#fat acceptance

[fatcultureis]

fat culture is wanting to rip my goddamn hairs out if i hear "oh they're so huggable/squishy/good cuddler 🥺" one more time under an art ref post for fatness or in general. god. it was cute the first time BUT ITS ALL I HEAR ABOUT FAT CHARACTERS AND PEOPLE. it also feels infintalizing to me.

fat culture is

[theburgerbinger]

[helen--richardson]

"The best part of being fat is being soft and comfy to cuddle with" "The best part of being fat is knowing people like you for your personality and not your looks" Wrong. The best part of being fat is getting to swim in ice-cold water for FAR longer than my peers. My skinny friends can barely last 10 minutes in the pacific ocean without losing feeling in their fingers meanwhile i can be in there for HOURS. I was born to swim in glacial lakes and icemelt streams. Also I float.

[gifsbysimplysonia]

@fatphobiabusters

@fuckyeahfatpositive

💜

[onlyfangz]

how do you treat ugly fat people? fat people with poor hygiene? fat people with visible disibility aides? fat people with absolutely zero dress sense? fat people who sweat easily? fat people who take up multiple seats on public transport? fat people who are balding? who have poor teeth? who have health complications due to their weight? what about fat people who fit into any of the aforementioned categories and are also visibly transgender? or is a POC? or both? when a fat black woman shows any emotion, what do you think of her? does your fat acceptance begin and end with the fat people you want to fuck?

[fatliberation]

anti-fatness is not just body shaming.

anti-fatness is discrimination. anti-fatness is having next to no legal protections for being discriminated against. anti-fatness is being denied housing, jobs, receiving less pay and promotions (legally) because of your size. anti-fatness is being denied access to clothing, seating, transportation, and other human rights because infrastructure has been designed to exclude you. anti-fatness is less likelihood of receiving a fair trial. anti-fatness is dehumanization. anti-fatness is being denied necessary surgeries, but not surgery that amputates the digestive tract with the intent to starve and shrink you (it doesn’t work either). anti-fatness is mutilation. anti-fatness is being subject to torture devices that bolt your mouth shut. anti-fatness is being told by close friends, family, and professionals that you are better off living with an eating disorder or other life-threatening illness. anti-fatness sells you starvation as a guaranteed opt-out of oppression, but doesn’t tell you that bodies will always regain weight to survive. anti-fatness blames and punishes you for failing at an achievement that is quite literally impossible. anti-fatness is a $90 billion dollar industry. anti-fatness is being denied gender-affirming care. anti-fatness is being barred from in vitro fertilization and reproductive healthcare. anti-fatness is being barred from adopting children. anti-fatness is being removed from your loving parents because they couldn’t make you thin. anti-fatness is intentionally starving your own baby so they won’t get fat. anti-fatness is disproportionately high suicide rates. anti-fatness is being killed at the hands of medical neglect and mistreatment. anti-fatness is the world preferring a dead body over a fat one.

[hellyeahscarleteen]

"Fat folks have unique needs when it comes to body care and we often aren’t ever taught what those needs are. Because we have been taught to be ashamed of our bodies and view them as a punishment because we look the way that we do, we are often even discouraged from learning the proper techniques required to care for ourselves.

This guide is here to help fix that! It’s here to walk you through some of the starting steps I -- writer Sarah Biette --- took for myself that revolutionized the way I cared for my fat body, especially my skin. I’ll also talk about some of the stereotypes and judgements I had to work through while going on this journey. While I discuss my own experiences a bit in this article, I hope that you can see it as a jumping-off point to start your own relationship⁠ with caring for your body. The list of tips and tricks I have below is not at all exhaustive, and I would love to hear what methods have worked for you over the years!"

Check it out the rest of this amazing new piece here!

[fugitiverabbit]

Fat Photo Ref just got an update!

New photos are up now to help you draw some beachy babes this summer. I'm hoping to update a little more frequently this summer and get to access requests quicker too. You can apply for access or login by going to fatphotoref.com (follow the link on the splash page to request access.)

[nomoremrnicefat]

in honor of disabled pride month, i want to give a shout-out to all disabled fat people who had to roll their eyes who have been told "you're not disabled, just fat" or "thats because you dont eat well/exercise"

[softestjilly]

the fact that fat people are made to feel bad about everything down to how loud or hard they are breathing says a lot about this society

[amethystsoda]

one of the things I cherish about Dungeon Meshi is how loving and respectful Ryoko Kui is towards her characters with bigger body frames and/or characters who weigh more.

They're presented as beautiful and normal, without ever crossing over into fetishization. It makes me feel so hopeful that representation and acceptance of fat people and fat characters is possible <3

[lylahammar]

lil tip for everyone bc I feel like people often do the opposite of this out of internalized fatphobia

eat a big meal directly before trying on new clothes. you wanna know whether those outfits will still be comfortable on you after you've eaten. it's not shameful and is in fact very natural to be bigger at different times of day and it's okay to accommodate yourself feeling comfortable during those times too I promise 💛

[karis-the-fangirl]

Fat bodies are mentioned most often in terms of the negative space left behind by the pounds lost, the dress sizes dropped, the inches shrunk—fat bodies are only valued for their absence.

There's a phrase you may have heard, that 'inside every fat person, there's a thin person waiting to get out'. It makes fat bodies sound like a prison, like the grotesque carapace of Kafka's beetle, with the real self like a trapped and frightened Gregor Samsa inside. Society is deeply permeated with the idea that my fat body isn't my 'real' body, and that I need to dig and excavate and starve out my true self, rescuing my inner thin princess from the imprisoning tower of my body.

This idea taught me not to feel fully connected to my body—after all, so much of my body is dead weight, it's not really me, my fatness isn't who I am, so why bother fully inhabiting it?

For years I didn't embrace my body. I was like someone squatting in a few rooms of a mansion, pretending that I was living in a condo and ignoring the three wings, twenty-four bedrooms, ballroom, bowling alley, and the entire library from Disney's Beauty and the Beast that make up my body.

—‘Where Are the Fat Girls? The Absence of Plus-Size Characters in Fantasy Literature’ by Charis M. Ellison [video]

[timemachineyeah]

(Source)

[sitronsangbody]

It's fascinating how fatphobes' brains kind of stop at "people shouldn't be fat" or "fat people should lose weight". Like if it's tough to fit into airplane seats, or find clothes, or get a doctor to take you seriously - their solution is weight loss. As if anything and everything can wait until you've become skinny.

I mean even if we play along and pretend that long-term weight loss IS achievable for everyone and not just a small minority - that takes time? Even the handful of fat people who will be skinny in five years are still fat now, and they'll be fat tomorrow too. They will be here on earth for the duration of those five years, living and partaking in society.

It just baffles me that some people will always be like "I just don't think anyone should be/stay fat" and that's the end of their argument. Like.. ok bro. Fat people are still here though, regardless. I'm gonna keep needing clothes to wear.

[fatliberation]

I saw a comment on your blog that says 'the way you eat does not cause diabetes'...are you able to expand on that or provide a source I could read? I've been told by doctors that my pre-diabetes was due to weight gain because I get more hungry on my anti psychotics and I'd like to fact check what they've told me! Thank you so much!

Pre-diabetes was rejected as a diagnosis by the World Health Organization (although it is used by the US and UK) - the correct term for the condition is impaired glucose tolerance. Approximately 2% of people with "pre-diabetes" go on to develop diabetes per year. You heard that right - TWO PERCENT. Most diabetics actually skip the pre-diabetic phase.

There are currently no treatments for pre-diabetes besides intentional weight loss. (Hmm, that's convenient, right?) There has yet to be evidence that losing weight prevents progression from pre-diabetes to T2DM beyond a year. Interestingly, drug companies are trying to persuade the medical world to start treating patients earlier and earlier. They are using the term “pre-diabetes” to sell their drugs (including Wegovy, a weight-loss drug). Surgeons are using it to sell weight loss surgery. Everyone’s a winner, right? Not patients. Especially fat patients.

Check out these articles:

Prediabetes: The epidemic that never was, and shouldn’t be

The war on ‘prediabetes' could be a boon for pharma—but is it good medicine?

Also - I love what Dr. Asher Larmie @fatdoctorUK has to say about T2DM and insulin resistance, so here's one of their threads I pulled from Twitter:

1️⃣ You can't prevent insulin resistance. It's coded in your DNA. It may be impacted by your environment. Studies have shown it has nothing to do with your BMI.

2️⃣ The term "pre-diabetes" is a PR stunt. The correct term is impaired glucose tolerance (or impaired fasting glucose) which is sometimes referred to as intermittent hyperglycemia. It does not predict T2DM. It is best ignored and tested for every 3-5yrs.

3️⃣ there is no evidence that losing weight prevents diabetes. That's because you can't reverse insulin resistance. You can possibly postpone it by 2yrs? Furthermore there is evidence that those who are fat at the time of diagnosis fair much better than those who are thin.

4️⃣ Weight loss does not reverse diabetes in the VAST majority of people. Those that do reverse it are usually thinner with recent onset T2DM and a low A1c. Only a tiny minority can sustain that over 2yrs. Weight loss does not improve A1c levels beyond 2 yrs either.

5️⃣ Weight loss in T2DM does not improve macrovascular or microvascular health outcomes beyond 2 years. In fact, weight loss in diabetics is associated with increased mortality and morbidity (although it is not clear why). Weight cycling is known to impacts A1c levels.

6️⃣ Weight GAIN does NOT increase the risk of cardiovascular OR all causes mortality in diabetics. In fact, one might even go so far as to say that it's better to be fat and diabetic than to be thin and diabetic.

Dr. Larmie cites 18 peer reviewed journal articles (most from the last decade) that are included in their webinar on the subject, linked below.