I’m guessing that a lot of us had Sassy moments that impacted your impressionable years. For me, when I read something that Mike Flaherty said about Roseann Barr being a “fat ugly cow”, something broke inside my brain. I wrote a seething letter to the editor, taking him and the magazine to task for preaching acceptance and then spewing that level of body hate. It was the first time I had ever dared to defend my body–my fatness–and it felt like the most dangerous thing in the world. Mike called me personally to apologize and then they published a version of the letter (although with a softened comment about still trying to lose weight) in their March 1990 issue.  I used the payment to fly to NYC and hang out in the Sassy offices with Christina, Mike and then spanking-new writer Kim France (now EIC of Lucky), pretty much making me the luckiest teenager in America for a short few hours.

One of the things I remember most about those two afternoons was how Christina told me to keep writing and keep questioning shit. Christina took her own advice. Check it out:

In Jane Brody’s column about BMI on Tuesday, she, or some hack doctor she quotes, says that it’s thoroughly possible for a 125 pound, 5 foot 5 inch woman to be fat. Shut the front door. Jane, this is frigging impossible. I am resisting the impulse to say you are going senile.

An ad for a plastic surgeon in The Montclair Times today asks, “Do you suffer from cellulite?” Suffering? Really? I’m almost speechless. There is a lot of suffering in this world, to be sure, very little of it from cellulite.

Tabitha Soren (former MTV News correspondent back when MTV was still relevant) said “Sassy has changed my life by making me hopeful that society’s stereotypes of the ideal physical female are unrealistic and terribly outdated. Sassy celebrates women who are real people that exist in the real world, not plastic surgery victims.”  It doesn’t happen often but it’s absolutely amazing when you see that your idols are still exactly who you thought they were, more than twenty years later.

Rock n roll, Christina Kelly. You’re still the coolest girl I’ve ever met.

2. Lesley at Fatshionista is doing Huge recaps, and tackles the latest episode here. Also, the cast signs a Body Peace Treaty, but… there are some problems, as The
Rotund explains:

“Oh, hi, y’all, love your bodies but isn’t this traditionally attractive boy just the hottest? You may be smart and funny and good looking but you won’t measure up to the mainstream heartthrobby good looks of the thin dude.”

Yeah, I’m paraphrasing. BUT COME ON.

3. The Glamazons are auditioning for new talent.

Those 4 plus size beauties are looking to cast another girl to add to the group! Are you a gorgeous, tall, plus size girl who can sing and dance? Please send pics and resumes to glamazongirls@gmail.com for audition appointment.

4. Let’s teach preschoolers to count calories! Family Feeding Dynamics spots a problematic sign at the local Farmer’s Market.

Circle the healthiest choice (fewest calories)!
Ring the cowbell!

1/2 cup diced fruit salad (60 calories)
1/2 cup diced fruit salad with 2 Tbspn orange juice (88 calories)
1/2 cup diced fruit salad with 2 Tbspns light yogurt (96 calories)

I wonder why adding yogurt is not “healthy” or the assertion that the definition of “healthy” is low calorie. Low-calorie and low-fat diets fail nutritionally for small children (and fail for adults too.) I won’t elaborate on why this is garbage “nutrition” info which is more harmful than helpful.

5. And finally, happy ten-year blogoversary to the granddaddy of all FA blogs, Big Fat Blog!

I know we haven’t solved all of the world’s fat problems (yet), but just think for a second where fat acceptance and body equality were ten years ago. Or maybe it would be easier to think of where *you* were on the body love continuum ten years ago.

Happy Thursday!

And speaking of Lane Bryant, my dear friend Pippit sent in a link to an article about Full Figured Fashion Week that ran in her local paper, the Austin-American Statesman.

I was shocked to hear the president of Lane Bryant say that their plus-sized customers are more interested in elastic-waist pants and caftans than on actual fashion. Well, I’m paraphrasing. Here’s the real quote:

Lane Bryant, the retailer offering sizes 14-28, believes its customers are most concerned with comfort, then fit and finally style. “She’s not there on the cutting edge of fashion,” President Brian Woolf said. “She might be a year behind.”

Don’t let the fatshionistas hear you say that, buddy.

I was pretty surprised, considering that our own Marie Denee, the Curvy Fashionista, just attended a Lane Bryant bloggers conference. She wrote about her experience here, and Fat Chic (another blogger who attended the conference) had this to say:

I was absolutely fascinated by the creative process used to come up with the different styles each month. The designers and merchants know their competition, are inspired by it and are also determined to keep on as leaders of plus size (specialty size) fashion. They really do try to have something for everyone, as their envisioned customer is quite eclectic.

The major thing I learned: high fashion really does filter down to the commercial, and while I question why that’s necessary, for a company that produces new styles on a monthly turnover schedule, I can understand the need NOT to reinvent a wheel over and over.

So are they fashion backward or fashion forward? Do they believe in Fatshionistas, or do they believe we’re not interested in following the latest trend? Are their clothes overpriced or worth the money? Do you still own a pair of Right Fit jeans? Does it all, in the end, come down to your personal taste? Someone, anyone, TELL ME WHAT TO BELIEVE!

I’ve already “hidden” posts on my news feed from folks who seem to think that a running litany of everything they ate/didn’t eat wanted to eat/didn’t want to eat or weight they lost/gained inexplicably was the utmost in fascinating conversation… Yesterday this… was not possible when a woman actively messaged me to ask why I hadn’t joined (or “liked”? I’m not sure which) the page she’d set up to log all her Weight Loss Adventures.

2. Do plus-sized women need a separate social networking site? (And if so, why is it not called Fatbook?) Via Jenfu.

Women who are a size 12 or above make up 60% of the population. It seems odd to treat them as though they’re an odd minority who need their own special site when they’re pretty clearly the majority. I just kind of feel like there should be enough of a place for plus sized women in the mainsteam discussion that this sould be unecessary – but maybe that’s not the case. And if it’s not, then the mainstream discussion is really failing.

3. Feminist Does Not Mean “Strong Woman” by my new girlcrush Tasha Fierce. If Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, and Sarah Palin unsettle you, you aren’t alone.

These women are part of a new wave of conservative feminism, which apparently views women’s advancement in the workplace and politics to be the most important tenet of actual feminism. Basically, these conservative feminist leaders have decided that the advancement of women to the upper echelons of business — something they have already achieved — is what feminism should really be about… By opposing ideas like subsidized child care, access to birth control, and legal abortion, these women will actually make things worse for any homemaker not privileged by race and wealth.

4. You can buy your own airline seatbelt extender if you would rather not ask for one. Via the Fatcast podcast! Featuring Marianne Kirby and Leslie Kinzel!

5. And finally, from @TweetsOfOld, an excerpt from a Missouri newspaper in 1878:

A 13 months-old boy tips the scales at 100 pounds. The parents intend to exhibit him to the public.

As you do. Happy Thursday, everyone!

We’ve already discussed the ham sandwich thing but did you know that Cass repeatedly tried to get into the Mamas and the Papas but John Phillips told her that she was too fat? Eventually, he caved, inventing a story that Elliot could sing higher after being hit in the head by a magical pipe, which everyone (including Cass) went along with because the real reason was uncomfortable. We’ve all heard that bands become dysfunctional families, so I assume that the other members were skirting around Phillips’ creepy personality issues. (Remember, this is also the guy who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rape and then have “consensual” sex with his daughter for a decade)

John wanted to have a Peter, Paul and Mary-style rock-and-roll group and had no compunction of saying “Sorry, Cass, but you’re too fat” right to her face. But not in a mean way. He’d just say “Cass, I’m sorry–you’re too fat.” (From Dream a Little Dream of Me via Snopes)

Ok, as long as he wasn’t MEAN about it, even though apparently Phillips has been quoted making sizist remarks in numerous sources and apparently  As it turns out, the joke was on Phillips, as their popularity rose with the inclusion of her amazing voice.

What Streisand did for Jewish girls in Brooklyn, Cass Elliot was doing for fat girls everywhere. The diet food people must have hated her the way nose surgeons are said to hate Streisand. While the Mamas and Papas were defining a lifestyle for their fans to emulate, Cass was redefining the concept of beauty among the young.  (Esquire, 1969)

There’s no doubt that vocally she was the strongest member of the group, and while Cass may or may not have internalized all of the comments about her weight, she just might have been a seminal influence for the Fat Acceptance movement.

My life these days is almost 100% schoolwork, as I am currently teaching five classes at two different colleges. (I spend my entire weekends grading; it’s exhausting.) This week, my literature class is going to start on the Romantics, and I was doing some reading about old friends like John Keats, Mary Wollstonecraft, and William Wordsworth.

One would think that this would in no way be relevant to this blog, so imagine my surprise when I ran across the following passage, in the Norton Anthology’s entry on Lord Byron:

Byron was extraordinarily handsome… Because of a constitutional tendency to obesity, however, he was able to maintain his looks only by resorting again and again to a starvation diet of biscuits, soda water, and strong purgatives.

Even before we had skinny celebrities on the cover of tabloids, way back at the turn of the nineteenth century, Lord Byron of all people was starving himself. Wow. Kind of crazy, no?

Show History has a fascinating compilation of names and pictures and brief biographies of fat people who worked as attractions in carnival sideshows. (They were also known as “freaks.”)

A little background:

Professional Fat Folk of an earlier age lived to astound a public for whom not having enough to eat was a real possibility, and even a commonplace. From the 18th Century to the beginning of the 20th Century being fat was a sign of health and prosperity.

Seemingly devouring a constant plentitude of food that their audiences may not have had, the showbiz of girth and jiggle was a universal attraction in carnival sideshows, dime museums and circuses.

Fat people used to perform in many different ways, every sideshow looking for a new gimmick. They used to entertain by performing go-go dances, running 50-yard dashes (thanks, Weet, for that link), bicycling, doing acrobatics, and–yes–boxing. A surprising number had stage names beginning with “Jolly” or “Happy.” One was called “Ima Whale.”

Reading this list makes me wonder more about the lives of some of these performers–Dottie Blackhall, for example, was a 600-pound woman who ultimately committed suicide. Anroe Brown, “The Georgia Giantess,” was born into slavery. Clifford W. Krueger retired from the sideshow to become a Wisconsin state senator. One woman “allegedly died while bending over to pick up a four-leaf clover. One died from complications due to weight loss surgery.” Edward Rusk weighed 449 pounds but claimed to weigh 649 pounds (because even in 1895, people didn’t know what 400 pounds looks like). So many stories, happy and sad.

Here’s a short video clip from the 1920s of one of these performers. More photos after the jump:

After reading our Miss America post, Jane e-mailed me and mentioned she had her own blog dedicated to “classical pictures of sensual and lovely women with body types that are rarely seen in modern media.”

I can relate to this; I took a picture of this picture in the National Portrait Gallery, because I do love seeing positive representations of, as she puts it, shapely women. (Obviously, shoutout to Adipositivity here, as well as our own This Is What Beautiful Looks Like Flickr group.)

Anyway, it is a lovely collection of images, with a lot of variety in terms of size. (She does mention in her sidebar that women of color are underrepresented and she’d love people to send those in, I’m sure.)

Thanks for sharing your link, Jane!

I stumbled upon this collection of antique beauty queen photographs. Unfortunately, they do not date them, but I would guess around the late 1920s based on their hair and makeup. I thought it would be kind of interesting to take a look at previous standards of beauty compared to today.

It is really striking to see how the faces of these women tended to be more soft and round. (Miss Argentina, for example, I would call zaftig.) Strangely, I look at Miss America’s round face and her bow lips and think of Zooey Deschanel, a little bit. Am I crazy?

Anyway, for the sake of comparison, here is Miss America 2009, Katie Stam:

Well she is also beautiful, but there’s definitely more spray tanning and teeth whitening going on in 2009, that’s for sure. What do you guys think?

From the Library of Congress (via Weetabix) comes this poster, advertising a “human curiosities” sideshow from the 1914 Vermont State Fair: Ruth the Acrobat.

Not only is the image interesting, so are the (many many) comments, ranging from the neutral:

it looks like she doesnt have bones

To the naughty:

This would give some interesting options in the bedroom. ;)

To the predictable:

This must have been before Atkins, then.

Where did that cheese burger go?!

To the somewhat inexplicable.

Of course the fat chick has to have ballet flats!! YUCKNESS!!!!

If someone could explain the ballet flats thing, that would be helpful. And speaking of interesting images, I also loved this Adipositivity swimming pool image (nudity, potentially NSFW) from a couple of days ago. I’m sad that their website doesn’t have prints for sale!