We have another great Ask BFD question, this time from Barnardgirl! She’s wondering about the cognitive dissonance of being an advocate and still not accepting yourself fully. Bolding mine: Dear BFD, First, thanks for adding an Ask BFD category. I love your blog and the FA blogosphere so much- I wish I’d known about it [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Ask BFD, Eating Disorders, Feminism, Magazines, Question | 6 Comments »

The Rotund writes about reclaiming the word fat. That’s why I object to “overweight” as a descriptor. Over what weight? The weight other people think I should be even though they have no experience with my body composition beyond looking at me? The weight a BMI chart says I should be? The weight a fashion [...]

Filed under: BFD Classic, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Question | 27 Comments »

This email landed in our inbox this week, and it inspired me to add a new category called “Ask BFD” to file this post under. I’m going to try and go back and tag some of the terrific posts that have sprung from reader questions. In the meantime, I think this is a great question, [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Ask BFD, Exercise, Question, Weight Loss | 31 Comments »

Earlier this week, a plea for advice turned up in the comments. It directed us to this Dear Sugar column, where a man with “physical deformities and joint abnormalities” wrote in asking for advice: My problem—and my problem with most advice-outlets—is that there’s not much of a resource for people like me. In movies, ugly [...]

Filed under: Question, Sex & Romance | 48 Comments »

We recently talked about how relatively minor incidents can sometimes feel much more significant than they really are. There are a lot of thought-provoking stories in the comments and I urge you to check out the comments thread if you haven’t had a chance lately. I was reminded of that conversation today when I was [...]

Filed under: Art, Celebrities, Fatism, Feminism, Kids, Music, Personal, Question, Sex & Romance, TV, Video | 32 Comments »

I had a fabulous time last weekend seeing Adam Lambert’s show at the Warfield in San Francisco. In fact, I was right up against the stage, so close that I could see the individual flecks of glitter on his skin. And other than a few songs that I don’t really care for, it was a [...]

Filed under: Adam Lambert, Celebrities, Fatism, Personal, Question, Video | 23 Comments »

It all began with a detailed post by SageAutumn on Livejournal about her showering routine, a “how-to on showering as a big girl.” Drying off water with a towel when you have baby oil on is SUPER easy, all you have to do is pat dry really. But after that, DRY OFF… lay in front [...]

Filed under: Personal, Question, TV | 53 Comments »

One of our most commented posts ever is the “how do strangers treat you?” post linked in the sidebar. It’s been two years, and we keep getting responses that are so thoughtful and represent such a range of experience. I wanted to post some of the recent ones. First, Becky is mocked in front of [...]

Filed under: Fatism, Feminism, Meta, Question, Sex & Romance | 16 Comments »

Here’s an email that I got from BFDiva Mary! She found a very cool statue out in the wild: So, a long while back – I am hoping it was one year, but fear it may be two! – you had a bit of a series on BFD about fat women in art – Venus [...]

Filed under: Art, Feel Good Friday, Guest Post, Question | 7 Comments »

A few days ago, I had never heard of Huge, but it occurred to me that we hadn’t heard from Nikki Blonsky in a while. Lo and behold, IMDB informed me that she (and Glee’s Ashley Fink) were starring in a new show on ABC Family called Huge. Here’s the description from Wikipedia: Huge is [...]

Filed under: Biggest Loser, Celebrities, Glee, Magazines, Nikki Blonsky, Photoshop, Question, TV | 22 Comments »

I’ve been feeling the need to find some new blogs to squeeze into my already overfull Google reader! So I figured, it’s Friday, let’s chat about our favorite stops on the Internet these days! For Fatosphere stuff, I read the Notes from the Fatosphere feed, as well as the Alltop Fatosphere listing, and of course [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Gossip, Meta, Question | 11 Comments »

This post at Racialicious (originally posted at Red Vinyl Shoes) is about black plus-size models in mainstream fashion, but the part that really struck me was this (bolding mine): A popular (white) misconception is that fat is more acceptable in the black community. This is patently untrue. Hip-hop culture is often pointed to when one [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, Gabby Sidibe, Question, Race & Ethnicity | 7 Comments »

In the tradition of Wedding Barbie, Pregnant Barbie, and Sexy Barbie, here’s Man Barbie! Where should BFDudes do their shopping? Jez writes in: So, I have been trying to help my similarly-weighty fiance to find clothes and I found it even more difficult to find interesting, fashion-forward clothing options for him than I’ve ever experienced [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Question, Tidbit | 20 Comments »

I got an email this morning about a controversy brewing at ABC, who is refusing to air a lingerie ad for Lane Bryant that features a plus-sized model. Specifically, “a pleasantly plump model [who] gracefully shows off her curves before the camera in a slew of sexy poses.” (Because she’s sexy she gets to be [...]

Filed under: Advertising, American Idol, Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, Question, Sex & Romance, TV, Video | 50 Comments »

So I wrote an entry in February about growing older gracefully, in which I said: I’ve decided my theme for Year 35 is going to be carpe diem, and to that end, I’m going to try and cross 35 items off my lifelong to-do list. Carpe diem, man, it’s a classic. I mean come on, [...]

Filed under: Meta, Personal, Question | 14 Comments »

I heard this story on the radio this morning: one California supervisor wants to ban fast food restaurants from selling toys with fast food meals. Of course, this is only one county in one state, so we’re hardly at the level of an argument before the Supreme Court. A child’s “Happy Meal” may soon be [...]

Filed under: Advertising, Health, Kids, Personal, Question, Tidbit | 45 Comments »

I have a lot of experience with body acceptance but, it turns out, not so much with age acceptance. I almost titled this post, in all caps, AGE ACCEPTANCE: PLEASE HELP ME. In approximately a month, I’ll be turning 35. I’ve been noticing more gray hairs, a few wrinkles on my face. 35 is a [...]

Filed under: Celebrities, Personal, Question | 65 Comments »

It’s Feel Good Friday, and as such, I’m going to throw out some links to a few things on the Internet I read this week with pleasure. I already recommended this on Twitter, but Roger Ebert’s essay about no longer being able to eat or drink is fantastic. The man is a national treasure. (Via.) [...]

Filed under: Celebrities, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Movies, Question, Race & Ethnicity, TV | 9 Comments »

So, there’s a dating website called beautifulpeople.com, which describes itself as an “elite” website for “exclusively beautiful” people. This state of beautifulness is apparently determined by a HotOrNot-style online vote. To become [members], applicants are required to be voted in by existing members of the opposite sex. Members rate all new applicants over a 48 [...]

Filed under: Question, Sex & Romance | 34 Comments »

I realized the other day while purchasing yet another sweater with horizontal stripes that I actually have a lot of clothes that have stripes on them. For a long time that was a big fashion no-no in my brain, because STRIPES = FAT = OMG! = AAH! But then I stopped worrying about it. My [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Personal, Question, Tidbit | 43 Comments »

Dawn French thinks so. “It is no more acceptable to make a fat joke than it is to make a gay joke… People need to learn to take everyone as they are.” What comedians can joke about is an increasingly treacherous minefield. Rowan Atkinson campaigned against proposed laws targeting “incitement to religious hatred” because he [...]

Filed under: Celebrities, Dawn French, Humor, Question, Tidbit | 29 Comments »

There’s a girl on the campus where I teach who wears the CUH-yutest sweater. I asked her where she got it and she went on at length about how her family had finally gotten her a decent gift for her birthday this year, hallelujah! It was a cute conversation, but a cuter sweater. And I [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Humor, Personal, Question | 26 Comments »

Continuing the “we here at major women’s fashion magazines care about fat people and their happiness!” trend, Marie Claire, major women’s fashion magazine, has started a once-a-month column by Ashley Falcon, Plus-Size Stylist. Hooray! Quick, do not notice that her columns appear next to their regular “From Fat to Fit” series. Or maybe that’s just [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Magazines, Media, Question | 11 Comments »

We’ve talked about the separate-but-equal thing in fashion, but have we talked about it in the wider world, in social situations? Because here we have an article on Plus-Size Nightclubs–night clubs that are, as perhaps indicated by the term “plus-size nightclub,” set up and run specifically for plus-size patrons. “When you’re not what they consider [...]

Filed under: Advocacy, Cold Hard Cash, Fat Positive, Personal, Politics, Question | 42 Comments »

One of my students first told me about People of Walmart, and even though my first reaction was that making fun of working class people is kind of not cool, a lot of my students insisted that no, it was funny, and I should check it out. Indeed, makes fun of lots of people, such [...]

Filed under: Fashion, Fatism, Feminism, Humor, Question, Race & Ethnicity | 66 Comments »