Fat is Beautiful!

Fat Acceptance or Fat Liberation ?

When I decided to do fat liberation stuff for a mag it was mainly because there is so little out there for a "fat" person especially a "fat" woman. This is a very small attempt to fill a void that’s in the consciousness of most people, regardless of size, but especially of other fat people.

I see fat people divided from each other because they’re only allowed to accept parts of themselves, rather than the whole. Hell, they’re not even allowed most of the time to identify as “fat” unless they’re apologizing for it. Think about it, when was the last time you heard someone say “I’m fat” without it being followed by a tirade on how awful they thought their body was, how they were going to go on a diet to ‘fix’ that, or how it was an excuse for that laziness or gluttony that all fat people are supposed to be part of.

When was the last time you heard “fat” said, where it was devoid of a negative judgment, let alone a positive thing? I’d wager a guess that it’s been a while. You can’t even say “I’m fat” in a matter-of-fact sense, without people jumping in to defend you against your own description - “You’re not fat, you’re chubby/ pleasingly plump/ fluffy/etc.” the word fat has such deeply ingrained negative connotations that you can’t even describe your body without someone interpreting it as an insult. I find that insulting. That people buy into this belief that fat is the worst thing you could possibly be, and therefore, fat people can’t even acknowledge their size.

We can bring up anything about ourselves except our bodies... those we’re only allowed to talk about if we’re being self-deprecating. And it’s not like it’s something that no one notices even if you keep your mouth shut about it, it’s still there -- everyone still knows -- but it’s such a dirty word that fat people aren’t allowed to talk honestly about their bodies. That’s wrong.

It sucks to be so alienated from one’s own body, and to be divided from one’s physical self. I don’t ever want to hear a fat person apologize for not living up to “perfection.” And you don't have to put up with that shit anymore! I defy a single person on earth to tell me who has a ‘perfect body’ and what makes that body better than yours, or better than the fat girl who thinks the most surefire way to change her life for the better is to lose weight.

Biologically, thinness is certainly not considered anywhere near the perfect body. For bodies to function at peak performance, they have to have -- by today’s standards -- relatively high levels of body fat. And for most of the earth’s history, voluptuous and fat women were sought after as examples of great beauty and prosperity. If a woman was well-fed, it meant she was healthy and did well for herself. Fat was (is) beautiful! Where did we lose that?