The title of this article, “Finding Fat Lit,” is promising. I was like, yeah! We need more fat characters! And then I read the article. Matt Stewart, who describes himself at his heaviest as “a hideous 239 pounds,” wants books about fat people—but only the ones who are trying to lose weight. Millions of Americans […]

Filed under: Art, Biggest Loser, Books, Fat Positive, Fatism, Mike & Molly, Oprah, TV | 44 Comments »

1. We all know I get ridiculous PR spam, but a real doozy landed in my mailbox yesterday, featuring the top five “Flabulous Celebrity Love Handle Offenders” who can fix their “offensive” love handles with a Spanx-type product that we should all run out and buy too! (Don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of mentioning the […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Art, Beth Ditto, Beyonce, Books, Britney Spears, Celebrities, Crystal Renn, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Health, International, Jessica Simpson, Kirstie Alley, Links, Music, Nikki Blonsky, Science, TV | 8 Comments »

The good news: there’s been more young adult fiction lately featuring fat teenage protagonists. The bad news: the covers of the books don’t actually show any fat teens. This post at Stacked offers a nice string of examples showing body parts instead of girls, pictures of food instead of girls, and girls who are supposedly […]

Filed under: Art, Books, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Media | 12 Comments »

I just finished Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol on audiobook. (Please don’t judge me. I drive a lot.) And I wanted to talk about the character of Trish–especially once I saw my own thoughts echoed on one of the Amazon reviews. Spoilers for The Lost Symbol after the jump…

Filed under: Books, Personal | 9 Comments »

I’m giving Gabby Sidibe her own category because I don’t want to be caught unawares when she’s walking down the red carpet on Oscar night and we need to post about how hot she looks and/or what insane thing she’s wearing. Gabby is the star of the film Precious, also starring Mo’Nique, who is also […]

Filed under: Books, Celebrities, Gabby Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Movies | 7 Comments »

Lord ByronOriginally uploaded by jadc01 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 […]

Filed under: Books, Celebrities, Old Timey, Personal | 9 Comments »

Kate wrote a piece for Powell‘s about fat characters in literature. I love fat people and literature! And I read it with great interest: Truly fat women in books and movies are most often villains, mammies, overbearing mothers-in-law, or unlikable tertiary characters (think the irritable secretary with a box of donuts in her desk drawer). […]

Filed under: Books, Feminism, Personal, Question, Tidbit | 36 Comments »

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby hits bookshelves today! Congratulations to two great writers and fabulous women on their accomplishment. Hope your book changes the world, ladies.

Filed under: Advertising, Books, Fat Positive, Feminism, Meta, Tidbit | 4 Comments »

NPR did a story recently about diet books, and there were at least three things that struck me as worth talking about! 1. In the “no duh” category, diet books offer “too good to be true” promises that suck people in over and over again. “The diet category offers a tremendous amount of repeat business,” […]

Filed under: Art, Books, Cold Hard Cash, Weight Loss | 31 Comments »

Now that Big Love is off the air, those of you lucky people with HBO will need something else to watch to pass the time. Well, as Entertainment Weekly reminded me, this week is the premiere of the TV series version of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. I can’t wait to hear what […]

Filed under: Books, Celebrities, Fat Positive, Feel Good Friday, International, Jill Scott, Magazines, Race & Ethnicity, TV, Video | 10 Comments »

Susan Orbach, the feminist psychologist who wrote Fat is a Feminist Issue, is coming out with a new book called Bodies. In it, she’s examining how our relationship with our bodies has reached a crisis point, not just in terms of the fear and phobia of fat and the size-zero culture, but how the endless […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Books, Eating Disorders, Feminism, International, Media, Tidbit | 8 Comments »

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 promoting […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Books, Celebrities, Eating Disorders, Fashion, Feminism, Kids, Magazines, Media | 18 Comments »

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”: […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Books, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Links, Meta, Project Runway, Race & Ethnicity, TV | 4 Comments »

Jennette Fulda, better known as PastaQueen, may have lost a couple hundred or so pounds, but she’s been a commenter on and visitor to Big Fat Deal for a long time. On a blog tour for her memoir, Half of Me, she offered to stop by and answer the toughest questions I could come up […]

Filed under: Beth Ditto, Books, Exercise, Meta, Question, Weight Loss, WLS | 173 Comments »

Celia Kyle writes sexy-sexy romance novels featuring plus-sized heroines. Commenter mccn volunteered to do a totally honest review of one of Celia’s books, as I thought some of you might be interested. Enjoy! The best sex comes with humour. Whether it’s being able to share a laugh at the noises bodies make when they stick […]

Filed under: Books, Guest Post, Meta, NSFW, Review, Sex & Romance | 10 Comments »

When I was in junior high, I read V.C. Andrews and The Baby-sitters Club, not Sweet Valley High. I do remember seeking out the one where someone named, I think, Regina dies of a cocaine overdose. But beyond that, I wasn’t interested. I just couldn’t relate to Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield. I was neither the […]

Filed under: Books, Feminism, Kids, Personal | 41 Comments »

I read a book recently that is both wildly popular and fat positive: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. I wrote about it in my book blog: The heroine (Mma Ramotswe I think is the spelling) is one of the best characters ever, seriously. How much do I love her? And sure, I’m biased because […]

Filed under: Books, Fat Positive, International, Movies, Race & Ethnicity | 15 Comments »

The fancy new redisigned The F-Word has an interview up today with Gina Kolata, author of Rethinking Thin. In Rethinking Thin, you contend that the diet industry often only succeeds in fattening the pocketbooks of a multi-billion dieting industry, while hopeful dieters lose only money. Why then do so many Americans continue to buy in […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Books, Meta, Science | 3 Comments »

According to Manolo for the Big Girl, Harry Potter is pro-fat. (Although I have to say, I hardly think giants count.) (Also, since when is Neville Longbottom fat? Is he fat?) While I notice that, at first glance, a few of the overweight characters are stereotypically written as “bumbling” or “jovial,” on the whole the […]

Filed under: Books, Fat Positive, Fatism, Harry Potter | 16 Comments »

We’ve known for a while that Leonard Nimoy was working on a big-girl photography project, but it’s been in the news lately because his book is coming out. This New York Times article, sent to me by a handful of delightful people while I was on a Big Fat Vacation, gives a nice overview. The […]

Filed under: Books, Fat Positive | 12 Comments »

If you’re overweight, the good news is that it may be primarily caused by genetics, rather than any sort of failure or lack of willpower on your part. The bad news is that your body doesn’t want you to lose it. And if you do lose it, your body wants you to gain it back. […]

Filed under: Books, Health, Science | 14 Comments »

You probably know some former fat people—people who have lost a lot of weight and have kept it off. Some of them have seemingly lost a lot of empathy for other fat people. This woman, for instance, has called a stranger “lardass” and secretly judges her fat friends: I find that I sometimes have to […]

Filed under: Books, Fatism, Health, Weight Loss | 37 Comments »

My manager at work just came by and we were chatting about weight loss (we’ve both been doing Weight Watchers). She mentioned that The Secret (that book you may have heard of that is both crazy popular and… crazy) tells you a (crazy) way to lose weight. The book is based on visualizing things you […]

Filed under: Books, Humor, Weight Loss | 25 Comments »

In the comments of our still-lively discussion about Sal’s blog entry, Wendy alerted us to this story, about an author named Penelope Trunk who disagrees with the argument of a rival author, Leslie Bennett, about stay-at-home motherhood. “Trunk decided to take the low road, ridiculing Bennetts as ‘INCREDIBLY FAT!!!’ (All caps and exclamation points hers, […]

Filed under: Books, Fatism, Meta | 4 Comments »