I will confess that I used to love Jane magazine and was very sad when it went out of print. (I sadly missed out on the whole Sassy thing, probably because when I was in junior high, I wasn’t cool enough for anyone to tell me it existed.) But I loved Jane. I know that […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fat Positive, Feminism, Kids, Magazines, Project Runway | 5 Comments »

Movie actors gain and lose weight for roles all the time. Remember when Russell Crowe gained weight for A Beautiful Mind, or Renee Zellweger did for Bridget Jones (and it was a way bigger deal because she’s a woman, even though she was a size ten at most, but that’s another story)? While Friends had […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Feminism, Renee Zelwegger, TV | 12 Comments »

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. —Ben Franklin I’m sure you’ve all read plenty about the TSA furor, which has been upsetting plenty of people. Friend of the blog Aych has written about her experience, and posts written by and about rape survivors […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Feminism, Politics | 38 Comments »

With a special shout-out to Brianna, here are some links that popped up in Google Reader this week! 1. From Feed Me: Fat women are paid less than men in the workplace. So obviously, we should lose weight. Wait, what? Fat women are paid less than women who aren’t fat; fat men, on average, earn […]

Filed under: BFDudes, Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Gabby Sidibe, Humor, Links, Personal, Work | 4 Comments »

Apparently I’m on a movie kick, but I couldn’t resist sharing this great article in Newsweek exploring the subtle sexism in recent kid movies. …One in four female characters was depicted in “sexy, tight, or alluring attire,” compared with one in 25 male characters. The female characters were also more likely than men to be […]

Filed under: Disney, Fatism, Feminism, Kids, Movies, Question, Weetabix | 48 Comments »

A few days ago, I read the comments of this post on The F Word, discussing the idea that “every woman is beautiful.” This comment from Meerkat has really stuck with me since I read it. Unless she is not confident, because those people are hideous even if they are supermodels! Or so I have […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Feminism, Personal, Question | 47 Comments »

Remember Sassy magazine? The little inside notes, the sardonic voice, the amazing pulse of an under-appreciated cultural uprising, it was all there in the glossy pages of Sassy. It’s almost like Karen Catchpole, Christina Kelly, Catherine Gysin and Mike Flaherty were bloggers a decade early. I don’t think the staff understood it at the time, […]

Filed under: Feminism, Magazines, Old Timey, Weetabix | 11 Comments »

On the heels of the feminism debate in the comments, I have some news for the guys: your pants size may be lying to you. A supposed 36″ pant measures 41″ at Old Navy and 39.5″ at Dockers… and doesn’t seem to measure 36″ anywhere. There’s a chart at that link, but before you click, […]

Filed under: BFDudes, Fashion, Fatism | 18 Comments »

It’s been three years since we asked Is Fat A Feminist Issue? And over the past few days, the subject has come up again. And how. I’d seen some stirrings on Twitter, while I was out of town for the weekend, about a problematic post on Feministe, but I didn’t have a chance to go […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Feminism, Health | 22 Comments »

Oh, celebrities. Or “celebrities,” if you prefer, since we’re talking about two of the Real Housewives, a phenomenon which I can’t even go into, since I don’t understand it at all. Anyway, two of these “housewives” shared their diets with two different tabloids last week. While posing for pictures in bikinis. Ready? Michaele Salahi poses […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Eating Disorders, Feminism, Gossip, Magazines, TV | 22 Comments »

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 | 28 Comments »

On Twitter, Jen_Lee alerted me to this Ask Metafilter post entitled “I want to be a brain in a jar.” The letter-writer is married to a guy who says he doesn’t want to have with her because she’s fat (among other charming qualities). And it gets worse: they are (read: he is) poly*, and the […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Feminism, Sex & Romance | 14 Comments »

Cubicalgirl in the comments alerted us to the existence of this shirt, saying: It’s got the universal man/woman icons on it, only the woman is bigger and it says “Team Player” underneath, the implication being that the guy wearing the shirt will “take one for the team” and chat up the fat friend so his […]

Filed under: Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Humor, Sex & Romance | 19 Comments »

This ad was posted on Wedinator with the caption, “Hey Look, It’s The Worst Ad Ever.” Of course, in their writeup, they kind of undermine that headline a little by missing the point: Seriously, it’s one thing to encourage your overweight friend or relative to lose a little weight for general health reasons. But to […]

Filed under: Advertising, Diet Talk, Feminism, Humor | 22 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 »

This seems to be the week for celebrity women to advocate for body positivity—or at least, it’s the week I found all these links! First off, from Becky on Twitter comes this story about Penelope Cruz, who says you don’t have to be thin to be pretty. “I would close down all those teenage magazines […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Gossip, Hayley Hasselhoff, Huge, International, Kids, Magazines, TV | 7 Comments »

1. Plus-size model Velvet D’Amour emailed me about her new photography site, Velvetography, which features both “regular” and plus-sized models like the one pictured here. Some of the photos are nudes, so consider this your NSFW warning! 2. I think I’m in love with Amanda Piasecki, who coined the term “Fatshionista,” after reading this interview […]

Filed under: Art, Celebrities, Fat Positive, Fatism, Feminism, Humor, NSFW, Velvet d'Amour | 9 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 | 17 Comments »

So, let’s talk about “real women.” We hear this phrase a lot, often in the sense that “real women have curves” and that, by extension, skinny women are somehow not “real.” And this article from the Sydney Morning Herald articulates the problem: Women have been caught in a pointless feedback loop as we debate what […]

Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Fashion, Feminism, International, Race & Ethnicity | 30 Comments »

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know of my conflicted feelings about Ricky Gervais. But, the problem is, he keeps hating on fat people and making it more and more difficult for me to love him. (I have the same issue with Joel McHale on The Soup. I love his shows—especially Community—and I […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Drop Dead Diva, Fatism, Feminism, Guest Post, Humor, Magazines, Ricky Gervais, The Office, TV | 12 Comments »

1. April catches grief because she doesn’t want to follow someone’s weight-loss diary on Facebook. 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… […]

Filed under: Feminism, Links, Old Timey, Politics, Weight Loss | 5 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 »

On Heavy Girls and Sexy Times, by Silvana, at Tiger Beatdown. 2. Here is what you learn very early, as a young woman prone to fatness, even before puberty: My body is bad. My body is disgusting. My body is something for me to fight against. My body will not cooperate with my desire to […]

Filed under: Feminism, Kids, Sex & Romance, Tidbit | 4 Comments »

So this is like, a blog/Twitter crossover event! On Twitter, they have “Follow Fridays,” where you tell people who to follow on Twitter. So here’s my Follow Friday for you–The Illusionists, No Country for Young Women, and Revolution of Real Women. Because these three Twitter streams (in addition to being consistently awesome) are where I […]

Filed under: Beth Ditto, Celebrities, Diet Talk, Feel Good Friday, Feminism, Magazines, Music, Photoshop, Video, Weight Loss | 4 Comments »