a “flowy fabric” will hide or enhance their curves - if they want to - but this article tells you that’s what you should be doing.
Sorry, Tess, but this is NOT body positivity. This is subscribing to the same old body standard - just several sizes up. Not only that, but it could be triggering for those trying to accept their body proportions. I’m disappointed in her, and I’m disappointed in SWAK for publishing it.
<3
I desperately want to know where this dress is from. I would totally layer it with a big petticoat or a lolita skirt all Tim Burtony…or maybe a leather jacket and boots.
(Source: rethickulous)
I’m published at RoleReboot!
I go to one of the most prestigious universities in the world in one of the greatest cities in the world, and I spend a good chunk of every day worrying about where I sit in class.
You see, I’m too fat for most desks. I mean, I fit in them, but it’s not comfortable. I try to show up to physical chemistry a few minutes early, hoping to get a seat in the back row where there are a few chairs that aren’t attached to the tables. With stadium seating in lecture halls, I try to get a left-handed desk next to a right-handed desk. I put my bag on the chair next to me, mostly as a ruse for claiming an extra inch or two for my shoulders and ass to hang over. The desks are clearly not made to fit my body. I feel like a foot jammed into a stripy sandal one size too small. It fits, but there is skin and fat and flesh oozing out; I look like bread rising. It’s not stopping me from showing up to class and participating, but it’s a constant reminder that the space around me is not meant for my body.
It’s more than just sitting in class; it’s trying to maneuver in small spaces. Walking to the front of the room is a maze. I try to turn and contort my body to fit between the desks scattered about the room, but it’s not meant to be. My hips will nudge something and a classmate’s papers end up on the floor. I smile, apologize, and continue to shuffle my way to the front. If I finish an exam before the requisite time, I spend the rest of the class period looking around plotting my exit strategy. Can I find a clear path to turn in the exam without disturbing those around me?
It gets worse in winter. Like my classmates, I show up with coats and scarves and gloves and a bag with books and papers and who knows what else. I get to my seat and try to gracefully settle in. I look around to see how my peers manage. Somehow, I don’t see them struggling with coats and jackets and papers. It’s just me. I am reminded of the years I’ve spent crying in dressing rooms. I get a garment most of the way on—and then get stuck. It won’t zip, or it pinches and tugs. I can’t stop loathing myself for taking up too much space.
I don’t fit in in non-literal ways wither. I can get used to asking people to move and finding a larger seat. What’s more frustrating and disheartening is to tell people that I’m into radical body politics and fat liberation, and get a blank stare or a well-intended “but you’re not fat” in response. Yes, I am fat. It’s important that I use my own words to describe my body, so I’m using the word fat as a political statement. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with being fat, and I’m not interested in being slim. My government has classified my body as “morbidly obese,” I wear plus-sized clothing, and I get unsolicited diet advice from strangers. I have to look far and wide (ha!) for an image of my body that is not intended to cause shame and fear. I am fat. This is quite the spiel, and it’s only the introduction. (Just wait until I start talking about intersections with race and gender, or the diet industrial complex, or the conflation of health and beauty. That’s a lot for my classmates to handle.)
It’s not my job to explain my fat. And there’s no end to unlearning body shame and fat hate. These issues are complicated. Health, social stigma, fashion, desk chairs: It’s all political, and it’s all connected in really complicated ways.
Let me be clear, this is not abstract theory. I have to live this. Each and every day I am utterly outraged. The low-cal, low-fat ice cream at the grocery store, the “slimming” jeans at Torrid, the casual dismissal of certain foods as “unhealthy.” Even some of my closest friends doubt some of my tenets. I cannot sit idly back and let it all continue on. I want to stand up in the middle of a lecture on the “dangers” of the “obesity epidemic” and scream “Riots, not Diets!” with all my fury. I want to bring a whistle to class and interrupt every moment that’s racist, sexist, body-phobic, and hateful. I want a revolution in the streets where fatties will gather wearing sexy clothes to burn diet books and create a new world order where all bodies are valid. I want a world where it’s not my body that is too big; it’s the world that’s not big enough.
For starters, I just want a desk that fits.
Photo by Gary Barnes.
- Camera: SONY SLT-A65V
- Aperture: f/3.5
- Exposure: 1/15th
- Focal Length: 27mm
- Camera: Samsung PL60 / VLUU PL60 / SL420
- Aperture: f/3.5
- Exposure: 1/45th
- Focal Length: 6mm
trigger warning for body image fears/obsessions and discussion of disordered eating via “weightloss tips”. I think this is a beautiful, extremely worthy piece, but there are moments in it that got me a bit anxious, so just putting that beforehand.
My Fat, Beautiful Body, published at RoleReboot
Without fail at noon on every Friday, 30 minutes before my beginning ballet class starts, a mixture of fear and dread ooze into my mind. It starts when I think of getting dressed for class. Despite a well-stocked closet, I am never content with my choices. I spend 20 minutes scouring my closet for a garment that doesn’t exist—I am looking for something that will make me invincible. Exasperated, I leave wearing the same men’s gym shorts and oversized t-shirt. My nerves don’t get any better once I get to class. I am scared to look at my body in a mirror; I am scared to compare my body to my peers. I try to stand in the back rows as far away from the mirrors as possible, and I still occasionally catch a glimpse of my double chin. Or my belly escaping the drapery of my shirt. I am scared that even after working at accepting my body and fighting tooth and nail to get those around me to change their actions and opinions, I will see something repulsive. I can’t get through a weekly dance class without having to give myself pep talks. It takes all that I can muster to remind myself that I am beautiful and, more importantly, worthy of being in that class. It takes all that I have to remind myself that I love my body and that I can take pleasure in moving it. I can take pleasure and find beauty in my body.
I loathe classifying these problems (yes, I acknowledge that they’re problems) as “body image” problems. “Body image” isn’t really about the image of bodies. It’s about the holistic relationships we have with our bodies. It’s about how bodies look, how they move, what they feel like, and how we treat them. Even if we ignore semantics, conversations about body image almost always come down to health. Most conversations I’ve had about body image blame the media and advertising for exposing young girls to impossible standards in order to sell products. But more than selling products, these images drive people to unhealthy habits—crash diets, disordered eating, and sometimes even more dramatic actions like diet pills and self-harm.
And yet many of these behaviors have been recommended to me by health professionals. You see, I’m fat. Not “does this dress make me look fat?” fat, but eligible-for-weight-loss-surgery
morbidly obesedeathfat. I’ve been fat for as long as I can remember, but the first time I remember my size being an issue was at a check-up. I was 8 years old, and after plotting my height and weight in one of those grids, my pediatrician had one of those “talks” with my parents and me. I was too heavy for my height and age, so he presented me with a Xeroxed list of 10 “helpful tips” for eating.It was meant to be innocuous, but I became obsessed with that sheet of paper. It was the first time I saw my body as a personal failing, and that list was the way to redeem myself. I followed the rules to a tee, and yet I didn’t get any smaller. That simple piece of paper was only the beginning. My adolescence was filled with appointments with doctors and nutritionists, medically facilitated crash diets, and crying fits in dressing rooms. My doctors pathologized my body, and I believed them. I believed that my fat body meant that I was overeating, even when I would leave the dinner table hungry. I believed that I was lazy, unkempt, untrustworthy. I couldn’t trust myself.
I can’t rely on a conventional understanding of health to fix my body image issues because my body image issues stem from those conventional understandings of health. To find peace with my body I’ve had to reject mainstream medical wisdom. I screen my health care professionals, and I set firm boundaries. I am not interested in weight loss, and I will not step on a scale. I don’t care about a new diet regimen; I care about eating. I’ve learned to love my body—I love the look of my body; I love the way my squishy, soft flesh feels. I have embraced my fat. I do this because I care about my body. I care less about the image of my body, and I care more about my relationship to my body.
When I stand at the barre to begin my weekly ballet class, I am reminded that loving my body is both difficult and important. As we go through the usual warm-up routine I feel my muscles stretch and flex. I am present in my body, and I appreciate the grace and flow of movements. As we transition into leaps and jumps, I am reminded of that power in my body. My hearty legs can push my body in the air again and again in rapid succession. I land easily each time.
I am still scared that even after working to accept my body I will catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and find something ugly. So far, I’ve only seen my body. My fat, beautiful body.
Photos by Liz Naiden
Beth Ditto, 2006.
VBO queen
Click to read the text enlarged, there are some awesome DIY tips! I like that it’s very straightforward about how to do simple alternations, something that is often an issue. Makes me want to grab a cheap sewing machine and start altering things to be more fitted!
The only thing that annoys me a little bit is the suggestion to rip up clothes that don’t fit and just put them back on the rack. I see the point, and part of me thinks “badass!” — but it’s very possible that loss like that will affect the retail employees a LOT more than it will the corporate office, and people just like you who have very few options in life could get fired; plus they’ll just see it as destruction of property and if you get caught you could get arrested.
I would, definitely, though, complain to the manager and/or call corporate whenever you go to a store and they don’t have your size — stop feeling ashamed or embarrassed, instead inform them that they’ve lost your and your friends’ business and that a whole lot MORE people would be shopping with them if they did carry plus size in store.
Why dose being big have to be something totally separate, why cant clothing lines just make clothes for big girls and boys. why dose there have to be a revolution to get the word across. we are people to just because we are bigger dose not mean we don’t deserve to be happy and look pretty. i mean come on being skinny is not the norm anymore people :) love everyone on here<3
Editor’s response/ramble:
I definitely agree! While I think that plus size lines are great, it would be nice if everyone could just shop universally and there wasn’t any bias or segregation. Skinny or chubby. I don’t think there IS such a thing as normal - there are just lots of different sizes and shapes and it would be nice if we were all represented and included no matter our gender (or lack thereof) or size, and didn’t have to struggle to clothe ourselves.
PS: Submissions are awesome! Thanks for writing in! <33
OOTD: Work of Art (Fatshion February #1)
Happy first day of Fatshion February! :D
Sweater: Target
Dress: Forever 21+
Leggings: Forever 21+
Boots: Payless
Earrings: Macy’s
Ugh, BEST dress.
This is awesome!
This is me after a night of roller derby and dumplings. I’m 5’3 and an Australian size 16-18; the skirt is a size 18 but the top was an op-shop find, originally from Kmart, in an Australian size 8. I tried it on hoping like hell it would fit and whilst it’s rather snug in the arms, it’s one of my favourite op-shop purchases and only cost me $4.
Another one nabbed from fathack, which i adore! :D I love think-outside-the-tag advocacy. Try it on! It requires a bit of investigation of stretchy materials and cuts, and not being too disappointed if something doesn’t work out, but it’s easy to pick up.
BABE ALERT.
If you cant smile regularly you need to make a change.
Smiling is the only way to live a healthy life.
I dont care if you work out 7 days a week, eating brocolli with every meal and drink 8 glasses of water a day. If you dont smile at least 20 times a day youll never lead a happy long life.
I definitely have too much anxiety to smile 20 times a day, haha, but I aspire to some day be as happy as this gorgeous person.
New OoTD post <3 More details on When In Doubt Wear Purple!
Don’t forget to check out my store too. www.ChubbyCartwheels.com.
Gorgeous! I only wish I could sew such pretty clothes…or anything…>_<
This is a good reminder for me to touch up my hair, haha. Yours is so bright and lovely. :D
Hi there! I hope you’re as awesome as my body is chubby! If that’s the case, you should follow me! I blog about: politics, art, music, literature, race relations, feminism, left-wing propaganda, subversion, recipes, LGBTQ issues, and filthy, filthy humour!
http://insertcleverdomainnamehere.tumblr.com
Like any good fatty, I have a food blog also, with lots of my personal recipes!
http://srsnoms.tumblr.com
- Camera: Nikon COOLPIX S3000
- Aperture: f/3.2
- Exposure: 1/1250th
- Focal Length: 4mm
