Fat Lot of Good says it all:

J.Anthony, the founder of BBWSinglesFinder, claims that it is time to “celebrate real women” (emphasis mine). Last time I checked even skinny women were real women. Weight does not have bearing on whether someone is a “real” woman or not. Claiming that a thin woman isn’t a “real” woman is just as offensive as claiming a fat woman isn’t a “real” woman…

I do take issue with J.Anthony’s assertion that BBW “does not necessarily mean a fat woman”. He says that “A BBW is a woman who is proud of who she is and isn’t ashamed of her body… A true BBW is confident, sexy and real.” Hmmm…ok…so a size 0 who is proud of who she is and unashamed of her body is a BBW? Somehow I don’t think so.

So, I’m interested in your thoughts on the term BBW. To me, the first B means that it refers to a “big” woman—but what’s the cutoff point for that? Do you think Margaret Cho belongs on this list? How about Carnie Wilson, who had weight-loss surgery—does she still qualify? Do you consider yourself a BBW? Why or why not?

(By the way, the title of this post comes from Kevin’s typo when we were playing Scrabulous.)

Carolyn writes:
i hate being fat. today, more than normal, i hate being fat.

Ro replies:
honey go buy the gossip
BETH DITTO WILL FREE U

According to the New York Times review of the concert:

For vocal incandescence, though, [the Dresden Dolls] couldn’t top Beth Ditto, whose band the Gossip delivered the night’s most unpolished and gripping performance. Backed by the guitarist Brace Paine and the drummer Hannah Blilie, Ms. Ditto unleashed a bluesy yowl that sounded even bigger than the room. Their better tunes — like a heat-blasted disco-punk closer, “Standing in the Way of Control” — felt stranded between styles, and better for it.

Thanks to Eliza for sending this along!

“Do I look thinner?” she asked last week. “Because I started a diet this morning.” A diet she began, she explained, because when people e-mail her to tell her how much they hate her, they always call her fat, lesbian and anti-American, “and fat is always first. Like they don’t have a problem with gay or a communist or whatever but that I’m fat gets them. “

Wow…I think we need to gather this data and analyze it. Can you imagine what we would learn and prove about America’s fat bigotry? I volunteer to use my analytical expertise on this data and the Dr. Wade can contribute her scientific credentials to the venture and it will be ground-breaking work! It’s ok to volunteer her because she’s on vacation. (Hi Wade! Welcome back! We’re co-authoring a paper!)

I am trying to figure out the logic behind this rationale and I am stumbling but here goes: A fat woman is already asking for a lot of patience from society just by virtue of being fat, so you’d better be happy and perky and have lots of fun personality to make up for it. You certainly can’t expect a person to tolerate you if you’re fat AND you disagree with them or challenge their beliefs. Please comment and expand on this, because I really can’t figure it out and I really hope this logic is not sound.

Even more interesting is the next statement from Rosie:

“Not that I’m trying to get thin,” she added. “I just want my size 18 pants to fit better. Size 18, that’s a real-woman size, am I right, ladies?” she asked the studio audience.

“Size 16 is a real-woman size,” said Behar. “You go for a size 16.”

“Yeah, OK, 16.”

If my hypothesis above is true, then there must be a sliding scale of behavior tolerance related to weight. But what is the size at which you can safely have an opinion and not offend the populace with your fatness? Is it size 18? Can you have a mild opinion at size 18 but if you have a radical opinion, you need to be smaller? And is that why women call very thin women “skinny bitches”, because they are in the free and clear and can say whatever they want?

Help me, BFDivas, you’re my only hope.