#body talk

[baredwolf]

I can’t even explain how I feel watching women’s gymnastics at the Olympics and NOT ONE comment was made about anyone’s body or build or shape or literally anything but the sport. I remember the way the commentators would tear apart the girls when I was younger—and that doubtless colored how i thought about myself.

Actually, the only body metric I’ve heard discussed at all during the Olympics coverage has been height—and that has been only in two contexts: one, talking about how swimmers of different heights might set their starting blocks differently, and two, a shorter-than-typical volleyball player saying she wants shorter girls to know they can play at the top level too.

It’s just a lot different—and a lot healthier than the stuff I grew up with.

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

Image from the Wham! Body Talk photo spread published in the Woolworths Christmas Special Magazine. It was produced by Smash Hits and given away for free in December 1983 to Woolworths shoppers. Photography by Chris Claymer.

[des-no9]

I'm going on Anon because i'm a bit shy about this but, I've seen a lot of Githyanki official art and fan made stuff and i was wondering if Githyanki can be fat? I supposed that since its a warrior race genetically engineered (twice!) to fight that they probably wouldn't have a high fat to body mass ratio However i *really* wanna make a fat githyanki oc Is there a way i can justify it in universe? Thank you!!!

Hey anon and thank you so much for messaging me about this. I'm so touched and happy to answer this!

I wanted to preface this first of all with:

you never need a reason to make, or have, a character fat. They just can be!! Because you want them to!! Fat isn't a bad word, just a descriptor. And I hope after this you can happily make a wonderful, gorgeous fat githyanki character who I can't wait to see!

-------

Okay. Now, moving on to lore and narratives and in universe reasons - it can absolutely be done.

As a detail orientated writer, I am a stickler for: consistency believability (doesn't have to be REAL or something 1:1 from our world just believable IN world etc)

NOTE: D&D has many different versions and inconsistences in lore, and my narrative consolidates in the BG3 5e verse, while taking parts from older versions I like and fitting them to make sense in my verse that I'm creating and expanding from BG3.

Much ramblings and answers under the cut :3 enjoy

TW: talk about bodies, fatphobia (kinda), genetic engineering

Okay so, we know at least in all verses that githyanki were genetically engineered twice (illithids first, then Vlaakith(s) with the change to eggs, and streamlining their race to become superior, powerful etc), and their race as has been documented and described by others in universe, and in source books, is tall, thin, long limbs, bony, and they seem in similar strucuture to illithids.

This makes a lot of sense in the way that the illithids were probably breeding them to become perfect hosts for their tadpoles and ceremorphosis, from what they see their bodies turn into. And we know that illithids have specific body types they seek out for their own perfection, whether we like it or not.

Vanquish is fat. It doesn't hinder her whatsoever. In-fact Voss is drawn to her a lot because of it and finds such beauty in her fatness and the softness of her skin. This does allude to fatness not being common in githyanki and something he likes about istik and her. And yeah, you can make it uncommon in githyanki! That's fine! But it still CAN happen in githyanki.

So for lore reasons to have a fat githyanki character I think there are many ways you could easily do it:

1: Independent githyanki. This githyanki could have, for example, been raised by non-githyanki, and therefore has not had a life subjected to their stringent training, diet, routine etc, and eventual life between Material and Astral which would and does effect things like their digestive system. Having their body adjusted from birth to a different environment could start to alter their body's stubborn pre-disposition to a low body fat %. Also, not constantly living in a kind of hypervigilance and violence the githyanki seem to live in may just let the body relax.

2: Different creches and planes Coming a little from the above idea - and from my genitals HC about variance in their bodies - I think that their can be and IS differences in their bodies depending on the creche they were born in, and also plane.

For example, being nearer to void magic, in a volatile climate, low gravity, colder climate etc. For a githyanki growing up in a colder climate, having more body fat would be better for them (if we take into account OUR biology, but they are aliens and their bodies probably work differently to ours. For instance they are SO strong even being so very thin dkfjdf etc). But honestly, it doesn't matter the reasoning. Some creches could just give variance in body type because they CAN and this is magic and magic does shit like this and for the past hundreds and thousands of years this is how the bodies of githyanki from Creche An'vak are, like the ears from those from Creche Ishk often split at the end.

They just are.

3: Genetic anomaly If you like the theory that their low body fat and frame is deeply bred and genetically engineered etc into them, this works. Because genetic anomalies happen all the time, so githyanki being born and retaining body fat and getting fat, much fatter than we see them as, could definitely just happen.

Depending on how cruel you view the githyanki as a whole, or that particular creche, or even if that githyanki wasn't raised in a creche etc (lots of possibilities), once the varsh sees that their body is developing different to how they 'should' be, then they may be discarded as a liability, or you can work many different and creative narrative ways into how and why they survive. (For example, once they see that their body doesn't hinder their ability to fight, then why dispose of them?)

I'm sure there are many, many other ways I'm not thinking about, but these are some of the main ways that I would probably write about and would come up in my narratives.

4: Wild Card! Githyanki/istik child. This also raises several other complciations and questions of how githyanki and other races could reproduce (that's for another huge post LOL) but, since in the future Vanquish and Orpheus have a kid (an heir, technically) it would be remiss of me to not mention this. And well, a mixed githyanki kid, too, could be fat!

Also, depending on the part of their timeline I'm writing in (for example, during their enslavement, directly after, now) the reasoning and frequency of fat githyanki can be different to me in the narrative.

I hope this helped a lot, anon. If you have any more questions or want to ask anything else, please, please let me know! This was a LOT of fun to write. Thank you! x

[dr-wuffles]

The trangender community on Tumblr is single-handedly not only repairing my relationship with social media but actively helping with the unhealthy beauty standards I have put myself up to.

For the first time in my life I think my body hair is sexy, my deeper voice is womanly, my tiny boobs are cute, and my short hair is butch. Like...the Agressive transbody positivity on here is healing my soul on God.

[slutshamethesquirrels]

i just wanna vent about something that happened yesterday and no one has to read this or care but i just woke up and its still on my mind so

tw: body image issues

so, as we all know, i am fat. I stand about 5'6 as well. so i am not a tiny cutesy lil bunny girl, okay?

now, i love my body. on most days, i think im pretty hot even. i have tattoos and piercings, a mullet, an hourglass shape, big butt, big thighs and a relatively small waist in comparison to the rest of me. I do have a belly OBVIOUSLY but ive even learned to love that after multiple men have fallen over themselves just to get the opportunity to worship it.

but it took me a LONG time to get there. up until age 23 or so, i was always dressed in oversized clothes, hiding everything thing i could, my self esteem was in the toilet. i didn't do my hair or makeup, it didn't matter because in my mind i would always be fat and ugly.

onto the story:

so i work at an art store, we also sell jewelry and clothing and lots of gemstones. its very mountainy, the point of our store is to be able to share the Appalachian culture with others.

we have these gemstone stretch bracelets that are pretty popular, but sometimes the inner band gets worn down when customers come in and play with them too much. it happens.

so some of my first customers the other day were not my usual clientele. they were a younger (20s?) african American couple dressed very in tune with current fashion. (our typical demographic is middle aged white women)

i give em the whole rundown yada yada local art lemmie know if you need me here are our sales and go back to rearranging earrings. they didn't seem interested in talking to me and thats fine i actually prefer the customers who don't like to engage much. they're standing on business just like me; there's being shopping and mine being these fucking earrings that make me wanna die.

so they poke around and i do my job and eventually the girl brings up one of our gemstone bracelets and a ring her up, cut the tag off so she can wear it out and i thought that would be the end of it.

a few minutes later she brings it back to me with one of the inner bands busted and says "i think i broke this, im sorry." i tell her its fine and walk her over to the display so we can pick out a replacement and she points to one and i get it down for her and take the broken one off her wrist and slide the new one on and as im doing this im casually customer servicing "dont worry, this happens sometimes, its not your fault. kids think these are toys so they come in and strech them too far and then the band wears down yada yada blah blah"

and she, so quietly and so sad, goes:

"i think im just too big for them"

and it wasn't until this point that i realized what was happening. i hadn't realized how big this girl was until she said that. she was fat, too but probably had a better bmi than me because she was TALL, maybe six foot? Wide frame.

but it just made me so sad. i assured her that wasn't the case, that smaller people broke these all the time but i was so overwhelmed bc yall this girl was gorgeous.

she dressed nice, her skin was clear (and soft from what i could tell touching her wrist), her hair was slicked back in cute little puff balls and she smiled absolutely intoxicating like there was no reason for her to hate anything about herself. she had pretty chocolate puppy dog eyes and long lashes and full lips and she was so SO pretty like im telling you guys. she wasn't even wearing makeup!! just out here naturally looking like that.

anyway maybe im just not doing well but its the next day and i can't stop thinking about her. i literally woke up in tears over it. of course i told her that wasnt true but i couldve done more. I couldve hugged her and told her how beautiful she was i was just so shocked i dont know.

i hope shes doing okay, i don't think ill ever forget her.

[mintmatcha]

the weight thing is so real. I literally think about it every waking hour and i know that’s the case for some many other afab people. it’s gen insane. it makes me so sad especially knowing it’ll probs never change.

I'm combining this into one big womanhood thread lol.

I've mentioned this to men and they are always like "you yhink about how you look every day? that's sad." and they just don't understand that it's not EVERYDAY it's almost every minute.

I have recently been having a lot of stomach issues that have really impacted how I can exercise and it has further destroyed how I look at myself.

[hidefdoritos]

ugggggggggggh

So lately the cargo job has been putting me in the envelope sorting station. Which is fine! I love to sort things, and I'm getting good at holding things under the overhead scanner so that they scan right away.

But it means I haven't been physically active for a couple weeks. Which was extra fine when I was just returning from being sick. My weight went up a little, but whatever. I noticed myself getting a little squirrelly, because I need to physically wear myself out pretty often so that I can function. Talked to a manager and he said sure, I'll be moved for my Friday shift.

Well, today my period has decided to hit like a freight train.

Listen. I know mine have never been super bad compared to many people's experience. Through middle and high school I had a few bad ones, but mostly I took ibuprofen for two days out of the 5-6, and I carried on with life while feeling gross.

Becoming active changed so much! Almost all the pain went away, the bleeding cut down to 3-4 days, and I still felt like myself the whole time.

Today it's all back. My chest has been sore for days. There's a deep ache spider-webbing through my lower back, around both hips, down my tailbone, and through my stomach, to the point it feels like my belly button is cramping. There's so much blood. My whole body tensed up so tightly while I slept that I ache everywhere. I feel like a small wounded animal as I lie here waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in.

I know this is well within normal experience. I just need to whine about it first.

[recoveryposting]

if youre struggling to accept your stomach fat, whether you're in ed recovery or not, i want to remind you that your body is smart. it's storing fat there because that's where it's most beneficial to you. it's protecting your organs like bubble wrap and it's keeping them warm, which is essential not only for basic functioning but also supporting your many microbiomes. that fat is meant to be there. it's helping you.

[littlemistit]

Are you guys capable of creating aesthetic art of beautiful women getting eviscerated where they aren't super hyper skinny or would that be too grotesque for you

[subaquatic-skyscraper]

The way this just kept getting better as is went on

[vyvas-world]

[librarycards]

this is semi related to food posting but ummmm if you’re going to reblog yummy food to your blog it’s probably worth checking if the username of the source makes some joke / comment about being fat or food for “fatties”… like the kinds of assumptions that that makes about fat peoples’ diets are actually dangerously bigoted and should under no circumstances be engaged with. Repost the pic if you want but don’t partake, even passively, in rhetoric that causes such immense harm and actively gets people denied healthcare.

[tummari]

i just had one of the strangest and most powerful feelings of gender validation in a long time

was just walking from the bathroom to my room, unintentionally hipchecked a door and sent it slamming shut

well, fuck, I have big, swaying hips, it's confirmed

[wretchie]

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