[...] does fat mean to you?: Debate sparked and fizzled over Jen’s post entitled “I Had a Fat Day.” Written off the cuff, it inspired more introspection and conversation than either of us [...]

Just commented on the debate at @TheDemoiselles latest post, about "fat days." What does it mean? Is "fat" a dirty word? http://is.gd/1xbJ3

As far as those shorts go, I think you should pull them back out. The guy that yelled at you is likely insecure about something himself…others are just mature enough not to make him feel bad about it.
Jennifer Nicole´s last blog ..I Had a Fat Day

@definatalie I predict you’ll have strong words about this @TheDemoiselles article: http://is.gd/1xbJ3

http://www.39thandbroadway.com/fatty-porker-chubby-heifer/

I don’t think I’ve worn shorts since the day 7 years ago when I was walking to the shop and a bloke shouted “CELLULITE!” out of a passing car.
Retro Chick´s last blog ..Je Suis Jaloux

I cannot count the number of communities, blogs and posts I’ve read that promote eating unhealthy foods, being sedentary and “staying fat” as a valid and healthy “lifestyle choice,” and who attack bloggers that enjoy working out, eating balanced meals and challenging their bodies to be at their (perceived) peak condition. Their soapbox is precariously placed on a complete logical fallacy. (So is the soapbox for the “all fat is bad fat” group.)

This brings me back to the main point of this post, and the drive of The Demoiselles: we are here to convince all those girls that feel negative about their bodies that they can combat those feelings – and that they don’t need a degree to do it. Most of the above commenters don’t need to hear what we’re saying, but many, many other people do. When someone Googles “how to deal with a fat day” they’re looking for a solution, not a diatribe on the correct use of the term. The title and key words of this post cater to those people – ones who think being fat is inherently a bad thing – and because of that, I wouldn’t change the wording in the slightest.

…because if I didn’t use the words “fat day,” almost no one who needs this post would ever read it.

Fatness is not necessarily caused by poor health. I think our society suffers from an over-medicalization of fatness as well as over-zealous definitions of “health.” We automatically assume that all fat people are either unhealthy because of their weight, or that their weight is a result of a medical problem, but in many people neither of these are the case. We have to realize that the medical world is used by society (shaping it and being shaped by it) to define and marginalize people — many time illegitimately. With something like fatness this may be hard to realize, but it might be easier to see my point with something like being gay. Homosexuality was a disease for decades, thought of as a very, very legitimate medical problem — by almost everyone, even gay people — before we decided that it definitely is not a disease and that the medical world needed to be rethought on that subject. Transexuality is STILL defined as a medical disorder. In the same way, fatness is considered by the majority of people, even fat people, as a medical problem. But I firmly believe that this is the case.

Medical standards are not always right and they should not be the end-all of all arguments. Many fat people are NOT unhealthy at all. A majority of fat people spend their whole lives fat and die at a normal age, their death not having to do with fatness. Many people who aren’t fat die from the same things that fat people do — but no one ever compares these things.

So yes, I do think that singling out an identity and using it synonymously with a negative isn’t appropriate — “PC” or otherwise — and yes, can definitely be as discriminatory as these other things. We just don’t think about it in that way yet — just like how in the past we didn’t think twice about mild discrimination of some other groups I’ve mentioned. But I don’t think I’m being oversensitive, or even rude, at all.

I’m not trying to single you out as a horrible person — thinking like this about fatness is a very new, and (risking sounding pompous) mostly still an academic thing. Over the past 3-5 years it has become more and more accepted as a legit way to think about fatness and that fat people are discriminated against just like other groups have been in the past. However, as a society, most people don’t think in this way, and have never even thought to — even I hadn’t thought to until I had a roommate thinking in this way (her senior thesis was comparing fat suits to blackface).

But it does mean that now that I do think in this way I am an aggressive advocate about it. I think that the entire way we think about weight needs not just a change, but a huge overhaul. I guess you could consider me very much a radical when it comes to this subject.
Kristy´s last blog ..EatsandInterests.com