Curious, I did a couple of searches myself. I found out weight loss can make you happier if you have hot flashes, and I found stories about how you will be less fat and thus more happy if you eat eggs and get surgery and drink apple cider vinegar and go to the mountains (even though you’ll gain the weight back in a month, of course—yes, the article really admits that). There’s even an article about how weight-loss patches “really work.” I’m not kidding.

I did not find any stories that could be remotely classified as fat positive, with one exception. The link our tipster sent in was this one, an article that contained the tidbit that low social interaction is “twice as harmful as obesity.” Of course this isn’t fat positive on the surface, but I could make a happy headline for that, which would read: Your Friends Are Twice As Important As Your Fat. That’s pretty happy, right?

• Entertainment Weekly
• L.A. Times
• ABC News
• MTV
• STLToday
• New York Times
• The Frisky

2. An awesome 18-year-old spent a month following Seventeen magazine dictates and blogging about it, calling it the Seventeen Magazine Project. Her intent was to draw more attention to the media’s ridiculous perception of women and teens and what they want, and are supposed to want. And now she’s decided to get even louder, putting together a community project called “Hey mainstream media.”

To participate in this project, all that you have to do is take a picture of yourself holding a sign with words finishing the statement, “Hey mainstream media! I am….”

Anyone can participate in this project. That is, anyone that at some point has felt misrepresented by or excluded from mainstream media. This project is NOT just for teens. Are you a black woman? Maybe you’re more than just a sassy best friend character. A straight man? Maybe you’re interested in more than just pictures of naked women. Unlike media, this project does not exclude or alienate any demographic.

You can add photos directly to the Flickr pool to participate. http://www.flickr.com/groups/heymainstreammedia/

3. The headline in this NYT article says it all: Plus-Size Revelation: Bigger Women Have Cash Too.

Corseted into a size 18 white denim dress, wearing heels that made her about 6-foot-2, Gwen DeVoe, a former model and fashion-show producer, stepped onto a runway in Manhattan this week and made a pitch to retailers for the plus-size woman.

Those stores that don’t carry bigger sizes? “Shame on you, baby, shame on you,” Ms. DeVoe said. “Every curvy girl that has a dollar is willing to spend that dollar.”

So retailers are realizing.

Just now? Just now they’re realizing? It feels like they’ve been realizing and poised to take on the plus-size market for about as long as I have been alive. Hey, maybe one day it’ll be a nice, ordinary fact, and not “news.”

4. A little late, but I just ran into this: Full-Figured Fashion Week happened, and it sounds like it was awesome. Sponsorship was up (7 sponsors last year, 35 this year!). My favorite part: how New York Magazine wistfully notes that everyone had a very swell time.

It’s a shame Full Figured Fashion Week has to be so separate from New York’s main Fashion Week. It’s also too bad the main Fashion Week doesn’t have model competitions or fun award ceremonies and a vibe that’s not life-or-death.

The important thing is that we accept ourselves. When we accept ourselves, the rest of the world will too. Or they won’t – but that will be their problem. Throughout my entire life, I have been a full figured woman. I will never be a size 0, 4, or even a 10, but that does not stop me from looking my best, like Amber Riley from Glee. As the weather heats up, I grab the opportunity to wear sexy clothing, break out my great summer accessories, and flaunt my full hourglass-and-a-half figure in yet another season.

 2. Gabi of Young, Fat, and Fabulous is a finalist in MTV’s Twitter Jockey contest!

As much as I love fashion, I also love social media and popular culture; this is an amazing opportunity, and I truly need all of your support! How great would it be if there was a fashionable, body-positive plus size girl working in mainstream media (and MTV at that)? Plus, if I win, I can guarantee A LOT more outfit posts…can you imagine my wardrobe if I actually had steady income? Man.

The main thing I need you guys to do is FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY (my username is @gabifresh). There will be a series of challenges and you will have to follow me there in order to help! The more followers and interaction I have with you guys, the better. Secondly, PLEASE help spread the word and tell your friends to follow me. Post on your blogs, facebook, twitter pages, youtube channels, or anything else you can think of.

I’m not entirely sure what a “Twitter jockey” is (back in my day, MTV ran videos! And we liked it!), but I know I love the idea of Gabi winning. Go, Gabi, go! Jockey the hell out of that Twitter!

3. Via Salon’s Broadsheet: This is beautiful, very cool, and nerdy, but it also appeals to my sense of comedy: a pin-up calendar featuring ladies so skinny, they’re all bones. Literally. IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT, AMERICA?

Japanese manufacturer Eizo has put together pictorials of 12 skeletons showing off their fibulas, tailbones and rib cages in classic car model poses — and, damn, these skele-girls got femurs for daaays.

4. Fashionista covers a British retailer with a major gimmick for their new swimwear campaign: All of their models are totally unPhotoshopped.  Which sounds awesome–except it’s not like they’re dragging regular women out of bed and throwing them head-first and uncombed into bikinis:

It’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that showcasing clothes on already perfect bodies will make the rest of us any more comfortable with the idea of buying THAT bikini. As in all of the highly hyped makeup-free magazine features we’ve seen (and Britney and Demi’s ‘before’ ad shots), the model is still meticulously made up, lit, styled, toned, etc.
Still, we have to applaud any move that challenges industry-wide assumptions and spurs on conversation.

I think I feel pretty much the same—I still struggle with the idea that these are perfect bodies to which we ought to aspire (obviously a flawed and troubling assumption), but I love that these are real women, not  creepily “perfected” lies forced upon us by a fashion hivemind! Viva la revolucion! In my heart, it’s hope that it’s a start.

I now know that confidence and being a happy, positive person plays a more important role in attraction than body size alone. My main motivation for doing erotic work is to make the statement that fat women can express their sexuality and be sexual beings. I am challenge the norms of what is considered beautiful and sexy. I want people to examine their own ideas of what they consider appealing. For many people beauty does not just come in a size 0.

In related news, this is a very funny take on American Apparel’s “not our demographic” bullshit.

2. Holy crap you guys, it’s the solution we’ve all been waiting for! I love Allie Brosh and her finely tuned sense of the ridiculous.

The Weasel Belt is a revolutionary new product that uses the wonders of weasels to whittle your waist!  Was that egregious alliteration annoying? You bet it was!

Anyway, the Weasel Belt works by attaching a cage-like structure to your abdomen and then releasing several live, rabid weasels into the enclosure.  You don’t even have to do anything!  You just sit there and let the weasels gnaw your love handles away!

3. Speaking of weasels, Julien MacDonald has gone on record with his foot in his mouth, which must have taken some serious flexibility. He says plus-size models aren’t taken seriously, and shouldn’t win a modeling competition. Because he’s an ass.

“There were no plus-size models,” Macdonald reportedly said of [Britain's Next Top Model].

“This is a serious show. You can’t have a plus-size girl winning — it makes it a joke.

“It’s not fair on them — you’re setting them up for a fall. I know what would happen to them. They are looked down on.”

Because maybe, way too often, still, even after all the “celebration of ‘real women’” fooferah going on in the popular media, plus size models are usually not included in modeling competitions and taken as seriously as smaller-sized models, maybe? WEIRD. Shut up, Julien. Can I call you Julien? Too bad.

4. This was very cool—an interview with a plus-size fashion stylist. She’s got some old chestnuts about “creating proportion” and fear of “adding bulk” and whatnot (maybe she should have a long conversation with the deeply fabulous chestnut-roasting Beth Ditto), but she also has some interesting things to say about the industry, fashion, and even getting into the business.

I hope that as a stylist I can contribute to the plus size fashion industry as an educator, role model, and mentor. I truly enjoy connecting to real women all over the country and helping them feel great about themselves by offering them a fresh perspective on plus fashion and style. I have found my niche with the plus industry and I hope to continue partnering with plus related companies, designers, and industry leaders to reach out to society and media and showcase curvy women in a positive, flattering way.

5. This made me happy. You need something beautiful to hang in your house, and remind you that the female body has been worshipped for millennia? Check out this print.

In the same way as anorexics may have a distorted self-perception of being fat, some overweight and obese people fail to see their true plus-size selves, believing instead that they are a healthy weight, says British author Sara Bird, whose book documenting her experience with “fatorexia” was published in March… “When I looked in the mirror, I saw a confident thin person, when in fact I was obese,” says Bird,… At 240 pounds, she looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy with a head that appeared much too small for her body, she said.

Oh good. Another self-loathing reformed fat person. Looks like we’ll get more people helpfully informing us that we’re fat! Terrific! THAT’S JUST WHAT WE NEED.

So then movie critic Mick LaSalle “weighs” in on this “excellent” story!

A couple of weeks ago I got some nasty reaction to my review of JUST WRIGHT, the new Queen Latifah movie in which she is the romantic lead. She plays an average woman who becomes the love interest of an extremely desirable man — an NBA superstar who could presumably have absolutely anybody. In the most delicate terms imaginable, I questioned how the movie could present its hero’s attraction for (let’s just say it) an obese woman, without in some way accounting for the unusual nature of that attraction.

Yes, apparently, it’s COMPLETELY FUCKING CRAZY that someone could be attracted to the “obese” Queen Latifah. QUEEN LATIFAH! Who looks like this!

(His original review is actually, to give him credit that I would rather not give him, a bit more nuanced than this would suggest.) Still, he’s no Lindy West (the critic who wrote that scathing takedown of the new Sex and the City movie).

I know that neither Mick LaSalle nor Sara Bird is likely to listen when I say this, but allow me to repeat: FAT PEOPLE KNOW THEY’RE FAT. We really don’t need more shaming. A lack of shaming is not the problem here.

And also, Queen Latifah is hot.

I started modeling in 1998, at the age of 19, at 5’11″ (180 cm) and 120 pounds (55 kg). I grew up hating my body. I was always too tall and too thin. I loathed every encounter with the school nurse (she used to ask if my parents fed me), and by the time I was 13, I had acknowledged the fact that I was labeled a freak by the society around me. I can’t even remember how many times I have been asked (sometimes by total strangers on the street) if I had an eating disorder. Both of my parents are tall and thin, as are my siblings, but my body was the freakiest of all. I felt abnormal, and now in hindsight I wonder if I felt like that only because of the mean comments people made. I have a feeling I would have developed a more normal relationship with my body if I had been allowed to be who I was.

2.    The totally reliable Examiner is claiming that Megan Fox was kicked off the Transformers 3 set for being “too skinny.”

Fox and Transformers director Michael Bay had a “huge row” over her weight. The 24-year-old stormed out after the blow-up after Bay called her “unhealthy”.

“[Bay] thinks she has lost too much weight and looks too frail. He wanted her to put on some weight and it all kicked off.”

Bay wasn’t the only one concerned with Megan Fox’s weight loss. Even the crew said she was far from sexy and more a “gaunt, pale image”.

3.    The L.A. Times covers the fat celebrities who make their money (and careers) from their size. (Goddamn it, Kirstie Alley.)

Welcome to the era of the fat celebrity. No longer is it shameful, shocking or a career killer for the famous to make weight struggles the centerpiece of their lives. In fact, they’re making money off of it.

“Fat celebrities are particularly irresistible because in the real culture people are constantly struggling with what’s wrong with their bodies,” says University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, author of “The Obesity Myth: Why America’s Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health.” “People can identify with that, and this is another way of tapping into the fascination with celebrities as being both unique but somehow just like us.”

4.    iVillage is throwing a contest—who loves themselves the most?

iVillage Beauty & Style is all about making women feel confident. Whether through a perfect manicure, a head-turning dress, or your go-to lipstick, iVillage encourages you to express your personal style with pride.

Upload a photo and sound clip of yourself, talking about how hot you are and why, on IVillage’s fotobabble site and maybe win $500.

5.    Check out Letters to My Body, a very cool community-based body image project that you can join.

The purpose Letters to My Body (LTMB) is to serve as a catalyst for open discussion and free speaking about the positive and negative feelings that we have concerning our bodies.  The hope is that through an anonymous vessel such as a letter, we can begin to heal the wounds that have been cultivated over our lifetimes, and also to praise our bodies and recognize that they are beautiful–no matter what shape, size, or condition.

In addition, I hope that Letters to My Body will bring awareness to the countless women and men who suffer from eating disorders.  I want this silent disease to stop being so silent.

The picture they use to promote their “Is It Okay To Be Fat?” story is of two “faceless fatties” (better than the headless fatties, for sure); the picture they use to promote a story on “Fat Acceptance” is… of two rail-thin models. (To be fair, the story focuses on model Crystal Renn.) Kind of interesting, no?

Christina Hendricks has the kind of fabulous bod that most designers wouldn’t know how to handle. Any time Project Runway throws the contestants a challenge to make clothes for mothers, or divorcees, or generally people who aren’t 5’10″and 100 lbs, they all start wailing and moaning that it’s not what their designs are about and it’s so haaaard, and blah blah blah. I always want Tim Gunn to come in and yell at them that if they can’t handle actual people’s bodies, then they have no business making clothes at all, because guess what? Sometimes people who eat carbs also want to shop and wear things on their bodies.

The New York Times, however, didn’t like the dress.

Cathy Horyn, a style blogger at the Times… quote[d] a stylist who said, “You don’t put a big girl in a big dress. That’s rule number one.” And seemingly to drive home the point of just how terribly big Hendricks really is, the Times ran an altered photo of her (left image) making her appear broader than normal.

After complaints from readers, as well as some bad press, the original photo was replaced (right photo) along with an update explaining that it “was slightly distorted inadvertently due to an error during routine processing.” Sure. Forget the distorted photo; I’d like an explanation for Ms. Horyn’s distorted view of the female body.

I think it’s clear that the photo was distorted and it was probably inadvertent. But would we call her a “big girl”? And if we did, is that so bad? And do you hate the dress on her? (I love the dress, but not so much the color on her.) And is she the hottest woman alive, or what? Discuss!

I’m sure you can’t forget the Liar controversy, where the cover featured a white girl when the main character was clearly not white. Why is it we put thin on the cover when the character isn’t (and in some cases is JUST ALRIGHT WITH THAT?).

So I want you to tell me: why can’t we do this? Can you find me a cover with a fat girl who is — how do I say this — a normal, every day person? We know our world isn’t full of perfect bodies and we know we want people to come to love who they are, but if we can’t see it in the world (especially in books that are meant to highlight these said issues) how can we make people believe they are ok?

The comments are good too; Amanda brings up a related point right off the bat:

I think there’s a tendency in general to show only pieces of women on book covers. It’s true there are books with whole thin women on the covers, but in general most covers are pieces of women. I think it’s odd because it objectifies women and has us seeing them as it. “IT’s a butt.” Not “oh there’s a woman with a big round butt.”

It’s true; it’s like a variation on the headless fatty. I guess because body parts are less specific than a specific person? Also chicklit often = a pair of shoes on the cover. Because GIRLS LIKE SHOES.

I’m actually writing a YA novel with a plus sized protagonist right now, which makes this issue even more complex for me. I understand that many teen girls who think they’re “fat” and relate to the world like they’re “fat” are actually pretty average looking or what most would call “chubby”; that was certainly true for me. By avoiding putting a specific person on the cover, that does eliminate the compare-and-contrast problem–”I can’t relate to her, she’s not even fat!”

When my book is inevitably published in mass market paperback (just throwing that out there, universe), I’m not sure I’d want to have my main character on the cover, now that I think of it; I don’t usually like covers with people on them because it gets in the way of my ability to imagine the characters. Maybe I will select (with all my power that I will have as a bestselling young adult author, right, universe?) something else emblematic of my story, more universal.

Certainly not, however, an Oreo cookie.

Thanks to Wendy for the link!

V Magazine has released a second editorial from the forthcoming issue entitled “Curves Ahead” that is sure to spark up more debate. It features 5 plus models in everything from swimwear to lingerie to denim to a Lady Gaga-esque leotard. The editorial, shot by Solve Sundsbo, is filled with beautiful woman who have hips, thighs, and maybe a little belly pudge and muffin top but they are all working it for the camera. See for yourself.

A little NSFW!