A Victory

After complaints from parents, teenagers, bloggers, and concerned people everywhere, MTV is not going to air Model Maker after all. Darryl Roberts from the Huffington Post, who advocated against the show, says:
In my letter, which I know many of you read, I warned MTV of the dangers of promoting such a careless and destructive message. [...]

Fat Women On Stage & Screen

We wrote about Neil LaBute’s play “Fat Pig” way back in 2006 (links to a cached version of the post since mopie.com is still intermittently down) so it’s been on the radar for quite some time. But Sheila sent along this article in the Guardian, in response to the new London production of “Fat Pig,” [...]

The New York Times On Fat Acceptance

A couple of people have sent me this link this morning, and thank you very much to all of you! The New York Times has written an article about de-stigmatizing fat, the fat acceptance movement, and the genetics of obesity. An absolute must-read.
But some activists and academics, part of a growing social movement [...]

Uber Skinny Stars: It Starts At The Top

In this week’s issue, Entertainment Weekly catches on to the problem with the tiny bodies on 90210. But the article is worth reading even for those of us who already talked about it. First, the problem:
Almost without exception, the young actresses on The CW’s spin-off are alarmingly thin, with arms that seem thickest [...]

Shameless Self Aggrandizement

A very cool interview OF ME by a very cool woman named Laura is up at a website called Capessa.com. Did I mention that the interview is of ME, ME, ME? Please allow me to quote… er… myself.
“I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘today I’ll go to the gym, go out [...]

“Models Aren’t Supposed To Eat”

It’s Fashion Week, which means we get things like this amazing collection by Christian Siriano and another look at the size zero model phenomenon. Apparently, they’re back in style this season. (So much for Whitney’s victory on America’s Next Top Model.)
Spurred on by a spike in reality TV shows promoting extreme dieting, women are once [...]

Generation XXL

Generation XXLOriginally uploaded by crayolarabbit
I used to see this ad in San Francisco, when driving onto the onramp of the Bay Bridge. It’s an ad for Kaiser Permanente, which is the same HMO that does the “thrive” commercials.
My main issue is that this ad portrays a young girl (of course it’s a girl) in [...]

Is Orthorexia In Vogue?

Whenever I’m asked who this blog is for, I inevitably say it’s for my teenage self—and for teenagers who are like her. So it might not be too surprising that my hot button issue is the way the media talks to teenage girls. For example, in magazines like Teen Vogue that may be subtly [...]

WLS For Everyone!

Ooh boy. One researcher from Britain says that, since diets don’t work, the best answer is to start performing weight loss surgery as a “preventative” measure, even on those whose BMI is less than 35.
“Surgery is currently the only effective treatment for obesity … It not only helps people lose weight by physically decreasing [...]

Starbucks Aims Healthier

You guys know the drill by now, right? Ex-barista, Starbucks addict, blah blah. So I’m always interested in the latest news from the Bux.
Last week, they launched a menu of new, healthier breakfast options: lower in fat, higher in fiber, lower in calories. And it’s about time. Because seriously, it was impossible to find [...]

Let’s Hear It From The Boys

Recently I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the male perspective on size acceptance. There seems to have been a recent uptick in men commenting on this blog, and I have more than one male friend who has been known to make disparaging comments about his body size.
In response to my recent assertion [...]

The Tide, Is It Turning?

After a whole lot of OBESITY EPIDEMIC OMG!!1! in the news lately, finally we have some good news in the New York Times, where the headline reads “Better to Be Fat and Fit Than Skinny and Unfit.”
The researchers chalk it up in part to the assumptions people make when they hear the words [...]

That’s What We’ve Been Telling You

News flash “half of overweight adults are heart-healthy” according to this new, totally shocking study:
You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have [...]

If You Can’t Trust Macaroni Grill, Who Can You Trust?

I’m suspicious, in general, of nutrition information provided by restaurants. The lowfat ice cream cone at McDonald’s is supposedly 150 calories, but I’ve had them hand me a cone that was piled so high with swirls that it was about to tip over, the dairy equivalent of a game of Jenga. I know full [...]

Fat Princess

fat princessOriginally uploaded by mo pie
The furor over the game “Fat Princess” has finally hit the mainstream media, and its long past time I wrote about it here. After all, back in those halcyon days when I had spare time, I used to play video games; these days, my husband and one of my best [...]

Best Links Ever

I read blogs daily, and bookmark a lot of links for you guys, but don’t always manage to write about everything. So this week I’m going to try a little links roundup… in case you missed it.
First up, Fatly Yours, about the idea that size-acceptance blogs are just “fat people sitting around making excuses”:
I [...]

Post-Pro-Ana

You’ve probably heard of pro-ana groups online. They’re pro-anorexia groups where people, mostly young girls, of course, go to share their sources of “thinspiration” and talk about their strategies for ingesting the bare minimum of calories. Well now there’s We Bite Back, a post-pro-ana group dedicated to helping and supporting people who are recovering [...]

The Airbrushipation Of Mimi

mariah photoshop Originally uploaded by mo pie
At this point we’re used to magazines airbrushing or misrepresenting cover photos with ironically juxtaposed headlines. But that doesn’t mean we should stop pointing it out! This week’s victim is Mariah Carey, on the cover of Elle next to [...]

How Do Girls Develop Body Image?

A study released yesterday attempts to answer that important question, dividing adolescent girls into groups like “Jocks,” “Burnouts,” and “Alternatives,” and discovering that their peer groups are the most important deciding factor. From the press release:
The central theme of the study is that peer groups of teenage girls best determine their attitude towards their [...]

The Fat Experience Project

You have most likely already heard about The Fat Experience Project, but it’s worthwhile enough to hear about one more time!
One day, FF and I talked about the fact that we were fat. It was a surprising conversation. I had never talked to another fat person about being fat. We kept it light. We talked [...]