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 | 66 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 | 45 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 | 30 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 | 12 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 | 43 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 »

I got this comment recently, and thought it deserved a post. As a large breasted woman, I’ve always had that “well at least I have big boobs” fallback when I feel insecure. (Which is obviously problematic because why are large breasts good in the first place? Because of our stupid, idealistic beauty standards where you […]

Filed under: Feminism, Question | 48 Comments »

Not only did someone write that on Helen Hodges’ receipt, they then handed it to her when the transaction was finished. Here’s the story: Hodges, 31, bought $10 worth of gas in an automated cash transaction at the pump island but assigned the money to the wrong pump. When Hodges went inside the store to […]

Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Fatism, Question, Race & Ethnicity | 36 Comments »

I don’t have any news about Jim Carrey’s weight gain, although I will keep an eye out for you, many Google searchers. But I did get a hot tip in the comments last week, and I wanted to share it: Jadet Cadet’s post on Gender and Size in the Action Genre. She’s responding to a […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Feminism, Meta, Movies, Question, TV | 14 Comments »

I was catching up on my blog reading this weekend and found two posts I thought were especially worth passing along. First, I really enjoyed Kate’s post, “We Already Know We’re Fat“: “This so-called epidemic is not made up of theoretical fucking people who are just as fat as you can possibly imagine. It’s made […]

Filed under: Health, Meta, Personal, Question, Science, Sex & Romance | 2 Comments »

That was the subject line of an e-mail from Laurie in response to the news that Ann Taylor is joining retailers like Old Navy and making their plus-sizes “online only.” (Not that they offer a lot of plus sizes anyway, as far as I know.) Another loss for the plus size woman. Ann Taylor announced […]

Filed under: Fashion, Old Navy, Question, Target | 29 Comments »

Forestroad posted this question in the comments, and it’s something that, strangely, I was thinking about today too… which I took as a sign that I should post this question and see what you guys think! Bolding is mine. Do you have something like an “Ask Mo Pie” feature? I just got into FA and […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Question | 25 Comments »

I saw this video on Wil Wheaton’s site, and even though I wasn’t familiar with The Guild, (other than seeing Felicia Day mention it on Twitter) I watched it. The song is incredibly catchy and the video is cute, and I also noticed that one of the actors in it is a fat chick. And […]

Filed under: Celebrities, Humor, Meta, Question, TV, Video | 19 Comments »

From Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker comes a comprehensive article attempting to determine the cause of increased obesity in America. She talks about portion sizes: In the early nineteen-sixties, a man named David Wallerstein was running a chain of movie theatres in the Midwest and wondering how to boost popcorn sales. Wallerstein had already […]

Filed under: Fatism, Health, Magazines, Media, Question, Science | 18 Comments »

Here, from Sarah in the previous post, is a comment worth commenting on. (She’s talking about a scene in Drop Dead Diva that depicts our fat leading character binging on donuts and cream cheese): I’m not bothered by the overeating though. I am 100% on the FA bandwagon, and I know fat can be caused […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Drop Dead Diva, Eating Disorders, Fatism, Personal, Question, TV | 62 Comments »

We love Beth Ditto. We love her when she’s totally naked. We have loved her since she was first totally naked. And we love her when she’s wearing clothes, too. One of my favorite quotes, to this day, is from her interview in BUST–“This is the number one thing: just because something makes you look […]

Filed under: Beth Ditto, Celebrities, Fashion, Fat Positive, Gossip, International, Media, Music, Question | 25 Comments »

In a “Perspective” a radio piece for KQED public radio, Lisa Lyon compares the effects of driving a new car to the effects of losing a lot of weight: people treat you differently depending on how you look and what you drive. Big surprise. But I was most interested in the car talk; it made […]

Filed under: Humor, Media, Personal, Question, Tidbit | 26 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 »

SWAK sweaterOriginally uploaded by mo pie A while back, the kind folks at SWAK Designs offered to send me an item of clothing or two to try out (and be brutally honest about, of course). Since I’m always happy to find another source for plus-size fashion in these uncertain times, I said, and I’m paraphrasing […]

Filed under: Fashion, Feel Good Friday, Meta, Personal, Question | 17 Comments »

The Gruen Transfer is an Australian show about advertising which dissects and analyzes the affects of advertising on the average human brain. As part of their show, they frequently issue challenges to agencies–create This Kind of advertisement. Sell this seemingly impossible-to-sell idea. This time around, it was make an ad about fat discrimination. One entrant […]

Filed under: Advertising, Advocacy, Fatism, International, Media, NSFW, Politics, Question, Race & Ethnicity, TV, Video, Weight Loss | 26 Comments »

BFDiva M is in a predicament that everyone who is searching for the perfect outfit can understand. I have a question for the readers in New York City/the surrounding suburbs. I just got engaged and I’m looking for a wedding dress. I’ve heard/read a lot of horror stories about shopping for wedding dresses from women […]

Filed under: Fashion, Question | 21 Comments »